Decoding the IRA

by Tom Mahon

  With the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, Devoy saw the cause for Irish independence best served by a German victory over Britain and along with many Irish-American activists he took a pro-German stance. In 1916 he helped found the Friends of Irish Freedom (FOIF), which unlike the Clan was an open, mass-based society. Judge Daniel Cohalan, a close ally of Devoy’s, led the FOIF. Rather than directly supporting separatists in Ireland he promoted Irish self-determination through propaganda, political activity and fundraising in America.

  When the US entered the war alongside Britain in 1917, Devoy and Cohalan were forced to change tack and call for Irish-American patriotic support for the war effort and for the granting of Irish self-determination as part of an eventual peace settlement.5 However, at the end of the war Britain was able to exclude the independence of Ireland from the settlement and Cohalan went on to divert his energies into successfully lobbying for the United States Senate’s rejection of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. He argued that the Treaty favoured British imperial interests at America’s expense.6

  In 1919, during the Anglo-Irish War, the FOIF inaugurated the Irish Victory Fund, which raised over a million dollars. Cohalan and Devoy envisaged that much of this money would be spent on promoting the Irish cause in America rather than in Ireland.7 But that summer, when Éamon de Valera, the president of Sinn Féin, arrived in America he clashed with Devoy and Cohalan. Unlike them, de Valera wanted the money sent to Ireland to support the revolution and diverted away from propaganda efforts in the United States, and felt that as leader of the separatists in Ireland he had a leadership role to play among the Irish-American community. The stage was set for an extremely bitter dispute. The Clan split, with the majority of its executive supporting Devoy and Cohalan, and a minority led by Joseph McGarrity siding with de Valera. McGarrity’s faction of the Clan was initially called ‘Clan na Gael re-organized’ but as the section under Devoy’s leadership faded, it soon became known simply as ‘Clan na Gael’.8 Devoy and Cohalan retained control of the FOIF and of the paper, the Gaelic American, while the single most influential Irish-American paper, the Irish World, supported McGarrity and de Valera.9

  In 1920 de Valera founded the American Association for the Recognition of the Irish Republic (AARIR) as a mass organisation and an alternative to the FOIF.10 Before leaving the US, he also started a successful bond drive for the Irish Republic.11

  During the Irish Civil War Devoy and Cohalan, along with the majority of Irish Americans, supported the Free State, while McGarrity and his Clan backed de Valera and the IRA. However, Irish-Americans on the whole were greatly disillusioned by both the Civil War in Ireland and the feuding between the Irish societies in America, resulting in a massive drop off in their involvement and financial contributions. In 1926 an IRA document from America reported: ‘There is a general feeling of apathy and inactivity and little or no money coming into the office.’12

  Clan na Gael

  Under Joseph McGarrity, Clan na Gael aligned itself with the IRA and dedicated its resources once again to the achievement of a republic by military means. McGarrity, as chairman of the executive committee, was its dominant figure up until his death in 1940. He was a romantic Irish nationalist, a staunch Catholic, and a militarist who regarded ‘political activism as the grave of militant nationalism’.13 An intermittently successful businessman, he reportedly spent much of his money supporting Irish republicanism. He had a deep attachment and respect for Éamon de Valera, and their friendship even survived de Valera’s entry into the Free State Dáil in 1927.

  Before November 1925, when the IRA disassociated itself from de Valera’s republican ‘government’, it had been represented in America by the government’s ‘military attaché’, Liam Pedlar – an IRA gunrunner. Money raised by the Clan and others was given to the ‘government’ and a proportion allocated to the IRA in Ireland. However, following the IRA’s parting of ways with de Valera and his supporters, a new arrangement was needed.

  In the spring of 1926, Andy Cooney, as chairman of the IRA Army Council, travelled to America. His objectives were to update the Clan on the recent developments in Ireland and clarify the IRA’s relationship with de Valera, to negotiate a formal agreement with the Clan and particularly to reach an agreement on the Clan’s funding of the IRA. In America Cooney found the IRA’s mission to be disorganised and in ‘an awful state of affairs’. He wasn’t able to communicate with GHQ back in Dublin, Liam Pedlar had forgotten the covering address for telegrams sent from Ireland, and there was no money available to fund his living expenses.14

  Cooney attended the annual Clan na Gael convention in September, where he reached an agreement with Luke Dillon (representing the Clan) that the Clan would give ‘its undivided support, physically morally and financially to the IRA’. The Clan now regarded itself and the IRA ‘for all revolutionary purposes … practically one organization’.15 In turn the IRA expected the Clan to provide financial support, help smuggle weapons to Ireland and to build support for the IRA in America, particularly among the Irish-American community. However, the Clan had, at the most, only modest success in all three areas.

  In October Cooney returned to Ireland, leaving a full-time representative in America to work with Clan na Gael. The representative held the title ‘An Timthire’, which comes from the Irish an timtire meaning ‘messenger’. During Cooney’s visit the IRA activist ‘Mr Jones’ was An Timthire, but ‘Jones’ complained that his IRA-sanctioned espionage work for the Soviet Union prevented him from having the time to devote to An Timthire’s administrative and organisational work, and in December 1926 Connie Neenan from Cork was appointed to the position. Neenan’s official duties included: representing the Army Council at meetings of the Clan na Gael executive, enrolling IRA veterans in the Clan, sending money back to Ireland, maintaining relations with ‘foreign governments and revolutionary organisations’ and ‘when required’ smuggling arms and ammunition back.16

  Neenan was based in New York where he spent most of his time recruiting and organising IRA veterans, networking among the Irish-American community and raising money. He went on to become a close friend of Joseph McGarrity’s and worked ‘in perfect harmony’ with the Clan.17 In 1927 he too became involved in the IRA’s clandestine activities for the Soviet Union (see Chapter 8).

  The Clan na Gael membership, which by 1927 had shrunk to 5,000, was organised into local clubs or camps.18 In turn the clubs were grouped into districts, which were represented by a district officer. District officers could be elected to the Clan’s ruling executive committee, chaired by McGarrity. McGarrity’s closest ally on the executive was the secretary, Luke Dillon.

  The clubs were predominately in the major Irish centres on the east coast, with a few in other cities with a strong Irish presence, like San Francisco and Chicago. They were frequently identified with particular counties or regions in Ireland, such as the Seán Treacy club with Tipperary.19 In the mid-1920s the clubs benefited from an influx of IRA veterans fresh from Ireland. The veterans that joined the Clan, though relatively small in number, had an important rejuvenating effect on the existing Clan clubs.20 These were the men who had actually fought and ‘beaten’ the British, something that generations of American ‘Fenians’ had merely dreamed about, and as Connie Neenan wrote: ‘The young men are looked up to and respected … Some of the old organisations [FOIF, Devoy’s Clan, etc] are using every means to enrol the new arrivals.’21 The new members were often unskilled workers, with little money to donate, and the Clan overall lacked the social respectability of other Irish-American societies such as the Ancient Order of Hibernians or even the AARIR. Reflecting the change in membership and the alliance with the IRA, from 1927 on the clubs were renamed ‘Clan na Gael and IRA Clubs’.

  Naturally enough, the recent IRA immigrants had less immediate impact on the membership of the executive committee, which was composed of long-standing Clan members. Neenan commented: ‘We must put a few IRA men on [the] executive at [the] next con
vention. It is necessary they should be on it.’22 On the death of Luke Dillon in 1929 Connie Neenan took his place as secretary of the executive.

  The Clan’s leaders, as exemplified by McGarrity, were socially conservative and staunchly Catholic in their outlook and were uneasy with the socialist rhetoric of some of the IRA’s leadership, particularly that of Peadar O’Donnell, as expressed in the pages of An Phoblacht. Throughout the second half of the 1920s and in the 1930s McGarrity and his colleagues were concerned that involvement in social issues (to which they were unsympathetic) distracted from the IRA’s military goal. It was only natural that McGarrity was to find in Seán Russell a strong ally.

  Though the extent of British secret service penetration of the Clan in the late nineteenth century is only now beginning to come to light, the IRA leadership was still aware of the security risk posed by the Clan and was reluctant to share critical information.23 A secondary consideration was that some members of the executive were supportive of Fianna Fáil. When Neenan sent $5,000 in cash to Ireland, he informed Twomey that ‘for obvious reasons I did not tell [the Clan] executive’ the means by which the money was sent.24 George, the OC in Britain, was concerned that the secret agreement with the Russians could be exposed by informers in America: ‘Many British secretive [sic] service agents are bound to be operating in the States and it is likely that one or two are connected with our people there. It is necessary to be very careful.’25

  The Clan na Gael and IRA clubs

  Following the ending of the Civil War in 1923 and the release of the vast majority of republican prisoners the following year, hundreds, if not thousands, of IRA veterans emigrated to America and most settled in New York, where they joined 200,000 others of Irish birth. This was a time when the Irish, through control of Democratic Party politics, still ‘ruled’ New York, and had achieved considerable economic and professional success.26 The city was an oasis for Irish Catholics, where they were part of the establishment. Here they could live a life insulated to a certain extent from the ‘nativist’ hostility and discrimination prevalent throughout much of the rest of the United States.

  Many IRA veterans were determined to have nothing more to do with Irish politics and stayed well clear of the Clan; others formed groups unaffiliated with the Clan. For those that joined ‘the Clan na Gael and IRA Clubs’, the clubs became an important part of their lives. They provided members with a valuable network that helped them to get jobs and accommodation and organised social activities where they could find friendship and maybe a suitable Irish Catholic spouse. Some veterans arrived bitter, and in the words of the Cumann na mBan activist Máire Comerford, ‘they went with vengeance in their hearts. They and their children are the ones who support the IRA today’.27

  On New Year’s Eve 1926 the clubs held a dance at the Mayo Halls, with two bands and Irish and American dancing, admission 75 cents. Aside from the novelty dances, participants could even engage in ‘confetti battles’!28 In 1927 the Clan na Gael and IRA clubs held a St Patrick’s night annual ball with step dancing by ‘some of the best talent from Ireland’ and an invitation to ‘come and meet the boys who beat the Tans’.29 Another popular fundraiser was the semi-annual cruise on the Hudson river. In 1927 Neenan expected to make $1,000 on a twelve-hour ‘grand outing and boat ride’ on board the SS Pocahontas, with dancing and ‘refreshments’, tickets $1.50. By 1930 some 3,000 people were enjoying the boat trips with ‘a few hours of teeming mirth and pleasure … a happy release and relaxation from the cramp and care of dull domesticity and the dreary drag of city life’.30

  Neenan set about organising new clubs, reorganising and reinvigorating existing ones and recruiting recent IRA arrivals. New York was the ‘mainstay [of the Clan and] therefore a great deal of attention must be given to it’.31 Neenan appears to have been possessed with considerable social skill which he used to extend the Clan’s influence throughout the Irish community. He professed to be working flat out: ‘I have a busy time. I did not have a spare night for months while days are equally busy.’32 ‘Every night means attendance at one or two meetings … [but] few people are aware of my official capacity.’33

  In January 1927 he was on the committee organising the Cork Ball.34 In February he reported that he was reorganising all the clubs in the city: ‘We are making big headway, and hope to increase largely to [sic] our numbers inside a few months, by having all IRA men enrolled.’ He promised a ‘big programme for the coming season’, to raise money and improve the organisation.35 This included the boat rides, dances and Irish sports at Celtic Park.

  The clubs’ new headquarters in New York was the ‘Tara Halls’ on 66th Street and Broadway, which Neenan predicted would generate a ‘weekly profit’. He noted that IRA men ‘arriving in [the] country [were] slow to get in touch’ and recommended that they should turn up there on Saturday or Sunday nights. Aside from the weekend dances, with music provided by the likes of ‘Seán Hayes and his IRA Radio Orchestra’, there were card games during weeknights, a ‘republican library’ (with works ranging from John Mitchel’s Jail Journal to Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina) and copies of An Phoblacht were for sale.36 Given that this was the time of prohibition, another attraction would undoubtedly have been the speakeasy in the basement.37

  In 1927 in New York there were ‘four very good [Clan na Gael and IRA] Clubs, two [of] moderate [quality] and two [poor]. [The auxiliary] women’s Clubs [were] good.’ Neenan felt that the ‘apathy’ that had existed in the past had now been ‘eradicated’ (most likely by the recent influx of IRA men) and that membership and finance was increasing daily. Of the two clubs in Brooklyn, both were doing well and one planned to donate $300 to the IRA. Twomey, however, didn’t share his optimism and wrote: ‘One would imagine that the organization should be stronger here.’38

  IRA men intending to emigrate from Ireland were supposed to first get permission to do so from the IRA and then apply to enrol in the organisation’s (so called) ‘Foreign Reserves’. Lists of the applicants’ names along with an American address were forwarded to Neenan, aiding him in his recruitment efforts. He found additional information about the whereabouts of veterans by way of his extensive contacts throughout the community. The ‘Foreign Reserves’ never had a defined role within the IRA structure and existed largely in name only.39

  Among the IRA men who wouldn’t affiliate was Tom Rogers, an ex-officer from Louth, who admitted he was ‘sceptical of [the] Clan’. Rogers had left Ireland against the advice of the IRA. After the gardaí raided his house and found a small quantity of ammunition he went on the run. At the time, Twomey approached him and told him to give himself up and ‘take the consequences’, as he’d only have received a short prison sentence. However, he disregarded Twomey and left the country, which was regarded as setting a poor example for other IRA members.40 There were also ‘a number of ex-Army [IRA] men from Clare [who] joined Fianna Fáil in preference to Clan [na Gael]. I feel this is [due to] intimidation,’ wrote Neenan.41

  Men applying to join were vetted and if need be their unit back home was contacted to get a reference. An officer in the North Mayo brigade reported to GHQ that ‘Lavelle is going to Cleveland and … [he was seeking] a transfer to Republican circles in [the] USA where apart from political or other considerations it would be to his material advantage. His friendship with a member of the Black and Tans brought him into trouble early in 1922.’42 Twomey also warned Neenan ‘to have nothing to do with’ Thomas Loughran of County Meath.43

  Another unwanted veteran was Frank O’Beirne from Sligo. During the Civil War O’Beirne commanded a unit which ambushed a detachment of Free State troops, killing five soldiers and capturing two armoured cars. But following a counter-attack by 400 troops led by General Seán MacEoin, he surrendered along with many of his men.44 He was imprisoned in Athlone barracks, from where he and eight other republicans escaped. As O’Beirne was scaling the prison wall he somehow lost his shoes and so made a painful exit in his stocking feet.45 In the meantime he must have
fallen out of favour with Moss Twomey. By January 1927 he had arrived in New York and reported to Connie Neenan.46 But Twomey wrote: ‘[I] hope O’Beirne is not hanging on. On no account give him cash. If he had not been so utterly useless I would have him court-martialled for disobeying orders.’47

  Neenan came across other characters in New York: ‘Desmond Dowling [a demobilised Free State officer] swanked about here for a time, but has not been seen for [the] past month. Also here are several [other] ex-Free State officers and men. They appear to have no organisation and are not members of Devoy’s Clan.’48

  In May 1927, Neenan gave an overview of the state of the Clan na Gael clubs throughout the country. The situation in New Jersey was ‘very poor’, despite his ‘repeated efforts’ to contact the large number of IRA men living there, many of whom were from Mayo.49

  In Philadelphia (where McGarrity was based) there were ‘seventeen men’s Clubs [and] one ladies’ Club’. The members were mainly long-time ‘Fenians’ with only a ‘few Army [IRA] men’. Neenan talked to them about the IRA’s policy and the ‘necessity for sending greater assistance home’. Although the recruitment drive was going well, there were a ‘number of men in this area lenient towards Fianna Fáil’. Other IRA veterans there were a ‘nuisance’ – they refused to join and complained that during the Anglo-Irish War ‘we never got money from [the] USA and had to pay for [our] own guns. I [Neenan] refuted this personally.’50

  The situation in Boston was much less favourable; there was considerable support for de Valera and Fianna Fáil, and John O’Sullivan, who had been a district officer and member of the Clan executive was ‘definitely Fianna Fáil’. The ‘officers are not overly energetic’ and they wouldn’t help Neenan visit the clubs in the area.51