Espionage and Assasination with Michael Collins' Intelligence Unit: With the Dublin Brigade

by Dalton, Charles

  I had now seen enough. I ran upstairs to Mrs. Lynch. I told her the good news. Then I locked her and the children into one of the bedrooms, so that when the authorities arrived and the house was searched, she would not be suspected of any complicity, but would appear to be but one more of our victims.

  At that moment I heard several shots ring out. It was necessary to be off. Jumping on my bicycle I hurried to the house where Joe and Emmet were waiting. It was round the corner in the North Circular Road. They were ready, dressed in the British uniforms. I had just time to notice that they looked very well in them.

  ‘Come on’, said I, still breathless with excitement, ‘the car will be along any minute’.

  They came out into the street. At the same moment the car appeared. We saw it turning out of the avenue and coming towards us. I saw Emmet and Joe picked up, and then, the happiest young man in Dublin that morning, I cycled away to the stable in Abbey St. There I found Michael Collins waiting. His look searched mine for an answer to the question there was no need to ask. He was overjoyed, and my satisfaction was unbounded to be the bearer of such good news to him. He was all smiles. ‘I hope the second part will be as successful’, he said.

  AMBUSH OF BRITISH TROOPS AT DRUMCONDRA, 16th JUNE 1921.

  I accompanied a party from the squad and the A.S.U. in an endeavour to ambush a train containing newly-arrived troops in Ireland, en route to the Curragh.

  This ambush was arranged to take place after many of the active Volunteers had been rounded up at the Custom House burning, and an all-out effort was being made by those still at liberty to increase the number of attacks, so that the enemy would not be aware of the depletion the Custom House arrests had made in the ranks of the active Volunteers in Dublin.

  We took up positions along the roadway adjoining the railway embankment adjacent to Lindsay Road, and myself and another Volunteer, with a Thompson gun each, took up position in a laneway covering the railway line adjacent to St. Columba’s Road, Upper.

  The party armed with grenades bombed the train before it came to our position. My companion opened fire with his gun, but I did not get my gun into action as the target only presented itself for about one minute. Neither of us had ever handled a Thompson gun before this. As a result of the fire, several soldiers were wounded. The train continued on its course, and the attackers decamped.

  This was the first occasion on which the two Thompson sub-machine guns that were in the country were brought into action. It may not be irrelevant to mention that two American ex-officers of Irish descent had come to Ireland to offer their fighting services to Collins. Their names were Dineen and Cronin. Before this train ambush, they had demonstrated the Thompson guns, of which two had been successfully smuggled into the country, at the Casino, Malahide Road, to Michael Collins and some of his associates, but I was not personally present on this occasion and had not seen the gun in action before the train ambush. I was not given any instructions on the handling and loading of the Thompson machine guns. The two guns were brought to the rendezvous in a van, and myself and the other gunner were handed one each, which we had to keep concealed under our coats until the train came into view. However, I later made myself familiar with its mechanism, and carried one in the encircling movement of Grafton St. later on.

  EFFORTS TO PREVENT HANGINGS AT MOUNTJOY.

  On three or four occasions a number of Volunteers had been hanged in Mountjoy Jail by the public hangman, who crossed from England to carry out the executions. On each occasion an effort was made to intercept the hangman before he reached the jail, but in no instance was this successful.

  On one such occasion I was instructed to proceed to Kingstown, as a report had been received that Ellis, the hangman, and his assistant were to arrive there some days before the date fixed for the executions.

  The squad had a van stored in a garage at the rear of Lower Fitzwilliam St. and a Volunteer named Paddy Kelly undertook to drive it. Kelly was living with other Volunteers at an address in South William St., and it was necessary for me to stay with him overnight, as curfew was imposed at an early hour and did not finish until five or six o’clock in the morning. We left South William St. immediately after curfew, or possibly before it ended, and proceeded to Lower Fitzwilliam St. where we took out the car and drove to Kingstown, where we met Jimmy Murray, 6th Battalion I.O. We waited at the pier head and watched those passengers who disembarked from the mail boat and proceeded to waiting cars to drive to town. We had a description of the hangman, but no passenger thus alighting resembled him.

  The information which we had received was of the most meagre character, and subsequently it was ascertained that the hangman always arrived in Dublin several days before the executions, were [sic] taken to Mountjoy in an armoured car and left there under special protection.

  ENCIRCLEMENT OF AREA IN DUBLIN BY CROWN FORCES.

  In company with two members of the squad, Joe Leonard and Jimmy Conroy, I was staying on the run at night in the Summerhill Dispensary, having secured permission to do so from Relieving Officer Madden.

  We were awakened one morning during curfew, and saw from our bedroom window large parties of military on the street. They were driving sticks into the ground and erecting barbed wire entanglements. We also saw tanks and armoured cars, and, guessing that there was something unusual afoot, we decided to vacate our quarters. While crossing the back wall into the laneway we saw a Tommy, but as his back was turned to us, he did not see us. We crossed further walls and got on to the roadway at the N.C. Road.

  While proceeding along the N.C. Road towards Jones’s Road three tenders of Auxiliaries passed. They did not see us, because, fortunately, a doorway opened and a postman inquired from us what hour it was. Leonard pushed him into the doorway and closed the door behind him; we scampered down a side road.

  WHAT MICK McDONNELL ASKED ME TO RECORD.

  Two years ago, Mick McDonnell was on a visit to this country from California, and he spent an evening with me discussing matters about which he said he would like me to have the correct facts. He also promised that, if an opportunity arose, he would give me a resumé of his complete activities in the movement, but, unfortunately, that never materialised, and it can never be done as he died recently.

  Regarding the formation of the squad, Mick stated that a number of selected Volunteers were assembled at 42 North Great George’s St. on the instructions of Dick McKee. These men, many of them with service in the 1916 insurrection, were informed by the brigadier that a certain line of action would be necessary if the movement was to continue. In this connection he indicated that it would be necessary to shoot some members of the ‘G’ Division whose political activities had jeopardised the activities of the re-formed Volunteers.

  There were present three or four members of each of the five companies which then constituted the 2nd Battalion, and after the brigadier’s address, most of those present refused to give an affirmative answer to the request made by him. Some of the men advanced the reason that they could not do such work as it would be contrary to their consciences; others stated that they would think the matter over and get spiritual advice before giving an answer, and, finally, some of them stated that, while they were prepared to carry out acts of open warfare, they were not prepared to shoot a man down unwarned. (The ‘G’ men had received several warnings before action was taken.)

  Mick McDonnell told me that when the question was put to those present from ‘E’ Company, he stepped out of the ranks as also did Jim Slattery and, probably, Vincent Byrne and Tom Keogh.

  I was discussing this matter subsequently with Jim Slattery and he confirmed Mick McDonnell’s story and stated that he said to the brigadier: ‘I am prepared to carry out any and every order I receive from you’.

  Mick McDonnell told me that amongst the dissenters, for one reason or another, were Cyril Daly, Oscar Traynor (?), I think, and Frank Kearney, all of ‘F’ Company, 2nd Battalion.

  From my close association with the various m
embers of the squad subsequently, I learned that in the initial stages a few jobs were carried out independently by Paddy Daly, Joe Leonard and Ben Barrett. At one period of the fighting, Paddy Daly was imprisoned as was also Joe Leonard. This would suggest that two squads operated in the early stages. Later on, the squad consisted of about twelve members. Paddy Daly, after his release from Ballykinlar, took charge of the newly-formed active service unit, while Joe Leonard continued in the squad.

  During my association with the squad and previous to my joining the Intelligence Staff, Mick McDonnell was in charge of the operations I was concerned with, namely, the seizure of the mail van at Lower Dominick St. and the attempt to ambush ‘G’ men at SS. Michael and John’s Church. Later on, when the squad had reached its full strength of about a dozen men, they stood-to for hours at Seville Place and other centres and acted on the instructions of the Deputy Director of Intelligence.

  It might not be inapt to add in conclusion that throughout the whole period of active service in which I was associated with members of the squad and Intelligence and Volunteers in the city, I found that the morale was always very high and that everyone was anxious to do his part without any consideration as to personal danger or inconvenience and that a very strong spirit of comradeship resulted which, I am glad to say, survived in the years that followed.

  Signed: Charles F. Dalton

  Date: 12th October 1950

  Witness: W. Ivory. Comdt

  About the Author

  Charlie Dalton was from Drumcondra in Dublin. After the free state was established he became a colonel in the new Irish Army, and along with Major-General Liam Tobin, signed the ultimatum that instigated the Army Mutiny in 1924. Liz Gillis is a historian and tour guide in Kilmainham Jail. She is the author of 'Revolution in Dublin' (2013) and 'The Fall of Dublin', part of the Military History of the Irish Civil War series.

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