The Republic- The Fight for Irish Independence

by Charles Townshend

  188. Béaslaí, Michael Collins, vol. I, pp. 329–30.

  189. Hart, Mick, pp. 207–8.

  190. Tony Woods in MacEoin (ed.), Survivors, p. 322.

  191. BMH WS 615 (Frank Thornton).

  192. BMH WS 445 (James Slattery).

  193. Hart (ed.), British Intelligence, p. 4.

  194. Hart, Mick, p. 212.

  195. Irish Times report of Inquest, 27 Mar. 1920; BMH WS 663 (Joseph Dolan).

  196. A Report on the Intelligence Branch of the Chief of Police, Dublin Castle from May 1920 to July 1921. NA WO 35/214.

  197. Anderson draft statement, 25 Aug. 1920. NA CO 904/168.

  198. O’Donoghue, No Other Law, p. 92.

  199. Cork Examiner, 18 Aug. 1920, q. Costello, Enduring the Most, p. 148.

  200. Conference of ministers, 23 Aug., and Lloyd George to Bonar Law, 4 Sep. 1920. Sheila Lawlor, Britain and Ireland 1914–23 (Dublin 1983), p. 68.

  201. Michael Biggs, ‘Hunger Strikes by Irish Republicans, 1916–1923’, Workshop on Techniques of Violence in Civil War (Oslo, August 2004), p. 10 (online edition).

  202. Costello, Enduring the Most, p. 187.

  203. Cork Examiner, 29 Oct. 1920. Costello, Enduring the Most, p. 231.

  204. Robinson (ed.), Lady Gregory’s Journals, pp. 136–7.

  205. R. F. Foster, W. B. Yeats: A Life, 2 vols (Oxford 2003), vol. II, p. 181.

  206. Assistant Under Secretary, Irish Office, to under secretary, Dublin, 25, 27 Oct. 1920. NA HO 54/24753.

  207. M. A. Doherty, ‘Kevin Barry and the Anglo-Irish Propaganda War’, Irish Historical Studies 32 (Nov. 2000), pp. 217–31.

  208. Dublin District Historical Record. NA WO 141/93, vol. I pt I.

  209. Sturgis diary, 11 Nov. 1920. NA PRO 30/59/2.

  210. BMH WS 1474 (Eamon O’Duibhir).

  211. BMH WS 664 (Patrick McHugh).

  212. Ibid.

  213. Report by Chief Secretary’s Office, NA CO 904/168. Military Court of Inquiry, NA WO 35/88. Tim Carey and Marcus de Burca, ‘Bloody Sunday 1920: New Evidence’, History Ireland 11 (2003). There is a balanced assessment in Richard Bennett, The Black and Tans (London 1959), p. 127.

  214. Foy, Collins’s Intelligence War, pp. 205–6.

  215. Coogan, Michael Collins, p. 158.

  216. O’Halpin, ‘Collins and Intelligence’, p. 72.

  217. Rex Taylor, Michael Collins (London 1961), p. 106.

  218. Foy, Collins’s Intelligence War, pp. 173–6.

  219. Dublin District Memos, 2 May, 19 Oct. 1920. NA WO 35/90.

  220. BMH WS 1687 (Harry Colley).

  221. Foy, Collins’s Intelligence War, pp. 141, 155, gives both South Frederick Street and Longwood Avenue as the location of this raid.

  222. Sturgis diary, 16, 20 Nov. 1920. NA PRO 30/59/2.

  223. BMH WS 907 (Larry Nugent).

  224. BMH WS 481 (Simon Donnelly).

  225. Charles Dalton, With the Dublin Brigade (1917–1921) (London 1929), pp. 105–6; BMH WS 434 (Charles Dalton).

  226. Andrews, Dublin Made Me, pp. 150–53.

  227. Tom Bowden, ‘Bloody Sunday – A Reappraisal’, European Studies Review 2, 1 (1972), pp. 38–9.

  228. Collins to Mulcahy, 7 Apr. 1922. NLI Pos 917. Charles Townshend, ‘Bloody Sunday – Michael Collins Speaks’, European Studies Review 9, 3 (1979), p. 381.

  229. Bowden, ‘Bloody Sunday’, p. 40.

  230. Mrs Woodcock, Experiences of an Officer’s Wife in Ireland (Edinburgh 1921).

  231. Jane Leonard, ‘ “English Dogs” or “Poor Devils”? The Dead of Bloody Sunday Morning’, in Fitzpatrick (ed.), Terror in Ireland, p. 130.

  232. Col. Dan Bryan, holograph notes, n.d. [1970]. In author’s possession.

  233. Dublin District Historical Record, NA WO 141/93, vol. IV pt III.

  234. Mulcahy comments, 14 Apr. 1959. UCDA P7c/2.

  235. Manchester Guardian, 26 Nov. 1920. Walsh, The News from Ireland, p. 81.

  236. Brian Maye, Arthur Griffith (Dublin 1997), p. 149.

  237. Tom Barry, Guerilla Days in Ireland (Dublin 1949, Tralee 1962), p. 39.

  238. Ewan Butler, Barry’s Flying Column: The Story of the IRA’s Cork No. 3 Brigade 1919–21 (London 1971), pp. 19–20.

  239. Barry, Guerilla Days, pp. 38–9.

  240. Hart, IRA and its Enemies, pp. 27, 29.

  241. ‘The Irish Republican Army. (From Captured Documents Only)’. NA WO 141/40.

  242. Tom Barry, ‘Auxiliaries Wiped Out at Kilmichael in their First Clash with the IRA’, With the IRA in the Fight for Freedom, p. 125.

  243. Eve Morrison, ‘Kilmichael Revisited: Tom Barry and the “False Surrender” ’, in Fitzpatrick (ed.), Terror in Ireland, pp. 160–64.

  244. Butler, Barry’s Flying Column, p. 64.

  245. Seamus Fox, The Kilmichael Ambush – A Review of Background, Controversies and Effects (www.dcu.ie/-foxs/irhist, 2005).

  246. Kautt, Ambushes and Armour, pp. 102–3.

  247. RIC Circular Order, 28 Sep. 1920. Richard Abbott, Police Casualties in Ireland 1919–1922 (Cork 2000), pp. 173–4.

  248. Weekly Summary, 8 Oct. 1920. Lowe, ‘War against the RIC’, p. 115.

  249. IG Monthly Report, Nov. 1920; CI Limerick Report, Dec. 1920. NA CO 904/113.

  250. Memo by S/S India, 10 Nov. 1920. C.P. 2084, NA CAB 24/114.

  251. Sturgis diary, 14 Dec. 1920. NA PRO 30/59/3.

  252. Jeudwine to Macready, 6 Dec. 1920. Jeudwine MSS, IWM.

  253. Macready to Jeudwine, 10/11 Dec. 1920. Townshend, British Campaign in Ireland, p. 138.

  254. And seems to have convinced Lloyd George at least. Thomas Jones, Whitehall Diary, vol. III (Oxford 1971), p. 50.

  255. Sir Hubert Gough, ‘The Situation in Ireland’, Review of Reviews, Feb. 1921, p. 35.

  256. Irish Labour Party and Trade Union Congress, Who Burnt Cork City? A Tale of Arson, Loot and Murder: The Evidence of Over Seventy Witnesses (Dublin 1921).

  257. Report of the Labour Commission to Ireland (London 1920).

  258. Sturgis diary, 19 Dec. 1920. NA PRO 30/59/3.

  259. Martin Gilbert, Winston S. Churchill, vol. IV: 1917–1922 (London 1977), pp. 468–70.

  PART 3: WAR AND PEACE – TRIALS OF THE COUNTER-STATE: 1921

  1. Lloyd George to Greenwood, 2 Dec. 1920. HLRO F/19/2/28.

  2. Townshend, British Campaign in Ireland, pp. 143–5.

  3. Ibid., p. 134.

  4. Sturgis diary, 17, 19 Aug., 20 Sep. 1920. NA PRO 30/59/2.

  5. Townshend, British Campaign in Ireland, pp. 146–7.

  6. Irish Command, ‘Record of the Rebellion’, vol. III. NA WO 141/93.

  7. GOC-in-C Ireland, Weekly Situation Report, 1 Jan. 1921. NA CAB 627/108.

  8. Midleton to Greenwood, 20 Jan. 1921. NA PRO 30/67/44.

  9. C/S Memo [n.d.]. NA WO 141/40.

  10. Valiulis, Mulcahy, pp. 61–2.

  11. ‘President de Valera states the national position’, International News, 30 Mar. 1921.

  12. President de Valera, The Irish Republican Army, n.d. [1921] NLI MS 33913.

  13. BMH WS 939 (Ernest Blythe).

  14. President to Minister for Finance, 18 Jan. 1921. NA DE2/448.

  15. Fitzpatrick, Boland’s Irish Revolution, p. 218.

  16. Ibid., pp. 212–13.

  17. BMH WS 679 (John F. Shouldice).

  18. Garvin, 1922, ch. 3.

  19. Ibid., p. 70.

  20. Dáil Local Government Department to Rate Collectors, 21 Dec. 1920. UCDA P150 1376.

  21. Memo by K. O’Higgins, 5 Jan. 1921. UCDA P150 1376.

  22. Note to L. Mac Cosgair, 19 Jan. 1921. UCDA P150 1376.

  23. BMH WS 1042 (John J. Neylon).

  24. Joe Barrett, ‘Quick Change of Plan was Necessary to Counter the Enemy at Monreal’, With the IRA in the Fight for Freedom, p. 137.

  25. BMH WS 1042 (John J. Neylon).

  26. C/S to OC Mid-Clare Bde, 23 May 1921. UCDA P7/A/19.

  27. C/S Memo, Active Service Unit, Mar. 1921. UCD
A P7/A/17. (First misdated as 4 Oct. 1920 in NA WO 141/40, then given as ‘undated’.)

  28. Active Service Unit, notebooks Mar.–Apr. 1921. UCDA P7/A/17.

  29. Director of Training Memo, ‘Function of A.S. Units’, 23 Apr. 1921. UCDA P7/A/17.

  30. 1st Cork Bde to A/G, 31 Jan. 1921, encl. OC 6th Bn to OC Cork Bde No. 1, 30 Jan. 1921. NA WO 141/40.

  31. BMH WS 713 (Denis Dwyer).

  32. O’Donoghue, No Other Law, p. 121.

  33. OC Cork No. 2 Bde to C/S, 3 Mar. 1921. UCDA P7/A/38. This point was omitted from the version printed in NA WO 141/40 and reprinted in Kautt, Ambushes and Armour, p. 129.

  34. Deasy, Towards Ireland Free, pp. 221–2.

  35. Brigade Commandant, Cork No. 1 Bde, Report of Ambush at Coolavokig, 25th February 1921. NA WO 141/40.

  36. GHQ Staff Criticism of Engagement at Coolavokig. UCDA P7/A/38.

  37. BMH WS 838 (Seán Moylan).

  38. O’Donoghue, No Other Law, p. 140.

  39. A/G vice-OC, Cork No. 2 Bde, ‘Clonbannin Attack’, in OC Cork No. 2 Bde to C/S, 14 Mar. 1921. NA WO 141/40.

  40. BMH WS 838 (Seán Moylan).

  41. Walter Mitchell in MacEoin (ed.), Survivors, p. 386. For MacEoin’s own account, see With the IRA in the Fight for Freedom, pp. 101–13. Only three other actions, out of thirty-four in that collection, took place outside Munster.

  42. Kautt, Ambushes and Armour, p. 168.

  43. Ibid., p. 141.

  44. Gen. Staff 6 Div., Irish Rebellion in the 6th Divisional Area, pp. 184–5. NA WO 141/93.

  45. BMH WS 487 (Joseph O’Connor).

  46. BMH WS 481 (Simon Donnelly).

  47. BMH WS 487 (Joseph O’Connor).

  48. Augusteijn, From Public Defiance to Guerrilla Warfare, pp. 139–40.

  49. Dublin Brigade Diary of Operations, Jan. 1921. UCDA P7/A/39.

  50. OC ASU to OC Dublin Bde, 21 Jan. 1921. NA WO 141/40.

  51. Acting Adjutant, Battalion II to OC Dublin, 12 Feb. 1921. NA WO 141/40.

  52. Memo by D/O, 22 Mar. 1921. UCDA P7/A/47.

  53. R. M. Fox, ‘How the Women Helped’, Dublin’s Fighting Story (Tralee 1949), pp. 207–12.

  54. Eve Morrison, ‘The Bureau of Military History and Female Republican Activism 1913–1923’, in Maryann Valiulis (ed.), Gender and Power in Irish History (Dublin 2009).

  55. Coleman, County Longford, p. 190; Margaret Ward, ‘Gendering the Irish Revolution’, in Augusteijn (ed.), Irish Revolution, p. 181.

  56. D/O to OC Cork No. 1 Bde, 5 Mar. 1921. NLI MS 31192(2).

  57. BMH WS 1263 (Charles Pinkman).

  58. MAI MSC/CMB/163.

  59. BMH WS 1193 (Bridget Doherty).

  60. BMH WS 723 (Alice Barry).

  61. BMH WS 1761 (Stephen J. O’Reilly).

  62. Jason Knirck, Women of the Dáil: Gender, Republicanism and the Anglo-Irish Treaty (Dublin 2006), p. 55.

  63. Ibid., p. 54.

  64. Ibid., p. 61.

  65. GHQ Staff Memo, ‘The War as a Whole’, 24 Mar. 1921. UCDA P7/A/17.

  66. Ibid.

  67. See Borgonovo, Spies, Informers, pp. 74–5, disputing the view of Hopkinson, Irish War of Independence, p. 108.

  68. O’Malley, On Another Man’s Wound, p. 221.

  69. BMH WS 980 (Edward J. Aylward).

  70. Rev. E. Hartley to GHQ, 15 Oct. 1921. UCDA P7/A/20.

  71. OC S Roscommon Bde to C/S, 26 Mar.; GHQ Staff memo, ‘The Question of a Disciplinary Code’, 30 Mar. 1921. UCDA P7/A/18, 16.

  72. BMH WS 481 (Simon Donnelly).

  73. C/S to D/O, 20 Apr. 1921. UCDA P7/A/17.

  74. C/S to OC 1st SD, 1 May 1921. UCDA P7/A/18.

  75. Serious Deficiencies in Country Units, GHQ Dublin, 7 Mar. 1921. UCDA P7/A/17

  76. C/S to OC Offaly No. 2 Bde, 21 Apr. 1921. UCDA P7/A/17.

  77. GHQ memos, 5, 30 Apr. 1921. UCDA P7/A/18.

  78. BMH WS 1721 (Seamus Robinson).

  79. C/S Operations Memorandum, 28 Feb. 1921. UCDA P106/1918.

  80. BMH WS 1719 (Daniel Corkery).

  81. Dept of Engineering, Circular No. 6, 2 Apr. 1921. UCDA P106/1917.

  82. History of the Anglo-Irish Conflict 1912–1921, West Clare Brigade, 12 Jun. 1934. NLI Pos 915, A/0363.

  83. OC Mid-Clare Bde to C/S, 11 Apr.; C/S to OC Mid-Clare Bde, 16 Apr. 1921. UCDA P7/A/17.

  84. C/S to Acting OC 1st ND, 27 May 1921. UCDA P7/A/18.

  85. OC E Clare Bde to C/S, 29 Apr.; OC Leitrim Bde to A/G, 18 Apr. 1921. UCDA P7/A/18, 38.

  86. General Orders, 28 Apr. 1921. MAI CD 284/1.

  87. Collins to Mulcahy, 14 Apr. 1921. UCDA P7/A/17.

  88. BMH WS 1676 (Robert C. Ahern).

  89. BMH WS 980 (Edward J. Aylward).

  90. For example, the Schull battalion, West Cork. BMH WS 1502 (William Crowley).

  91. Tom Bowden, ‘Ireland: The Decay of Control’, in M. Elliott-Bateman, J. Ellis and T. Bowden, Revolt to Revolution (Manchester 1974), p. 227.

  92. Cork No. 2 Bde ASS to Bde HQ, 22 Jan. 1921. NA CO 904/114.

  93. OC E Clare Bde to C/S, 29 Mar. 1921. UCDA P7/A/38.

  94. OC W Donegal Bde to [A/G?], Mar. 1921. UCDA P/A/39.

  95. Column Report No. 3, w/e 19 Feb. 1921. UCDA P7/A/38.

  96. BMH WS 1282 (Michael Cummins).

  97. 4 Bn Cork 1 to R. Foley, 7 Mar.; vice-OC to OC Cork 1 Bde, 26 Nov. 1921. UCDA P7/A/27.

  98. Note by A/G on Adjutant 1st SD to A/G, 5 May; C/S to M/D, 14 May 1921. UCDA P7/A/18.

  99. An tOglaċ, 8 Apr. 1921. BMH WS 615 (Frank Thornton).

  100. Bew, Ireland, p. 407.

  101. Peter Hart, ‘The Protestant Experience of Revolution in Southern Ireland’, in Richard English and Graham Walker (eds.), Unionism in Modern Ireland (London 1996), p. 86.

  102. William H. Kautt, The Anglo-Irish War, 1916–1921: A People’s War (Westport, Conn. 1999), p. 27

  103. OC Cork II Bde to C/S, 19 Mar., and reply, 26 Mar. 1921. UCDA P7/A/38.

  104. BMH WS 1676 (Robert C. Ahern).

  105. S Roscommon Bde reports, Apr. 1921. UCDA P7/A/38.

  106. Bde Adj. to OC E Limerick Bde, 22 Mar. 1921. NA WO 141/40.

  107. Meath Bde to C/S, 31 Mar.; Dublin Bde Operations Diary, 13 Apr. 1921. UCDA P/7/A/39.

  108. C/S to OC Kerry No. 2 Bde, 16 Apr.; Bde Adj. Kerry No. 2 Bde to C/S, 30 Apr. 1921. UCDA P7/A/38.

  109. BMH WS 713 (Denis Dwyer).

  110. Vice-OC 3rd Bn Offaly Bde to OC Bde, 29 May 1921. UCDA P7/A/18.

  111. BMH WS 718 (Thomas Crawley).

  112. IO 1st SD to GHQ, 5 May 1921. UCDA P7/A/20.

  113. Comdt Tom Barry to C/S, 4 Oct.; C/S to M/D, 7 Oct. 1921. UCDA P7/A/34.

  114. Col. J. M. MacCarthy (ed.), Limerick’s Fighting Story (Tralee n.d.), pp. 134–5.

  115. Hart, IRA and its Enemies, pp. 304, 307.

  116. Bde Adj. to OC E Limerick Bde, 22 Mar. 1921. NA WO 141/40. This document includes a substantial extract from the evidence presented to the court.

  117. Frank O’Connor, Guests of the Nation (London 1931); Sebastian Barry, On Canaan’s Side (London 2011).

  118. Donal Ó Drisceoil, Peadar O’Donnell (Cork 2001), p. 20.

  119. Ministerial Report, Home Affairs, ?May 1921. NAI DE2/51.

  120. C/S to M/D, and note by M/D, 11 Jun. 1921. UCDA P7/A/20.

  121. ‘Civil Police Force. Organisation’, 1 Jun. 1921. MAI CD 243.

  122. Orders by Adjutant General, 10 Nov. 1921. NLI MS 33913.

  123. Mitchell, Revolutionary Government, p. 240.

  124. GHQ memo, May 1921. UCDA P7/A/18.

  125. Chief of Police to Minister for Home Affairs, 28 Jun. 1921. NLI MS 11404.

  126. Chief of Police to Publicity Department, 15 Nov. 1921. UCDA P80/25.

  127. BMH WS 481 (Simon Donnelly).

  128. Chief of Police Circular, 9 Jul. 1921. MAI CD 244/1/1.

  129. BMH WS 1757 (Patrick L. Rogan).

  130. Heffernan, ‘Catholic Priests and Political Violence in Ireland’, p. 133.

  131. Keogh,
Vatican, Bishops and Irish Politics, p. 60.

  132. Freeman’s Journal, 7 Feb. 1921.

  133. NLI MS 22838.

  134. Murray, Oracles of God, pp. 12–13.

  135. O’Connor to O’Donoghue, 15 Dec. 1920. NLI MS 31170.

  136. Borgonovo, Spies, Informers, pp. 39–40.

  137. Keogh, Vatican, Bishops and Irish Politics, pp. 56–7.

  138. Secretary to President, and reply, 24 Feb., 4 Mar. 1921. NAI DE2/396.

  139. De Blacam, What Sinn Féin Stands For, p. 134; Mitchell, Revolutionary Government, p. 280.

  140. OC Cork No. 2 Bde to C/S, 12 Mar. 1921. UCDA P7/A/17.

  141. O’Donoghue, No Other Law, p. 154.

  142. Augusteijn, From Public Defiance to Guerrilla Warfare, p. 157.

  143. C/S to OC Cork No. 2 Bde, 13 Apr. 1921. UCDA P7/A/17.

  144. Valiulis, Mulcahy, p. 71.

  145. C/S to OC West Donegal Bde, 20 Apr. 1921. UCDA P7/A/17.

  146. The Divisional Idea, UCDA P7/A/47

  147. UCDA P7/A/21.

  148. D/O to C/S, 10 Mar. 1921. UCDA P7/A/17.

  149. General Instructions to Divisional Commandants, Apr. 1921. UCDA P7/A/17.

  150. C/S to OC 2nd ND, 20 Apr. 1921, UCDA P7/A/17; McGarry, Eoin O’Duffy, p. 75.

  151. OC 2nd ND to D/O, 22 Apr. 1921. UCDA P7/A/18, 309.

  152. C/S to OC 1st SD, 25 Apr. 1921. UCDA P7/A/18, 365.

  153. BMH WS 838 (Seán Moylan).

  154. Tom Barry, The Reality of the Anglo-Irish War 1920–21 in West Cork (Tralee 1974), p. 43.

  155. O’Malley, On Another Man’s Wound, pp. 307–9.

  156. BMH WS 672 (Thomas Luckie).

  157. Matthew Lewis, ‘The Newry Brigade and the War of Independence in Armagh and South Down, 1919–1921’, Irish Sword XXVII, 108 (2010), pp. 104–5.

  158. Memos to 1st, 2nd, 4th ND, Apr. 1921. UCDA P7/A/17.

  159. Lynch, Northern IRA, pp. 55–8.

  160. Cavan Flying Column to OC Belfast Bde, 10 May 1921. UCDA P7/A/17.

  161. The incident report in NA WO 35/89 does not detail the strength of the military force, but it would appear to have been considerably less than 350.

  162. BMH WS 1016 (Seamus McKenna).

  163. OC 1st ND to A/G, 10 Jun. 1921. UCDA P7/A/18.

  164. Cabinet, 27 Apr., 11 May 1921; Jones, Whitehall Diary, vol. III, pp. 56, 70. Townshend, British Campaign in Ireland, pp. 178–9.

  165. De Valera to O’Keeffe, 13 Jan., 9 Feb. 1921. Laffan, Resurrection of Ireland, pp. 334–5.