Dan Breen and the IRA

236 Pages·2002·6.633 MB·English

by  Joe Ambrose

DAN BREEN
V
POLICE NOTICE
£1000 REWARD
WANTED FOR MURDER IN IRELAND.
DANIEL BREEN
tails himself Commandant of the Third
Tipperary Brigade-.
Age 27, 5 feet 7 inches in height, bronzed com
plexion. dark hair (long in front;, grey eyes, shop
cocked nose, stout build, weight about 12 stone
clean shaven sulky bulldog appearance
like a blacksmith coming from VV0,J^H53§|^
pulled well down over lace.
‘
I
DAN BREEN AND THE IRA
• |ri
*
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Dan Breen
AND THE
IRA
JOE AMBROSE
MERCIER PRESS
WHAT YOU NEED TO READ
Mercier Press
Douglas Village, Cork
Trade enquiries to CMD Distribution
55A Spruce Avenue, Stillorgan Industrial Park, Blackrock County
Dublin
© Joe Ambrose, 2006
ISBN 1 85635 506 3 and 978 1 85635 5063
10 987654321
itle is available from the British Library
Michael', Mai, Nora, Josie, Jimmy and Pat.
-
?arts
council
schomhalrle Mercier Press receives financial assistance from the Arts
ealaion
Council/An Chomhairle Ealaion
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent,
resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of
binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition
including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information or retrieval
system, without the prior permission of the publisher in writing.
Printed in Ireland by Colour Books Ltd
Contents
Introduction 7
1. Sean Treacy and Dan Breen 15
2. Eamon O’Duibhir and Pierce McCan 25
3. Seamus Robinson arrives in Tipperary, 1917-19 32
4. Ireland under a Microscope - Militant Attitudes
towards the RIC 45
5. Soloheadbeg 51
6. Soloheadbeg: Reactions and Consequences 60
7. Gelignite 68
8. The Knocklong Rescue 71
9. Knocklong, the Aftermath 80
10. The Big Four Head to Dublin 86
11. Ambushing Lord French 92
12. Attacks on Barracks 100
13. The Noose Tightens: Fernside and the
Death of Sean Treacy 109
14. Ending the Tan War 115
15. The Truce 124
16. The Civil War 137
17. Fianna Fail Inc. 150
18. Seamus Robinsons Fight for Irish Freedom 174
19. A Lion in Winter 182
Appendix 1. Third Tipperary Brigade
anti-Treaty Proclamation 192
Appendix 2. The Galtee Mountain Boy 193
Appendix 3. Dan Breens 1927 Policy Statement 195
Appendix 4. George Bernard Shaw’s Letter
to Dan Breen 197
Sources by Chapter 200
Glossary 206
Bibliography 209
Acknowledgements 212
Index 215
Introduction
Dan Breen runs like a ragged thread through the history of
Ireland in the twentieth century. He helped kick-start the
country’s War of Independence in 1919; he played a major role
in that war and a more uneasy part in the ensuing Civil War. He
remains, to this day, one of the most famous and contentious
IRA leaders of his generation. He once said, ‘The secret of my
success is the word republican’.
The Irish may owe him a certain debt of gratitude but the
Irish are cranky by nature; they sometimes like to take pot shots
at iconic characters like Breen.
The Irish are also a post-colonial people, incessantly told
what to do and think by international opinion makers working
in publishing, broadcasting and the arts. A colourful and curious
array of nay-sayers, soothsayers and academics - not to mention
pseudo-scholars fighting their own private Wars on Terror - de¬
vote entire Amazon rain forests of paper to debunking some
simple facts of narrative history concerning Ireland’s War
of Independence. They’ve taken to their task with gusto and
occasional aplomb, undermining complex mythologies which
have grown up around the likes of Breen, Michael Collins and
Tom Barry. Trying to dismantle the reputations of these rural
lads of humble origin, they have sought to create post-modern
mythologies of their own from which 1916-23 guerrilla leaders
emerge as political deviants from some imaginary, civilised,
7
democratic norm, frantically in league with nebulous forces of
evil, indifferent to mandate or morality.
The simple storyline and sequence of events to be found in
the memoirs, statements, interviews and correspondence of those
participating in the 1916-23 IRA campaign, is closer to the
truth. Those leaders of what is called the ‘Old IRA’ emerge from
their own testimonies as heroic figures. They undoubtedly saw
themselves that way. They thought they were ‘a grand collection
of men .What did the rest of the people in their country make of
them? The answer to that question is as simple as the storyline and
does not need the interpolation of researchers or commentators.
Those who supported the notion that Ireland would only get
independence from England through armed struggle thought
them terribly heroic. Those who thought ‘freedom’ could be
achieved by purely democratic means - and those who favoured
union with Britain - often thought of them as thugs with blood
on their hands. One’s assessment of the Tan War leaders has
everything to do with one’s own political prejudices and nothing
to do with the history of that combat.
Dan Breen, more than most others, is regularly filed away
under ‘Thug with Blood on His Hands’. This is largely because
of the ongoing controversy surrounding his first major guerrilla
outing as part of the gang behind the Soloheadbeg RIC killings^
but it is partially because of the forthright manner in which he
defended that gory exploit for the rest of his life. Mary Anne
Allis - the aunt of his comrade, Sean Treacy- called him ‘Breen
the Murderer’ until the day she died. Having witnessed Breen’s
behaviour during the Soloheadbeg clash, Seamus Robinson
made a mental note that he was a man who ‘should never be
put in charge of a fight’. A close relative of my own, who was
8