The Dead of the Irish Revolution

724 Pages·2020·8.575 MB·English

by  Eunan O'Halpin, Daithi Ó Corrain

THE DEAD OF THE IRISH REVOLUTION
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THE DEAD
OF THE IRISH
REVOLUTION
Eunan O’Halpin and Daithí Ó Corráin
YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS
NEW HAVEN AND LONDON
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Copyright © 2020 Eunan O’Halpin and Daithí Ó Corráin
Introduction © 2020 Eunan O’Halpin
Original charts by Peter Connell
All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, in any form (beyond that copying
permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press)
without written permission from the publishers.
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Set in Minion Pro by IDSUK (DataConnection) Ltd
Printed in Great Britain by TJ International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall
Library of Congress Control Number: 2020943257
ISBN 978-0-300-12382-1
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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EO’H
In memory of
Keith Jeffery (1952–2016)
DÓC
In memory of
Donnchadh Ó Corráin (1942–2017)
Clare Frances Murphy (1947–2018)
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgements viii
List of Abbreviations xii
List of Tables and Charts xvi
Map of Ireland xvii
Introduction by Eunan O’Halpin 1
1916 25
1917 102
1918 104
1919 107
1920 119
1921 268
Tables and Charts 543
Appendix: 1919–21 British Military Deaths Through Misadventure
Not Individually Discussed in Text 549
Notes 557
Bibliography 660
Index of Fatalities 675
General Index 696
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This study has been a long time in the making.
EUNAN O’HALPIN
That it has finally come to completion is due to the following people: Dr Eve Morrison, who
continually pressed me to develop an unwieldy first draft, who re-engineered the database on
which the text is based, and who has encouraged me at every turn; Robert Towers, Yale
University Press’s Irish representative, who has exercised extraordinary patience, and who has
read through the final manuscript, identifying countless points which needed attention;
Dr Daithí Ó Corráin, who did the lion’s share of the initial research and drafting as a post-
doctoral fellow from 2003 to 2007, and who read the recast entries at very short notice over
Christmas 2019; my friend Mark Seaman in London, who has provided much hospitality,
encouragement and counsel over many years; and the successive Yale managing editors
Robert Baldock and Heather McCallum, who have put up with long delays. A meeting with
Heather in May 2019 was crucial in spurring me finally to reduce the text by about 35 per
cent, bringing it to a manageable size and the project to completion. I must also particularly
thank Trinity colleagues Dr Ciaran Wallace, who devised the invaluable fatality referencing
system, and Dr Peter Connell, who created the charts and graphs.
The study originated in a proposal to the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and
Social Sciences, covering the years 2003 to 2006. This is gratefully acknowledged. But the sum
I had sought was, it transpired, insufficient to meet all the research costs involved, particularly
in terms of research posts; the amount granted was even less adequate. The consequence was
that money had to be found from other sources to pay for research travel and equipment and
for part-time research assistance, and also that much of the research completed since 2006
has been carried out on the margins of other funded projects, including that supported in
2006/7 by the TCD Association and Trust, which covered a salary for an additional year, and
which is gratefully acknowledged here.
I must record special thanks to professors Peter Daly and John Kennedy and their surgical,
nursing and support colleagues in St James’s Hospital for looking after me so well since
December 2002. I had no idea then that I would still be here to bring this exercise to
completion.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
DAITHÍ Ó CORRÁIN
While some of those who died during the Irish Revolution are well known, most are not even
recalled in historical footnotes. Yet they too have a story just as compelling or harrowing.
Recovering those individual stories became, for me, a great quest that continued after funding
for the project ceased. I am very grateful to the following close friends and family who
supported me in this endeavour over many years: Dr Sinéad Boyce, Dr Patricia Burke, Seán
Casey, Bernadette Fagan, Paul Griffin, Dr Gerard Hanley, Paul Hawkins, Belinda Lynch,
Johnny Lynch, Clare Murphy, Kevin Murphy, Máire and Lisa Ní Iarlaithe, Professor Donnchadh
Ó Corráin and Joseph Sheehy. The indefatigable Dr Tadhg-Iarla Curran, Dr Aogán Ó hIar-
laithe and Chris Farrell deserve special mention for helping me comb newspapers with enthu-
siasm and good humour. As always, my largest debts are to those at home in Kerry and
in Dublin: to my sister Aoife; my brothers Éanna and Tadhg-Iarla; my parents Esther and
Teddy; and the cherished Ailís, Brían and Íde for supporting me in countless ways. Buíochas
ó chroí libh.
We owe thanks to a host of librarians, archivists, support staff and volunteer workers in the
various Irish, British and American institutions listed in the bibliography, without whose help
this project could not have been completed. For reasons of space we cannot acknowledge
them all individually here, but we must especially thank Seamus Helferty, Kate Manning and
Orna Somerville of the UCD Archives, successive officers commanding the Military Archives
of Ireland – commandants Victor Laing, Stephen Mac Eoin and Daniel Ayotis – and Pat
Brennan and Cécile Chemin of the Military Service Pensions project.
Many other people, including some who have since passed away, merit thanks for help
given in myriad ways to the project since 2003. What follows is an extensive though inevitably
incomplete list: Richard Abbott, Dr Gearóid Barry, Kevin Barry, Seán and Ann Barry, Professor
Terry Barry, Professor Ruth Barton, Dr Charles Benson, Hubert Bermingham, Dr Andy
Bielenberg, Tom Brace, Dr Ciara Breathnach, Colm Brennan, Dr Niamh Brennan, Pat Brennan
(of Cootehill), Regina Brereton, Bridget Brew, Damien Burke, Gerald and Mary Burke, Fr
Patrick Burke, Dr Patrick Callan, Jim Carr, Bríd Clancy, Dr Joseph Clarke, Dr Marie Coleman,
Dr Peter Collins, Mervyn Colville, Mary Conefrey, Seán Crean, Peter Crocker, Professor Mike
Cronin, Dr Catriona Crowe, Geoffrey Crump, Dr Seamus Cullen, John Curran, Jean Cusack,
C. D. Darroch, Pat Dawson, Liam Deasy, Colin Delaney, Eilín de Paor, Aoife Doherty, Eimear
Doherty, Professor Anne Dolan, Dr Alison Donnelly, Colonel E. D. Doyle, Peter Druckers,
Malachaí Duddy, Most Reverend Joseph Duffy, Laura Dunican, Con Dunne, Martin Dwan,
Major T. J. D. Farrington, Brian Feeney, Jim Fitzgerald, Dr Thomas Earls Fitzgerald, Brian
Fitzpatrick, Professor David Fitzpatrick, Professor Roy Foster, Seamus Fox, Dr Louise Fuller,
Nicholas Furlong, Ronan Gallagher, Frank Gallon, Fr Anthony Gaughan, Áine Gleeson,
Brendan Griffin TD, John, Mary and Sinéad Griffin, Professor Thomas Hachey, Dr Donal
Hall, Dr Tim Hands, Dr Brian Hanley, Ken Hannigan, Dr Peter Harbison, Jim Harkins,
Professor Peter Hart, Dr Gianna Hegarty, Tom Hennigan, James Herlihy, Paul Hickey, Mary
Higgins, Seán Hogan, C.G.O. Hogg, Dr Susan Hood, Ian Hook, Cliff Housley, Dr Brian
Hughes, Dr Leah Hunnewell, Dharragh Hunt, Dr Liam Irwin, Professor Keith Jeffery, Robert
Jenkins, Dr Katherine Johnson, Sinéad Joy, Christopher Jupp, Peter Keane, Michael Keane,
J. P. Kelliher, Professor James Kelly, Dr Michael Kennedy, Cora Killeen, Kathryn Knutson,
Dr Georgina Laragy, Séamus Leahy, Dr David Lloyd, Seán Looney, Billy Loughman, Professor
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Mary Anne Lyons, Michael Lynch, Dr Patrick McCarthy, Dr Tomás Mac Conmara, Dr Philip
McConway, George McCullough, Ultan McDonagh, Dr Tony McElligott, Michael McEvilly,
Professor Fearghal McGarry, Dr Deirdre McMahon, Professor Ciarán Mac Murchaidh,
Marcus Mac Ruairí, Dr Martin Maguire, Dr Eoin Magennis, Jim Maher, Inspector Paul Maher,
David Maley, Dr Denis G. Marnane, Dr Jane Maxwell, Gareth Mears, Jacqueline Minchinton,
Madeline Molyneaux, Janis Morrissey, Eamonn and Helen Moynihan, John Moynihan,
Caroline Mullan, Dr Gerald Murphy, Imelda Murphy, Oliver Murphy, Pat and Lar Murphy,
Monsignor Raymond Murray, Dr Samantha Newberry, Treasa Ní Uiginn, Professor Kevin B.
Nowlan, Dr Gillian O’Brien, Robert O’Brien, Lorcan Ó Broin, Dr John O’Callaghan, Daithí
Ó Ceallaigh, Gregory O’Connor, Cormac Ó Corcoráin, Donnchadh Ó Donncha, Julie
O’Donoghue, Dr Micheál Ó Fathartaigh, Michael O’Gorman, Anthony and May O’Halpin, Fr
Aodh O’Halpin, Barry O’Halpin, Conn O’Halpin, Dr Margaret Ó hÓgartaigh, Professor Jane
Ohlmeyer, Stephen O’Kane, Dr Pádraig Ó Liatháin, Dr Kate O’Malley, Joseph O’Neill, Colonel
Terry O’Neill, Michael O’Rahilly, Ruth O’Rahilly, John O’Riordan, Ted O’Riordan, Dr Pádraig
Óg Ó Ruairc, Seán Ó Súilleabháin, Dr Kevin O’Sullivan, Dr Alan Power, Tom Prendeville,
Dr Niamh Puirséil, Dermot Quinn, Mike Rafter, Dr Peter Rigney, Maryalice Ryan, Lia Santry,
Dr Brendan Scott, Albert Siggins, Cathy Smart, Mark Smith, David Stanley, Brian Stewart,
Roger Sweetman SC, Anne-Marie Tarpey, Kelly Thompson, Tom Toomey, Professor Charles
‘CMG’ Townshend, Jesse Tumblin, Michael Twomey, Dr Úna Uí Bheirn, Dr W.E. Vaughan,
Fr Kieran Waldron, Anne Walsh, Mary Walsh, Dr Fionnuala Walsh and Dr Simon Workman.
We thank the following institutions and holders of copyright for access to and permission
to quote from collections of papers: Amgueddfa, The Royal Welch Fusiliers Regimental
Museum, Gwynedd; Bedfordshire County Council Archives and Records Service, Luton;
Blackrock College Archives, Dublin; the Bodleian Library; the British Library; the Church of
England Record Centre, Lambeth Palace Library; CIÉ Archives, Dublin; Columbia University
Library, New York; the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office; Cork City and County
Archives (formerly the Cork Archives Institute); the Director of the National Archives of
Ireland; the Director of the National Archives of Scotland; the Director of the National
Library of Ireland; the Director of the National Library of Scotland; Dublin City Library; the
Essex Regiment Museum, Chelmsford; the Glasgow Police Museum; the Glasnevin Trust; the
Highlands Regiments Museum, Fort George; the Irish Railway Records Society Archives;
the Keeper of the National Archives, London; the Keeper of the Public Records of Northern
Ireland; Kerry County Library; the Kings Own Scottish Borderers, Home Headquarters,
Berwick-upon-Tweed; Leitrim County Library; the Librarian, NUI Galway; the Librarian,
Trinity College Dublin; the Librarian, University College Dublin; Lincolnshire County
Council; Louth County Council Archives; the Master, Fellows and Scholars of Churchill
College in the University of Cambridge; the Military Archives of Ireland; the Monaghan
County Museum; the Museum of the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment, Preston; Northampton
Museum and Art Gallery; Oxford & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry Regimental Archives,
Oxford; the Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment Museum, Kent; the Regimental
Museum of the Border Regiment, Cumbria; Representative Church Body Library, Dublin; the
Royal Artillery Historical Trust, Royal Arsenal, Woolwich; the Royal College of Physicians,
Dublin; the Royal Engineers Museum, Kent; the Royal Hampshire Regiment Trust, Winchester;
the Royal Logistics Corps Museum, Camberley; the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, London; the
Royal Regiment of Fusiliers (Royal Warwickshire) Museum, Warwick; St Luke’s, Cork; the
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