The fate of Kildare prisoners freed from Dundalk Jail, August 1922

Part I, Published in the Liffey Champion, 13th August 2022
Part II, Published in the Liffey Champion, 20th August 2022

Part I

Two of the biggest gun battles during the Irish Revolution involving Kildare IRA volunteers occurred outside County Kildare. The first, during Easter Week 1916 in Dublin, when approximately 36 men and women from the county participated in the fighting. The second was during the Civil War in August 1922 when in excess of 80 fully armed freed prisoners from the northern section of the county participated in running battles with the National army in County Meath. They had been imprisoned in Dundalk and released following the capture of the prison by anti-treaty forces. At that point they were given firearms and sent back to their various districts.

During the latter stages of the War of Independence IRA volunteers from Kildare were interned in the Rath Camp in the Curragh. This prison was dismantled following the treaty. When the Civil War began in June 1922 anti-treaty activists from the northern half of Kildare were interned by the Provisional Government authorities in Dundalk prison.

The first high profile arrest in Kildare was Tom Harris, an officer commanding the anti-treaty 7th Brigade based in Naas. He was arrested in Naas on the 28th of June and was confined in the Curragh. The following day leading north Kildare activists Paddy Mullaney and Mick O’Neill along with Donal Buckley were arrested in Kilcock. While Mullaney the highest-ranking anti-treaty IRA officer was sent to the Curragh the others were imprisoned in Dundalk.

Dundalk Jail

The capture of Maynooth by the National army on the 7th of July resulted in the arrest of a substantial number of anti-treaty activists and suspects. Other suspects from the surrounding areas in Celbridge and Straffan were also picked up and they were all sent to Dundalk prison. The next engagement in the northern section of Kildare was the operation by the National army to capture Coolcarrigan House, Timahoe between the 11th and 13th of July. This resulted in additional arrests of local men such as Mick McCormack and Peter Kelly from the Timahoe area and Joseph Ennis from Cloncurry and they added to the ranks of Kildare internees in Dundalk Jail.

As the month progressed various activists on the run such as Jim O’Keeffe, from Kilcock, Patrick Kirwan and Tomas Mangan, from Maynooth, were captured and sent to Dundalk.

A daring plan by the anti-treaty forces on the 5th of August which involved blowing up bridges in a circular area around Dublin had a Kildare involvement. One of the bridges targeted was a bridge close to Sallins where the railway crosses the canal. A successful demolition would effectively cut rail communication between Dublin and the south-west and canal transportation to the River Shannon. However, the Active Service Unit of the anti-treaty 7th Brigade under James Dunne who were given the task, were surprised by a National army unit commanded by Thomas Lawler and forced to surrender. The entire unit of thirteen men which included Dunne and his engineer Patrick Magee were sent to Dundalk Jail.

Thomas Gallivan and the Guerrilla Tactical Phase in North Kildare, 12th July – August 1922

Due to the large-scale arrests throughout northern Kildare, resistance to the Provisional Government collapsed. Mick Price officer commanding the anti-treaty Eastern Command at this point appointed Thomas Gallivan in charge of the 1st Meath Brigade which included north Kildare. The task given to Gallivan seemed hopeless. He was hampered by a lack weaponry, manpower and a reluctance by activists to participate. While not coming up through the local ranks of the IRA, Derry born Gallivan did not obtain full support from the local activists, with the result he had to recruit militants from outside the area.

By the 5th of August the estimated strength of the anti-treaty activists under his command was only 25 men who between them possessed four rifles, two revolvers and ten bombs. On the other hand, the strength of National army garrisons in the Kildare section of the brigade area totalled 40 men in Kilcock, 22 in Maynooth and 70 in Celbridge. A command structure consisting of a joint command including Gallivan and Paddy Brennan, now officer commanding the anti-treaty 7th Brigade, had been formed. While the two brigades cooperated on the destruction of all methods of communication of use to the National army they were poorly armed.

In early July one anti-treaty activist Patrick Gallagher from Celbridge suggested bringing eager activists into the area to fight against the National army due to an unwillingness by local anti-treaty activists to participate. However, Gallagher was himself arrested and sent to Dundalk Jail.

Subsequently, Gallivan recruited five activists from outside the area and this resulted in an upsurge in activity. The following engagements conducted by the new unit included, firing operations on patrols in Kilcock, Maynooth and Lucan, wounding and capturing a dispatch rider, dismantling Leixlip Post Office and the partial destruction of Leixlip Bridge on the 25th of August. Activity was also directed against the two railway lines. The Great Southern and Western Railway at Hazelhatch was torn up at Celbridge and the Midland Great Western Railway was also dismantled on four occasions in areas including Maynooth and Cloncurry. In addition, telegraph poles were also cut. The most serious threat to communications by Gallivan’s column came on the 1st September when the signal cabin was burned at Hazelhatch and a mine was exploded on the Dublin side of the Station resulting in the destruction of 40 yards of both lines. This resulted in the closure of the railway line for two days.

One week later on the morning of the 9th of September the small group took on their most ambitious job to date with an ambush of a National army convoy of two tenders and a lorry commanded by Captain Crean close to the Catholic Church in Leixlip. Reinforcements from Lucan with Adjutant Larkin in charge arrived and the ambushers were put to flight. In the exchange which lasted three hours, three National army soldiers were wounded, and three-armed anti-treaty activists were arrested. One of the men, James Connor was wounded and Mollie Finnegan a lady attending him who described herself as a lady doctor from Dublin was also detained. The ambush represented a major set-back for the anti-treaty force in north Kildare who may have miscalculated the strength of the approaching army convoy.

Gallivan, at this stage was disillusioned with the events and expressed a negative view of the potential in his brigade area claiming that prior to the recent arrests there had been twenty-two men left in his area. Twelve were not active, five were willing to assist but feared arrest and the final five, who were the men he had brought into the area and had been responsible for all of the recent activity, were now reduced to two as three had been arrested. Their armament was also depleted and consisted merely of five rifles two revolvers and nine bombs. Ernie O’Malley his superior officer at this stage transferred him to a role in County Longford. He was briefly arrested by the National army at this time but was not suspected of anti-treaty involvement and was released shortly afterwards. Gallivan had directed his operations mainly from Dublin and not from his family residence Hillford House, Leixlip.

Frank Purcell

Frank Purcell. Courtesy Irish Labour History Society Archive

Despite the National army allowing Gallivan to slip through their hands many of the arrests made in north Kildare were suspect with one particular overzealous officer operating from Lucan Barracks linked to a number of questionable arrests. Some were individuals who had no involvement in the Civil War and many had no connection to the War of Independence, while others had participated in nationalist militancy but had severed connections with the IRA following the treaty. One individual belonging to the latter category was Frank Purcell, a native of the Old Bog Road, Cloncurry who had served as vice commandant of the North Kildare IRA Battalion prior to his arrest in Maynooth in November 1920. Following his release at Christmas 1921, he obtained a senior post on the staff of the Irish Transport and General Workers Union and was based in Dublin. However, he was arrested on the 11th of July 1922 near Donadea following a visit to his fiancé, Bridget Crinnigan from Carbury. It was a case of being the wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong time as on that day several hundred National army troops were searching the countryside for remnants of the Coolcarrigan anti-treaty garrison.

Purcell was sent to Dundalk prison, but the detention of a trade union official gained extensive coverage in the national newspapers. Although the military accepted that he was not connected with the anti-treaty forces, they would not release him unless he signed the declaration document which the Provisional Government had demanded from individuals suspected of anti-treaty activity. The document contained the following wording:

I promise that I will not use arms against the Parliament elected by the Irish people or the Government for the time being responsible to that Parliament and that I will not support in any way such action, nor will interfere with the property or persons of others.

Purcell refused to sign the declaration and took his case to the courts where a Judge served a motion of Habitus Corpus on the Governor of Dundalk prison. But events overtook the litigation process on the very day the case was heard.

Capture of Dundalk Jail, 14th of August 1922

Frank Aiken

On the 14th of August Dundalk Jail was captured by the Northern Division of the anti-treaty forces led by Frank Aiken who immediately freed almost two hundred prisoners. The biggest proportion of prisoners from any county were from Kildare. Eighty-five inmates or 43% had Kildare addresses and this far exceeded County Louth internees which had the next highest number. All the Kildare men were from the northern section of the county and included senior anti-treaty activists such as Donal Buckley, Michael O’Neill and James Dunne. Many of the freed prisoners were closely related, such as Patrick Kirwan from Maynooth who had been incarcerated with his son Christopher. Sets of brothers included Thomas and John Mangan from Maynooth, Jim and Pat O’Keeffe from Kilcock, Patrick and Edward Farrell from Clongharinka, and Peter and Christopher Mills from Kill.

Many were from families with divided loyalties such as Alfred Magan from Celbridge whose brother George, an all-Ireland medal winner with Kildare in 1919, was serving in the Garda Síochána.

Half of the Kildare contingent were from four locations in the county, nineteen were from Maynooth which had the largest proportion, nine came from Straffan, eight from Celbridge and six from Naas.

Frank Aiken gave the freed prisoners firearms, ammunition and new boots before sending them back to their own counties to continue the struggle. The trip or attempted trip for the Kildare activists would be played out in two counties, Louth and Meath. The saga was to some extent reminiscent of Donal O’Sullivan Beare’s trek in the 17th century where at several points along the route the O’Sullivan Clann were attacked by enemy forces with only a fraction arriving at their intended destination.

Part II

On the morning of Monday the 14th of August 1922 during the most intense period of the Civil War anti-treaty internees having been freed from imprisonment in Dundalk began the journey to their respective counties. They were armed with rifles, handguns and an abundance of ammunition. For many of the eighty plus Kildare men, it would be a 70 mile trek.

Two senior officers from their respective brigades took charge of the Kildare men. James Dunne of the anti-treaty 7th Brigade based in the general Naas area was in charge of about forty-one men while Mick O’Neill led approximately forty-five men from his area in north Kildare which was part of the 1st Meath Brigade.

Dunleer

The first leg of their journey south took them to Dunleer. They were accompanied by some freed prisoners from other counties – local men from Louth and also men from Meath, Westmeath and Offaly. Reports of large numbers of fully armed anti-treaty activists marching south caused concern for the Provisional Government authorities. In Dunleer when the National army garrison got word of the impending avalanche they cleared out in good time. In Drogheda where there were fears of an assault on the town certain precautions were taken. Even two armoured cars, ‘Slievenamban’ and ‘Eileen’ that had participated in the Battle of Dublin were drafted into the town overnight to aid the defences.

Aerial reconnaissance was used to track the movements of the freed prisoners on their trek south. An airplane piloted by General W.J. McSweeney was scrambled from Baldonnell Airdrome and at 12:55pm on Tuesday the 15th of August it flew over Dunleer. The pilot described the town as ‘full of Irregulars with about 200 on the street’. He also indicated that ‘the bridge south of Dunleer was partially damaged’. This may have been the bridge in Dunleer that was blown up by the Kildare men acting under instructions from local activists in Dundalk. The job was carried out by Patrick Magee from Kill and during the operation, Thomas Mangan from Maynooth was in charge of twelve men guarding the road approaching the bridge.

Subsequently, several military encounters were reported in south Louth. An engagement involving some of the Kildare men occurred at Monasterboice when fire was opened on a National army search party from the cover of bushes.

Battle at Skryne

Map showing the route taken by the freed prisoners.

Having proceeded from Louth the freed prisoners were to encounter far superior engagements in Meath. The two Kildare contingents wisely avoided the main road into Drogheda and under cover of darkness crossed the river Boyne at Oldbridge at the site of the Battle of the Boyne. At a pub close by one group got food and drank minerals. The officer in charge Mick O’Neill gave the owner a receipt.

However, news of the crossing reached the National army in Drogheda and also Navan where it was feared the town may be targeted. Contingents of National army, units from Drogheda and Dublin were now scrambled to recapture the freed prisoners.

Having covered a distance of more than 38 miles in 32 hours most of the Kildare men were weary and suffering from sore feet due to a combination of inflammation and the effects of the new boots they were wearing. Within sight of the Hill of Skryne some of the men, while resting in a bog, took off their boots and filled them with grass. This remedy seemed to obtain some success and they were able to resume marching.

Brigadier Niall MacNeill son of Eoin MacNeill, was in overall charge of the mission to recapture the freed prisoners. His unit which included Captain Stapleton, Captain Weddock, Lieutenant Jacob and Lieutenant Mooney was accompanied by a Lancer car with a rotating Lewis machine gun. They advanced from Drogheda in a south-westerly direction, searching an area of the countryside from Dunshaughlin to Tara before moving to Rathfeigh where they discovered a party of about forty men in a field.

Fire was at once opened by the Lewis gun, with troops advancing from their lorries in flanking movements on the right and left around the field. Heavy firing by both sides followed as the troops closed in on the position. Thomas Mangan from Maynooth describes the scene,

We came across Free State lorries and a kind of semi-armoured car. It was a case of rush and get whatever cover we could. We kept up the fire and when they turned machine guns on us we had no chance. The fight lasted half an hour. Some escaped including Mick O’Neill who was in charge. There was another column in another direction and of course they were attacked after us.

Although about ten men managed to escape the majority consisting of twenty-nine surrendered. Eighteen rifles, a number of revolvers and a quantity of ammunition were captured. According to newspaper reports the prisoners were all from the Maynooth and Celbridge areas and appeared to be worn out. While most were in their twenties, 51-year-old Patrick Kirwan from Maynooth was the oldest man in the group.

While this was happening other units of the National army in Meath were preparing to assist. In Navan reinforcements arrived from Trim, complete with a Lancia car which had a machine gun mounted. Commercial lorries in the town were commandeered by the army to assist. At 3 o’clock the Lancia car with four or five lorries carrying fifty soldiers headed for the stretch of country lying between Kentstown and Skryne, an area which at the time was notably wooded. The Trim section was under the command of Captain Barry and Lieutenant George Davis while the Navan force was led by Vice-Commandant Liam Booth and Brigade Officer Joseph Hughes.

The units from Meath met up with the Drogheda force at Garlow Cross and a plan was drawn-up to undertake an encircling movement to locate the freed prisoners still at large.

At this stage the bulk of the Kildare men were making their way south following the earlier encounter with the National army contingent. The Meath units in a scouting movement in conjunction with the Drogheda contingent, closed in from three directions and trapped the remaining freed prisoners in a triangular area between Kentstown, Rathfeigh and Skryne.

As the Meath unit were passing a wooded area a man emerging from a fox-covert was observed. When he refused to halt fire was then opened and a vigorous exchange of shots followed with the wood sprayed with bullets from the machine gun. Another lorry load of troops arrived close to the scene and began engaging armed men some distance from the major engagement.

There followed a running fight kept up for several miles as the freed prisoners were forced to retreat southwards. The Meath troops having superior mechanised mobility and fire power managed to encircle a batch of thirty-two men forcing them to surrender. A most poignant scene was witnessed when one of the men was being disarmed, he noticed his brother amongst the Trim contingent of the National army. He immediately threw down his rifle and the next moment both parties were seen embracing and kissing.

The fight continued and at another engagement trapped anti-treaty activists operated a plan in which a number of men kept the National army pinned down with firepower to allow other comrades to escape. According to James Dunne,

I managed to break through the enemy ring with twenty men … I had left a rear-guard of ten men under the command of Patrick Magee, our engineer from the Kill Company, to hold back enemy troops. The other men included Peter Mills, Kill, Jim Collins, Kilcullen and the versatile Jim O’Keeffe, Kilcock. Each man was armed with a rifle and provided with 250 rounds of ammunition. When they surrendered that night, they had only seven rounds of ammunition left and the rifles were jammed and red hot.

As they were disarmed it was feared some National army personnel intended to shoot the surrendered men, however, the officer in charge Captain Stapleton arrived and controlled the situation. He even complimented the prisoners on the fight they put up and accorded them good treatment.

In Memory Of Volunteer Private Patrick Keogh, Kinsealy, Malahide, Co Dublin. Killed in Action at Oberstown Cross on the 15th August 1922 aged 21 years.

Plaque to Private Patrick Keogh at Oberstown Cross.

Close to Oberstown Cross at Skryne an intense engagement took place resulting in Private Patrick Keogh a native of Malahide receiving fatal wounds. He had been attached to Trim Barracks. Following this incident four more prisoners were taken. Although the hottest part of the battle appeared to be over intermittent rifle fire continued.

Most of the newspaper accounts suggest that approximately eighty-four freed prisoners were captured in the Skryne area, with the battle lasting from 3:00pm to 8:30pm. An examination of the scene of the fight disclosed the intensity of the firing, with walls chipped, bullets embedded in wood and trees, and generally signs of an intense struggle over a wide area. The total armament captured included 40 rifles and 12 revolvers, in all a total of 52 firearms, together with 2,500 rounds of rifle ammunition, 20 hand grenades, a big supply of electric cable, dry batteries, explosives of different kinds, electric exploders as well as food supplies. Miraculously, there were only two casualties, with both from the National army. The second casualty Private Matthews received slight wounds.

Return to Kildare

Throughout the following days National army units continued their intensive search for the freed prisoners particularly in south Meath an area where the Kildare men would have to pass through on their way back home. There were sightings of various groups making their way throughout the countryside. One was close to Dunshaughlin where an incident saw the windscreen of a car in which Commandant Flynn and Captain Larkin were travelling shattered by gunfire and another at Batterstown, where a group of armed men had camped, before proceeding on their way in a southerly direction.

Many of the freed prisoners were captured close to their destination. Commandant Mick Flynn arrested three near Kilcock and subsequently the Farrell brothers Edward and Patrick from Clongharinka were arrested also at Kilcock. One unlucky ex-prisoner Thomas Kelly actually made it home to Rathangan only to be arrested.

The two leaders of the Kildare freed prisoners, James Dunne and Mick O’Neill with a depleted number of their parties managed to arrive back in Kildare by different routes. Of the eighty-six or so Kildare men that began the journey approximately twenty-five returned home.

Mick O’Neill. Courtesy Adhamhnán Ó Súilleabháin.

Mick O’Neill and Thomas Kealy from Celbridge returned home together and went on the run. O’Neill had just time for a change of clothes as his house at Weston was raided shortly after his departure.

James Dunne and his men obtained assistance near Fairyhouse which enabled them to successfully continue the journey back to the Kill and Naas area. For one of the Naas men Gus Fitzpatrick, a future twice all-Ireland football medal winner, the 70 mile journey with numerous battles on the way – must surely have been a tougher experience than winning his two all Irelands in 1927 and 1928.

Buckley and Purcell

The best-known prisoner to be freed was Donal Buckley, former TD for North Kildare. At 56 he was the oldest prisoner in the group and it was obvious he would not be able to undertake the journey on foot. A short distance outside Dundalk some of the freed prisoners, principally his nephew Cathal Buckley from Kilcock, persuaded him to attempt to catch a train to Dublin. Making his way to a station south of Dundalk he successfully boarded a train for the capital where he discretely spent the remainder of the Civil War staying mainly with his sister Johanna in Rathmines.

While various accounts of the Civil War focus on two sides in the struggle, very little coverage is given to the silent majority who were neutral in the conflict. Frank Purcell who was penalised for his neutrality and had undertaken litigation to obtain his release from Dundalk prison, did not join his former comrades on the trek south, but nevertheless managed to escape to Dublin. He was not re-arrested and resumed his activities in the Trade Union movement, later serving as Secretary General of the ITGWU and as a Senator in the 1940’s and 50’s.

Although only a small percentage of the freed prisoners made it back to Kildare, the resumed activity of hardened, experienced, well-armed and determined activists, resulted in a significant increase in militancy throughout the northern section of Kildare.

Sources

  1. Irish Independent, 15, 16 Aug 1922
  2. Freemans Journal, 17 Aug 1922
  3. Meath Chronicle, 19 Aug 1922
  4. Leinster Leader, 19 Aug 1922
  5. Dundalk Democrat, 26 Aug 1922
  6. Kildare Observer, 26 Aug 1922
  7. Pension statement by Thomas Mangan, 5 Jan 1937 (IMA, MSPC, WMSP34REF10614)
  8. Mick O’Neill interviewee, p. 47–8 (UCDA, O’Malley notebooks, P17/b/107)
  9. James Dunne (BMH WS 1,571, pp 13–14)
  10. Oughterany; the Journal of the Donadea Loal History Group (Naas, 1993), 45–8
  11. Adhamhnán Ó Súilleabháin, Domhnall Ua Buachalla: Rebellious Nationalist, Reclusive Governor (Dublin, 2015), pp 173–5
  12. Donal Hall, Louth: The Irish Revolution, 1912-23 (Dublin, 2019), pp 108–9
  13. Seamus Cullen, Kildare: The Irish Revolution, 1912-23 (Dublin, 2020), pp 158–61, 165