23 April 2024: We are investigating problems with ecommerce on Cambridge Core. We apologise for any inconvenience and hope to have full functionality restored shortly.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 June 2018
This article will explore two relatively neglected features of the Irish Republican Army’s (I.R.A.) guerrilla war between 1919 and 1921: internal discipline and forced participation. The gravest disciplinary measure was the death penalty and I.R.A. orders directed that it should apply to members guilty of certain offences against the army. While British army and police officials often insisted that the I.R.A. executed its own without scruple, the death penalty was rarely carried out in practice. General Headquarters (G.H.Q.) was largely unsuccessful in applying a standard disciplinary code and there was also a general inconsistency and lack of rigour in applying other punitive measures for less serious offences. On a related theme, it was not uncommon for soldiers to be ‘conscripted’ or forced to take part in operations under duress during irregular warfare. In the Irish case, this idea has rarely been discussed. It will be argued here that, along with the death penalty and strict punitive measures, forced participation was an uncomfortable idea and often counter-productive in practice. The nature and extent of discipline and coercion was also firmly dictated by local conditions and personalities.
1 Monthly confidential reports (M.C.R.), County Inspector (C.I.) Monaghan, Mar. 1921 (T.N.A., CO 904/114); McGarry, Fearghal, Eoin O’Duffy: a self-made hero (Oxford, 2005), pp 65–67 Google Scholar. Larmer’s surname also appears as Larmour is some sources.
2 O’Halpin, Eunan, ‘Problematic killing during the War of Independence and its aftermath: civilian spies and informers’ in James Kelly and Mary Ann Lyons (eds), Death and dying in Ireland, Britain and Europe: historical perspectives (Dublin, 2013), pp 327–329 Google Scholar.
3 For recent examples see Dolan, Anne, ‘“Spies and informers beware …”’ in Diarmaid Ferriter and Susannah Riordan (eds), Years of turbulence: the Irish Revolution and its aftermath (Dublin, 2015), pp 157–172 Google Scholar; O’Halpin, ‘Problematic killing’, pp 317–48; Murphy, Gerard, The year of disappearances: political killings in Cork, 1921–22 (2nd ed., Cork, 2012)Google Scholar. The most controversial case involves the killing of fourteen Protestant men over two nights in the Bandon Valley area of County Cork. See Fitzpatrick, David, Descendancy: Irish Protestant histories since 1794 (Cambridge, 2014), pp 221–229 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Keane, Barry, Massacre in west Cork: the Dunmanway and Ballygroman killings (Cork, 2014)Google Scholar; John M. Regan, ‘The “Bandon Valley massacre” as a historical problem’ in History, xcvii, no. 325 (Jan. 2012), pp 70–98; David Fitzpatrick, ‘Ethnic cleansing, ethical smearing, and Irish historians’ in History, xcviii, no. 329 (Jan. 2013), pp 135–44. For Peter Hart’s description of the killings, the work that has motivated the literature above, see Hart, Peter, The I.R.A. and its enemies: violence and community in Cork, 1916–1923 (Oxford, 1998), pp 273–292 Google Scholar.
4 McGarry, Eoin O’Duffy, p. 65; James Sullivan statement (Military Archives of Ireland (M.A.I.), B.M.H., W.S. 518).
5 Dublin Castle statement, 11 May 1921 (T.N.A., CO 904/168/2).
6 Augusteijn, Joost, From public defiance to guerrilla warfare: the experience of ordinary Volunteers in the Irish war of independence, 1916–1921 (Dublin, 1996), pp 140–144 Google Scholar, 150–56.
7 Hart, The I.R.A. and its enemies, pp 226–70; David Fitzpatrick, Politics and Irish life, 1913–1921: provincial experience of war and revolution (Dublin, 1977; repr. Cork, 1998), pp 178–91. This is common in irregular armed conflict: Kalyvas, Stathis N., The logic of violence in civil war (Cambridge, 2006), pp 102–103 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
8 For an exception, see Hart, The I.R.A. and its enemies, pp 242–3, 259–61.
9 Nevil Macready, Annals of an active life (2 vols, London, 1924), ii, 536.
10 Augusteijn, From public defiance, p. 79.
11 Townshend, Charles, Political violence in Ireland: government and resistance since 1848 (Oxford, 1983), pp 334–335 Google Scholar.
12 Augusteijn, From public defiance, p. 85.
13 M.C.R., C.I., Cork W.R., Feb. 1920 (T.N.A., CO 904/111).
14 Ibid.
15 See, for example, M.C.R., Inspector General (I.G.), Dec. 1919 (T.N.A., CO 904/109); ‘Record of the rebellion in Ireland in 1920–21 and the part played by the army in dealing with it. Volume I. Operations’ (T.N.A., WO 141/93); Mark Sturgis quoted in Townshend, Charles, The republic: the fight for Irish independence (London, 2013), p. 165 Google Scholar.
16 Quoted in Hart, The I.R.A. and its enemies, p. 243.
17 Ibid.
18 Irish Post and Weekly Telegraph for Cavan and Midlands, 14 Aug. 1920.
19 Ibid.
20 Ibid.
21 Ibid.
22 Lt. Sheerin, ‘Record of the Derry City Battalion, Derry Brigade’ (M.A.I., Collins papers, A/0464/i).
23 Dolan, Anne, ‘“The shadow of a great fear”: terror and revolutionary Ireland’ in David Fitzpatrick (ed.), Terror in Ireland, 1916–1923 (Dublin, 2012), p. 36 Google Scholar; John O’Riordan statement (M.A.I., B.M.H., W.S. 1117).
24 For the importance of peer pressure in Great War recruitment, see Fitzpatrick, David, ‘Home front and everyday life’ in John Horne (ed.), Our war: Ireland and the great war (Dublin, 2008), pp 143--56Google Scholar.
25 Hart, The I.R.A. and its enemies, p. 261.
26 Andrews, C. S., Dublin made me: an autobiography (Dublin, 1979; repr. 2001), p. 152 Google Scholar.
27 Anne Dolan, ‘Killing and Bloody Sunday, November 1920’ in Hist. Jn., xlix, no. 3 (Sept. 2006), p. 797.
28 Harry Colley statement (M.A.I., B.M.H., W.S. 1687).
29 James Carrigan statement (M.A.I., B.M.H., W.S. 613).
30 William Stapleton statement (M.A.I., B.M.H., W.S. 822).
31 Vinny Byrne statement (M.A.I., B.M.H., W.S. 432).
32 Ibid.
33 Charles Dalton statement (M.A.I., B.M.H., W.S. 434).
34 An t-Óglách, 15 Mar. 1920.
35 Report on a meeting of brigade commandants, 6 Jan. 1921 (University College Dublin Archives (U.C.D.A., Mulcahy papers, P7/A/33).
36 ‘Staff Memo: Question of Disciplinary Code’, 30 Mar. 1921 (U.C.D.A., Mulcahy papers, P7/A/17).
37 Ibid.
38 Ibid.
39 Ibid.
40 Augusteijn, From public defiance, p. 152.
41 Augusteijn, From public defiance, p. 51.
42 General orders (new series), no. 17 ‘Death Penalty’, 2 Apr. 1921 (U.C.D.A., Mulcahy papers, P7/A/45).
43 General orders (new series), no. 18 ‘Deserters’, 2 Apr. 1921 (U.C.D.A., Mulcahy papers, P7/A/45).
44 Ibid.
45 Officer commanding (O.C.), 1st Southern Division to chief of staff (C.S.), 1 July 1921 (U.C.D.A., Mulcahy papers, P7/A/21).
46 Augusteijn, From public defiance, p. 152.
47 For Lappanduff and its fallout see: Lynch, Robert, The northern IRA and the early years of partition (Dublin, 2006), pp 58–62 Google Scholar; G.H.Q. organiser, north Cavan to C.S., 6 June 1921 (U.C.D.A., Mulcahy papers, P7/A/18); Seamus McKenna statement (M.A.I., B.M.H., W.S. 1016).
48 Brennan to adjutant general, 25 Sept. 1921 (M.A.I., Collins papers, A/0674).
49 Seán Farrelly statement (M.A.I., B.M.H., W.S. 1734).
50 O.C. Tipperary No. 3 Brigade to C.S., 3 Dec. 1920, epitome of seized documents no. 53/3649 (Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives (L.H.C.M.A.), 7/24).
51 Ibid.
52 Ibid.
53 Winter, Ormonde, Winter’s tale: an autobiography (London, 1955), p. 301 Google Scholar. See also Winter’s 1921 ‘Report of the Intelligence Branch of the Chief of Police’ in Peter Hart (ed.), British intelligence in Ireland, 1920–21: the final reports (Cork, 2002), p. 73.
54 Winter, Winter’s tale, p. 291.
55 Macready, Annals of an active life, ii, 442–3.
56 Ibid, ii, 546. See also I.O. [C. J. C. Street], The administration of Ireland, 1920 (London, 1921), p. 80.
57 Macready, Annals of an active life, ii, 546.
58 Hart, The I.R.A. and its enemies, pp 78–9, 321.
59 Ibid, p. 79.
60 O’Callaghan, John, Revolutionary Limerick: the republican campaign for independence in Limerick, 1913–1921 (Dublin, 2010), p. 146 Google Scholar.
61 Ibid, p. 147.
62 Ibid; Irish Press, 29 Mar. 1961; Marie Coleman, ‘O’Callaghan, Michael’, in D.I.B.
63 ‘C/S’s reply to above’, epitome of seized documents no. 53/3649 (L.H.C.M.A., 7/24).
64 ‘H.Q. Training Brigade To Each Officer’, 12 Apr. 1921 (U.C.D.A., Mulcahy papers, P7/A/47).
65 James Keating statement (M.A.I., B.M.H., W.S. 1220).
66 O.C. West Connemara Brigade to adjutant general, 1 May 1921 (U.C.D.A., Mulcahy papers, P7/A/19). For newspaper reports of the incident see Irish Independent and Freeman’s Journal, 25 Apr. 1921.
67 Seán Farrelly statement (M.A.I., B.M.H., W.S. 1734).
68 An t-Óglách, 1 Apr. 1920; adjutant general to O.C. Cork No. 1 Brigade, 1 Apr. 1920 (N.L.I., MS 31,192 (1)). See also: General orders, no. 10 (new series), 1920 ‘Emigration’, 19 June 1920 (U.C.D.A., Mulcahy papers, P7/A/45).
69 Brigade adjutant, Cork No. 1 Brigade to adjutant general, 26 Mar. 1921 (U.C.D.A., Mulcahy papers, P7/A/19).
70 Draft memorandum from minister for home affairs, c.June 1921 (N.A.I., DÉ 2/8/27).
71 Ibid.
72 Roger MacCorley statement (U.C.D.A., Ernie O’Malley notebooks, P17b/98).
73 James Sullivan statement (M.A.I., B.M.H., W.S. 518), quoted in McGarry, Eoin O’Duffy, p. 63.
74 Ibid.; John McGahey (M.A.I., B.M.H., W.S. 740). See also, McGarry, Eoin O’Duffy, pp 63–4.
75 See, for example, Wilson, T. K., Frontiers of violence: conflict and identity in Ulster and Upper Silesia, 1918–1922 (Oxford, 2010)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
76 Augusteijn, From public defiance, p. 141.
77 Fitzpatrick, Politics and Irish life, p. 181.
78 Townshend, Political violence in Ireland, p. 337.
79 O.C. Tipperary No. 3 Brigade to C.S., 3 Dec. 1920, epitome of seized documents no. 53/3649 (L.H.C.M.A., 7/24).
80 Sean Boylan statement (M.A.I., B.M.H., W.S. 1715).
81 Coogan, Oliver, Politics and war in Meath, 1913–23 (Dublin, 1983), pp 162–163 Google Scholar.
82 Murphy, The year of disappearances, p. 40.
83 Óg Ó Ruairc, Padraig, The truce: murder, myth and the last days of the Irish War of Independence (Cork, 2016), p. 80 Google Scholar; Hart, The I.R.A. and its enemies, p. 321.
84 Charles Dalton statement (M.A.I., B.M.H., W.S. 434).
85 Irish Independent, 6 Apr. 1921; Irish Times, 6 Apr. 1921.
86 Freeman’s Journal, 10 Mar. 1921; Anglo-Celt, 12 Mar. 1921. Larmer was named in the Anglo-Celt on 19 Mar. 1921.
87 See O’Callaghan, Revolutionary Limerick, pp 175–7; Daniel Murray, ‘In the presence of his enemies: the controversy of James Dalton’ (http://www.theirishstory.com/2015/03/09/in-the-presence-of-his-enemies-the-controversy-of-james-dalton-may-1920/) (28 Oct. 2016).
88 Sean O’Callaghan, Execution (London, 1974), pp 59–62.
89 Hart, The I.R.A. and its enemies, pp 14–15.
90 George Hurley statement (M.A.I., B.M.H., W.S. 1630).
91 Hart, The I.R.A. and its enemies, p. 15; Leo Buckley statement (M.A.I., B.M.H., W.S. 1714).
92 See Andy Bielenberg and James S. Donnelly, ‘List of suspected civilian spies killed by the IRA, 1920–21’, pp 60–2 (http://theirishrevolution.ie/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/CorkSpyFilesDatabase09.01.2017.pdf) (25 Nov. 2017). Note the labelling of Donovan here as a civilian.
93 Hart, The I.R.A. and its enemies, p. 15, n. 56.
94 O’Callaghan, Execution, p. 62.
95 Fearghal McGarry, ‘Violence and the Easter Rising’ in Fitzpatrick (ed.), Terror in Ireland, pp 43–4; Eve Morrison, ‘Bureau of Military History witness statements as sources for the Irish Revolution’ (http://bureauofmilitaryhistory.ie/files/Bureau_of_Military_witness_statements%20as_sources%20for_the_Irish%20Revolution.pdf) (25 Nov. 2017).
96 Neligan, David, The spy in the castle (Dublin 1999), p. 129 Google Scholar; Frank Thornton statement (M.A.I., B.M.H., W.S. 615); Charles Dalton statement (Ibid., W.S. 434); Joseph Kinsella statement (Ibid., W.S. 476); Hart, Peter, The I.R.A. at war, 1916–1923 (Oxford, 2003), pp 156–157 Google Scholar.
97 Dolan, ‘The shadow of a great fear’, p. 36.
98 Tadhg Crowe statement (M.A.I., B.M.H., W.S. 1658).
99 Seamus Robinson statement (M.A.I., B.M.H., W.S. 1721).
100 Patrick Larmer’s body was found labelled in this way, as was McPhillips’s: Freeman’s Journal, 10 Mar. 1921; Anglo-Celt, 12 Mar. 1921. A sign stating ‘Let Spies and informers beware – I.R.A.’ was found on Fovargue’s body: Hart, The I.R.A. at war, p. 157.
101 O’Callaghan, Execution, p. 62.
102 Ibid, p. 63. See also Bielenberg and Donnelly, ‘List of suspected civilian spies killed by the IRA, 1920–21’, pp 60–62.
103 Ibid.
104 Murphy, The year of disappearances, pp 67–8.
105 Thomas Crawley statement (M.A.I., B.M.H., W.S. 718).
106 Ibid.
107 O’Halpin, ‘Problematic killing’, p. 334.
108 C.S. to director of intelligence, 12 July 1921 (U.C.D.A., Mulcahy papers, P7/A/21).
109 Assistant C.S. reply to letter from C.S., 18 July 1921 (U.C.D.A., Mulcahy papers, P7/A/22).
110 ‘H.Q. Training Brigade To Each Officer’, 12 Apr. 1921 (U.C.D.A., Mulcahy papers, P7/A/47).
111 Peter Browne statement (M.A.I., B.M.H., W.S. 1110).
112 M.C.R., I.G., Mar. 1921 (T.N.A., CO 904/114).
113 Hart, The I.R.A. and its enemies, p. 215.
114 O.C. Cork No. 2 Brigade to C.S., 13 Jan. 1921, epitome of seized documents no. 53/3649 (L.H.C.M.A., 7/24).
115 Hart, The I.R.A. and its enemies, p. 215.
116 Sean Boylan statement (M.A.I., B.M.H., W.S. 1715). Boylan was suspicious that the adjutant had been paid to supply information to the R.I.C. and his suspicions appear to have been confirmed later.
117 O.C., West Donegal Brigade to C.S., 7 Mar. 1921 (U.C.D.A., Mulcahy papers, P7/A/39).
118 C.S. to O.C., West Donegal Brigade, 22 Mar. 1921 (U.C.D.A., Mulcahy papers, P7/A/39).
119 Seán Farrelly statement (M.A.I., B.M.H., W.S. 1734).
120 Ibid. For G.H.Q. opposition to flogging see: ‘Staff Memo: Question of Disciplinary Code’, 30 Mar. 1921 (U.C.D.A., Mulcahy papers, P7/A/17); Michael Collins to ?, 2 July 1921 (U.C.D.A., Mulcahy papers, P7/A/21); Seán Farrelly statement (M.A.I., B.M.H., W.S. 1734). Two civilians who committed a robbery were also flogged as a punishment by Meath Volunteers (Sean Boylan statement (M.A.I., B.M.H., W.S. 1715)).
121 Mossie Harnett, Victory and woe: the west Limerick brigade in the war of independence, ed. James J. Joy (Dublin, 2002), pp 90–91.
122 Benjamin Laurence Bradley, ‘The British army in Ireland 1916–1921: a social and cultural history’ (Ph.D. thesis, University of Hull, 2007), p. 128.
123 Weekly Summary, 5 Nov. 1920.
124 M.C.R., C.I., Westmeath, Mar. 1921 (T.N.A., CO 904/114).
125 M.C.R., C.I., Mallow, May 1921 (T.N.A., CO 904/115).
126 Kalyvas, , The logic of violence in civil war, 2006), p. 96 CrossRefGoogle Scholar and n. 14.
127 Irish Grants Committee (I.G.C.), George William Nicolls (T.N.A., CO 762/175/18).
128 For the I.G.C. and the use of its files see Niamh Brennan, ‘A political minefield: southern Irish loyalists, the Irish Grants Committee and the British government, 1922–31’ in I.H.S., xxx, no. 119 (May 1997), pp 406–19; McDowell, R. B., Crisis and decline: the fate of the southern unionists (Dublin, 1997) pp 130–162 Google Scholar; Clark, Gemma, Everyday violence in the Irish Civil War (Cambridge, 2014), pp 18–53 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
129 I.G.C., Edward Goldrick (T.N.A., CO 762/36/14).
130 Ibid.
131 I.G.C., T. J. Lush (T.N.A., CO 762/21/11).
132 I.G.C., James Kennedy (T.N.A., CO 762/160/13).
133 I.G.C., Patrick Donnelly (copy) (P.R.O.N.I., D9/B/3/9).
134 I.G.C., Isabella Chambers (copy) (P.R.O.N.I., D9/B/3/8); I.G.C., Anna Maria Martyn (copy) (P.R.O.N.I., D9/B/3/11).
135 I.G.C., Julia Neligan (T.N.A., CO 762/32/16).
136 Leonard, Jane, ‘Getting them at last: the I.R.A. and ex-servicemen’ in David Fitzpatrick (ed.), Revolution? Ireland, 1917–1923 (Dublin, 1990), pp 119–129 Google Scholar; Taylor, Paul, Heroes or traitors? Experiences of southern Irish soldiers returning from the Great War, 1919–1939 (Liverpool, 2015), pp 13–15 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
137 Steven O’Connor, ‘Database of Irish ex-servicemen in the I.R.A., 1919–21’ (unpublished).
138 Tom Barry, Guerrilla days in Ireland (Dublin, 1949; repr. 1981), p. 5.
139 I.G.C., Patrick A. McGrath (T.N.A., CO 762/60/7).
140 Ibid.
141 Weekly intelligence summary, 6th Division, 12 July 1920 (Imperial War Museum (I.W.M.), P363).
142 Hart, The I.R.A. and its enemies, p. 149; Denis Mulchinock, Michael Courtney, Jeremiah Murphy statements (M.A.I., B.M.H., W.S. 744). Hart named the ex-soldier as Dan Shields but in B.M.H. W.S. 744 he is named William Shields. A number of other Cork witness statements, which all claim that he was the source of the leak, simply refer to him as ‘Shiels’.
143 Hart, The I.R.A. and its enemies, p. 260.
144 Ibid., p. 259.
145 I.G.C., Patrick Donnelly (copy) (P.R.O.N.I., D9/B/3/9); I.G.C., T.J. Lush (T.N.A., CO 762/21/11).
146 The most sophisticated study of the motivations for joining and participating remains Hart, The I.R.A. and its enemies, pp 134–64.
147 M.C.R., C.I., Kildare, Sept. 1921 (T.N.A., CO 904/116).
148 ‘The military situation in Ireland at the end of September, 1921’ in ‘Record of the rebellion in Ireland 1920–21 and the part played by the army in dealing with it, volume I: operations’ (T.N.A., WO 141/93).
149 Breaches of the Truce, Cork (T.N.A., CO 904/152).
150 Ibid.
151 Breaches of the Truce, Monaghan (T.N.A., CO 904/156A). Another report mentioned that Grogan had been interned in 1916: a James Grogan from Tyrone was included in a list of internees sent from Richmond Barracks in Dublin to Wandsworth after the Easter Rising: Sinn Féin Rebellion handbook: Easter 1916 (Dublin, 1917), p. 79.
152 I.G.C., Thomas Bradley (copy) (P.R.O.N.I., D989/B/3/8).
153 Mulcahy to Lord Mayor of Dublin, 24 Oct. 1921 (U.C.D.A., Mulcahy papers, P7/A/36). A complaint had been received about conscription notices served on employees of a firm in Ballaghaderreen, County Roscommon.
154 M.C.R., C.I., Leitrim, July 1921 (T.N.A., CO 904/116).
155 M.C.R., C.I., Clare, July1921 (T.N.A., CO 904/116).
156 M.C.R., C.I., Limerick, July 1921 (T.N.A., CO 904/116).
157 M.C.R., C.I., Kerry, July 1921 (T.N.A., CO 904/116). See also, ‘Record of the rebellion’ (T.N.A., WO 141/93).
158 Seamus McKenna statement (M.A.I., B.M.H., W.S. 1016).
159 Ibid.
160 C.S. to director of organisation, 20 June 1921 (U.C.D.A., Mulcahy papers, P7/A/20).
161 O’Halpin, ‘Problematic killing’, p. 321.
162 Augusteijn, From public defiance, p. 151.
163 ‘Staff Memo: Question of Disciplinary Code’, 30 Mar. 1921 (U.C.D.A., Mulcahy papers, P7/A/17).
