Decoding the IRA (16 page)

Fr Barrett of St Mary's church said there was a ‘declaration of war for a high purpose – to save the beautiful soul of holy Ireland'. He admitted he took Sunday papers from a newsboy and threw them into the River Lee, though he did let him keep copies of the
Sunday Independent
. It's unknown if the clerical bully ever compensated the boy for the stolen papers.
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Monsignor Sexton, along with several priests, supported a group that
was described as the Cork Angelic Warfare Association. In February four Angelic warriors seized newspapers from a newsvendor, John Courtney, including copies of the
News of the World
and the
Sunday Pictorial
. Courtney was later refunded the cost of the papers. When one of the gang, Percy Kelly, was brought to trial, the proceedings were so farcical that it was the witnesses who were effectively put on trial. Before a large audience of priests and other supporters, the prosecuting state solicitor agreed that Kelly's actions were ‘meritorious' though against the law, while garda superintendent Butler denied that he had threatened ‘that the priests of Cork would be brought to their knees'. Courtney was asked whether he was a married man and whether he'd allow the offending papers into his home. To loud cheers the judge applied the probation act to Kelly, who walked free.
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Bishop Cohalan despised the IRA, having excommunicated volunteers in 1920 during the Anglo-Irish War, and wouldn't have welcomed IRA support for the activities of the Cork Angelic Warfare Association. However, the IRA's campaign clearly coincided with that of the Church, and Twomey may have hoped to benefit from public support for the issue. Charlie Gilmore's involvement is ironic, as he was both a socialist and a Protestant and would have been expected to resist attacks which gave conservative Catholic nationalists greater influence over the press.

The Irish people continued to read the English Sunday papers and other corrupting filth – despite legislative actions such as the 1929 Censorship Act and the imposition of a tax on foreign newspapers in 1933. In 1938 the Fianna Fáil Minister for Justice, P. J. Rutledge, reported that 1,048 books and twenty periodicals had been permanently banned. The offending authors included such well-known pornographers as Aldous Huxley, Herman Hesse and Seán Ó Faoláin.
¹⁶¹
In one way or another many in power in the state allowed themselves to be drawn into this crusade, which was largely orchestrated by elements associated with the Catholic Church.

In the 1920s, British studios made a number of propaganda films about the Great War, which didn't accord with IRA sensibilities. In November 1925 a group of three armed men exploded a mine inside the Masterpiece cinema in Dublin during a showing of the film
Ypres
(having warned the cinema beforehand against showing the film). Following the explosion, two
pursuing gardaí were fired upon; a few days later two of the men were arrested.
¹⁶²

The following year the
Battle of Mons
, which was officially sanctioned by the British Army Council, was released. It told the story of the British army's retreat from Belgium in the early months of the First World War and depicted acts of heroism, such as that of the soldier who rescued his wounded comrade in a wheelbarrow. A critic at the time called the film ‘inspiring' as it showed ‘the gallant fighting', and in one scene where two officers played the ‘The British Grenadiers' on a tin whistle and toy drum, he reported that it brought a lump to his throat.
¹⁶³
Obviously this film posed a major threat to the gullible Irish public and Twomey wrote to the OC of the Dublin brigade:
‘Seize … [the] picture “Mons” to be shown in [the] Corinthian [cinema] tomorrow and next week. Do not destroy [it] but hold [it] safely pending instructions.'
¹⁶⁴
He then sent similar orders to IRA units in Tipperary and Cork.
¹⁶⁵
The OC in Dublin promptly sent a missive off to the Corinthian's owner objecting to the film, partially on the grounds that it glorified war (and who better to know about glorifying war):

The proprietor of the Corinthian doesn't seem to have been cowed into submission as twelve days later the cinema was still showing the film.
¹⁶⁷

Another perceived threat emanated from the boy scouts, including the sea scouts, which the IRA saw as ‘British reservists'.
¹⁶⁸
However, there was some rational (though largely misguided) basis to the IRA's fears about the scouts. General Baden Powell, who had distinguished himself in South Africa fighting the independent-minded Boers, founded the scouting movement. Powell has been described as an ‘Empire propagandist' and he promoted an essentially English concept of boyhood and citizenship.
¹⁶⁹
The organisation had many military trappings – with uniformed boys parading in formation. In Ireland they inspired Na Fianna Éireann, the youth wing of the IRA, which unlike the scouts, had a very definite military function.

In early 1926 the IRA chief of staff wrote to the OC in Britain:

At your convenience I would like you to pick up as much information as possible as to the inner working, and purpose of the Baden Powell Boy Scouts. If some of the speeches and confidential communications could be got they would be of much use here. These B.P. Scouts are so strong here that they are a positive menace. They can do as they please while Fianna Éireann are prosecuted. We mean to give publicity to the fact that the B.P. Scouts are much more a Military Organisation than the Fianna. If the reports from Ireland to London could be got they would be invaluable for the purpose in view. I am sure they make reference to Ireland in their general reports, but the confidential ones would be much better.
¹⁷⁰

The OC wrote back that he was unable to get any information, as ‘at present I have no connection whatever with that organisation'.
¹⁷¹
In 1928 the IRA burned down and fired shots into a number of scout huts and the following year reportedly planned to bomb Elvery's sports shop in Dublin for having a window display promoting the World Scout Jamboree.
¹⁷²

Every November unionists and British army veterans celebrated Poppy Day or Remembrance Day (in honour of those that had died in the First World War) by displaying the Union Jack and wearing poppies. Beginning in the mid 1920s, the IRA in Dublin attempted to prevent these displays and obstruct the British Legion's parade. They organised public demonstrations which attracted speakers from across the republican spectrum, ranging from Éamon de Valera to communists and feminists. These rallies were usually held in College Green and were attended by a substantial number of people; in 1932 some 15,000 attended. They
degenerated into disorder and fighting as IRA supporters attempted to snatch flags from members of the Legion and engaged in running battles with the gardaí.
¹⁷³
The protests were supported by many outside of the IRA and continued until the early 1930s when the IRA adopted a more tolerant approach.
¹⁷⁴

By engaging in these activities the IRA left itself open to the accusation of bigotry and religious intolerance, and its response that it supported the right of the veterans to honour their dead but opposed the glorification of the Great War was unconvincing.
¹⁷⁵
In October 1927 Moss Twomey tried to gather information showing that Poppy Day was more than an occasion of remembrance and he wrote to the IRA's OC in Britain:
‘Get some literature or any official stuff you can, showing [the] imperialistic nature of Poppy Day and post it. Get into [the] headquarters of [the] British Legion.'
¹⁷⁶

Seán Russell, however, had more exciting plans for the day. He recommended to Twomey that the IRA should blow up the equestrian statues of King William III in College Green and that of Lord Gough in the Phoenix Park.
¹⁷⁷
An attempt was made to blow up King William's statue on Remembrance Day in 1928, though the job wasn't finished until 1946. Gough's statue was eventually destroyed in 1957.
¹⁷⁸

Though most anti-imperialist activities were carried out on Remembrance Day, IRA volunteers and members of Cumann na mBan also sporadically removed flags from largely Protestant-owned businesses in the fashionable area around College Green and Grafton Street. Though the perpetrators were on occasion arrested, they were frequently not convicted due to intimidation of the jury or due to the jurors' sympathetic attitude.
¹⁷⁹
In 1927 Twomey reminded the OC of the Dublin brigade to have his unit on stand-by for British Empire Day, 24 May:
‘Have your plans ready for 24th inst. [May] Empire Day, in case of imperialist displays.'
¹⁸⁰

For a few months in the summer of 1926 the IRA conducted a campaign against the unsavoury practice of moneylending. Like the anti-imperialist activities, this had the potential to generate popular support for the IRA by targeting a group outside the mainstream of Catholic nationalist society. Many of the moneylenders were Jewish and these attacks had a taint of anti-Semitism, though this was denied by the IRA and particularly
by the republican activist Robert Briscoe, who was Jewish himself. Interestingly, there is some anecdotal evidence that Jewish moneylenders were regarded as more scrupulous than non-Jewish moneylenders.
¹⁸¹
Twomey later said that he and many others disagreed with the raids, which were initiated by Mick Price – the OC of the Dublin brigade and a leading republican socialist.
¹⁸²

From July to August IRA raiding parties seized the account books and records of moneylenders in Dublin and Limerick. The gardaí, however, successfully responded by arresting several IRA members including Price and Donal O'Donoghue, along with George Plunkett's sister Fiona, which soon put an end to the attacks.
¹⁸³
Though the moneylenders (wisely) failed to identify Price and O'Donoghue in court, the two remained incarcerated until 1927, while Fiona Plunkett was released in December 1926. By February 1927 Peadar O'Donnell had negotiated a deal, under which the moneylenders agreed not to pursue debts in the ‘Free State Courts' and that ‘where in conscience a borrower admits liability … this re-payment will be made through a committee without the moneylenders being allowed to call himself [
sic
] to make collections'. Both O'Donnell and Briscoe were to monitor compliance with the agreement.
¹⁸⁴
As Twomey noted:
‘This undertaking was signed only by the moneylenders'
and so in theory wasn't binding on the IRA, though they were unlikely to restart this abortive campaign.
¹⁸⁵
Twomey wrote to O'Donoghue in prison:
‘[It is] considered advisable to tacitly agree, as activities on our part had ceased.'
¹⁸⁶
The arrangement allowed the IRA to save face and explain away its ending of the campaign.

While these actions kept many members in Dublin busy and enabled the IRA to keep a high profile, Éamon de Valera was moving steadily ahead with his own plans.

Éamon de Valera and Fianna Fáil

Éamon de Valera was the dominant personality of the republican movement. He was a natural authority figure and within the egalitarian republican fraternity was the one leader who was not addressed by his first name, but rather was called ‘Mister de Valera', ‘Sir', or by those close to him ‘Chief'.
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He was a highly polarising figure and the very mention of his name
could elicit passionate debate. While many members of the IRA and the public were devoted to him, others accused him of either causing the Civil War or alternatively of betraying the ‘republic'. The extent to which many volunteers and officers admired him is not fully appreciated nowadays, when he is commonly unfavourably compared to Michael Collins. Todd Andrews, who had been a staff officer at GHQ, considered him ‘extraordinarily friendly and informal', and that ‘his capacity to charm affected me … all during his long life'.
¹⁸⁸
On the other hand, the veteran Fenian John Devoy was not alone when he opined that he was ‘the most malignant man in all Irish history'.
¹⁸⁹

De Valera had long realised that by refusing to participate in the political life of the
de facto
state, republicans had marginalised themselves and were becoming increasingly irrelevant to the lives of its citizens. In the words of Robert Briscoe: ‘De Valera was still President of the Irish Republic, a shadow government which governed nothing. He was president of Sinn Féin, a shadow political party which took no part in practical politics. He decided the situation must end.'
¹⁹⁰
Given the IRA's failure to overthrow the government during the Civil War, the only option left open was that of political engagement.