Decoding the IRA (36 page)

Eventually Ted Sullivan, the leading baseball promoter and entrepreneur, agreed to sponsor the tour. Sullivan (1851–1929) was an Irish-American born in County Clare, and following stints as a baseball player and manager in America he went on to become one of the first major businessmen in the game. He was a pioneer of baseball and made a significant contribution towards transforming it into the national sport. A contemporary newspaper referred to him as ‘probably the best known man in base balldom [
sic
]'. Most famously, he is credited with being the originator of the word ‘fan'. Much as Sullivan was honoured in the world of baseball, he couldn't count the IRA and Connie Neenan as among his ‘fans'. Neenan regarded Sullivan's support as
‘private enterprise where exploitation of [the] champions is indulged in for personal gain'
and sent word to the Kerry captain, John Joe Sheehy, that Sullivan
‘is not to be trusted'
.
⁷⁸
Neenan added:
‘Sullivan pretends to be a martyr to philanthropic motives. I doubt [this] very much.'
⁷⁹

Neenan's dislike of Sullivan led him to write:
‘Sullivan the promoter is a very shrewd businessman with Jewish habits'
who was
‘exploiting [the] team for his own ends'
.
⁸⁰
Remarks of this type were common in Ireland and America at the time, and it's actually a credit to the IRA and men like Peadar O'Donnell (who fought against anti-Semitism) that this is the only anti-Semitic comment that we've come across in cipher in the documents.

Neenan wanted Sheehy to ensure that the contract with Sullivan would allow the team to play additional matches to benefit the IRA. Sheehy was told that when the contract was being signed, he should
‘expressly reserve freedom of action after [the] matches contracted for, are played'
. As Neenan expected to be able to
‘arrange to have at least one match in each of the following cities: New York, Boston and Chicago. [The] receipts [would be] for our benefit.'
⁸¹
Sheehy felt that most of the team wouldn't object to playing games for the IRA:
‘Sheehy states he can get 18 out of the possible 23 players to agree to any of our proposals. The opposition will come from a few individuals here [in America], but I
feel we can attend to that question.'
⁸²
It would be interesting to know how exactly Neenan planned to overcome their objections.

Sullivan promised 10 per cent of the proceeds from the gate to the Kerry GAA. Naturally he wanted to maximise the return on his investment and so proposed to take the team to all the major US cities.
⁸³
However, Neenan was more realistic and knew that it would have to be limited to those centres that could actually field a Gaelic football team to play the visitors. He also wanted Sullivan to benefit from as few games as possible; freeing up the team for the IRA games and for the social events in support of Clan na Gael and the IRA. Neenan wrote:
‘Sullivan [the] promoter is endeavouring to monopolize the whole situation, but we are going to have a big say in this.'
⁸⁴
He added:
‘I am going to spike him if possible.'
⁸⁵
He even wanted to start a dispute with Sullivan over his booking the team on an English shipping company, the White Star Line:
‘This is an English company … I am going to cause a row'
and he asked Twomey to get Sheehy to stir up trouble in Ireland.
⁸⁶
If the ships of the White Star Line were good enough for IRA weapons smuggling why weren't they good enough for the Kerry footballers?

Neenan was keenly aware that any public exposure of the IRA's role in the tour could destroy their plans and he warned Twomey:
‘I would suggest you keep all reference[s] to [the] GAA and [the] Kerry visit in code, as if you leave [a] message deciphered and [it was] caught in [garda] raids, our plans here would be ruined.'
⁸⁷

What about the Kerry players, like Con Brosnan and Paul Russell, who were opposed to the IRA? Twomey wrote that:
‘There may be friction as most likely Brosnan and Russell must be taken and these may object to play[ing] for us.'
⁸⁸
Brosnan was one of the greats of Kerry football. During the Anglo-Irish War he fought with the IRA and in the Civil War was a captain in the national army. Despite all the talk of reconciliation and unity Brosnan was a thorn in Sheehy's side. Sheehy suggested that a threatening letter should be sent to him from America and Neenan wrote:
‘Sheehy sent over a message [for someone] to write [to] Brosnan an anonymous letter, informing [the] latter that [the] feeling here is so intensely republican, that it would be safer for him not to come.'
However, Neenan added:
‘This would not be practical, as Brosnan would publish
[the] letter. It would also create a stir here, and when our match is advertised we would be accused of sending threatening letters. Unless Sheehy has other reasons, I would not be in favour of [sending a] letter.'
⁸⁹
Twomey reported to Neenan that despite Sheehy's best efforts,
‘he could not get over having to take [Con] Brosnan and [Paul] Russell and one or two minor [Free] Staters. But outside of these [he] has a team to play. He expects you to do your best to prevent public resentment against those Staters.'
⁹⁰
Brosnan did indeed go on the tour, but interestingly Russell, who was a garda officer, was reported to have been ‘unable to make the trip'.
⁹¹

Neenan also planned to look after the team's social programme which would help with Clan recruitment and with fundraising:
‘We can arrange several functions on the social side. On this question I believe we can do immense work for the organisation [the IRA]. I would suggest to Sheehy [that] on his arrival, to leave [the] social side in our hands.'
⁹²
Neenan planned to form a committee to organise the social activities:
‘[I] am trying to form [a] social committee representing all [of] Ireland, [consisting] of prominent Gaels, to arrange [a] reception for [the] Kerry team. It would be outside [of] Sullivan's programme, while [being] exclusively [drawn from the] Clan.'
⁹³
These activities included
‘two boat rides'
and a
‘big dance'
.
⁹⁴

Moss Twomey found Sheehy unco-operative and exasperating to deal with. Twomey expected him to help ensure that the team played the fundraising games for the IRA, and that in America he'd use his considerable status as team captain and IRA veteran to help with recruitment for the Clan na Gael and IRA clubs. Twomey wrote:
‘Sheehy [is] most unsatisfactory, [I] cannot get him to come to our meetings or give us his views on this business. He has become rather indifferent.'
⁹⁵
In April, two weeks before the team was due to sail, Twomey reported to Connie Neenan:
‘We have succeeded in getting Sheehy to come up here [to Dublin]. We have given him instructions as to [the] work we expect him to do out there. He will go as an accredited representative of the Army Council. He will attend meeting[s] of the Clan executive, Clan reunions or other Clan meetings [if] possible. He will have a week in New York on arrival, before [the] first match. Arrange some work for him, not too
much. When you meet, [both of] you can decide your programme … Sheehy would have [a] good influence with [the IRA] volunteers who have gone there and [would help] to smooth things in clubs, between them and [the] old members.'
⁹⁶
Before Sheehy's departure, Twomey sent him a written copy of his credentials as the Army Council representative and offered him ‘very best wishes for a successful tour'.
⁹⁷

One of the final obstacles to the tour was the granting of permission from the GAA's Central Council in Dublin. The GAA's leadership was broadly supportive of the Free State and Neenan warned Sheehy to be
‘careful in dealing with matters at home, due to some of the rotten elements existing in various existing GAA councils'
.
⁹⁸
The council can't have been overly enamoured with the overtly republican Kerry team. Additionally, it was concerned about the very real possibility of the players being offered jobs and deciding to emigrate to America; recently six of the Tipperary hurling team had done just that after an American tour. The council met in March 1927 and ‘didn't show much enthusiasm' for the tour, with a representative from Cork a vociferous opponent (well if they couldn't beat them on the field maybe they could beat the Kerry team in committee!). However, it was pointed out that the council had already granted permission for the tour in 1926 and so all it could do was add the requirement that the players commit to return to Ireland following the games.
⁹⁹

Finally, in May 1927 the players embarked on ‘the most historic and talked about trip Kerry footballers had ever undertaken'. Indeed the tour was extremely important to a county badly affected by the trauma of the Civil War, economic recession and endemic poverty. Despite the behind-the-scenes machinations of Connie Neenan and the IRA the trip had an important role to play in drawing people together again and bringing a ray of sunshine and pride into those grey years. Accolades poured in from throughout the Kingdom. Kerry County Council proclaimed: ‘By their visit they would bring honour to Ireland and the county which they so ably and successfully represented.' Such was the size and enthusiasm of the crowd that gathered at Tralee railway station to see the team off on their way to the boat at Cobh that some of the players had to be dragged into the compartments of the train through the windows. At Cobh they boarded the
SS Baltic
bound for New York – a ship that featured in many IRA gun-running exploits.

In New York they were greeted by hundreds of supporters, and a police motorcycle escort accompanied the motorcade to City Hall. The highlight of the welcome was a banquet for 1,000 people, including many of the leading luminaries of New York's Irish-American community. Though this was the era of prohibition, during their visit there was ‘no shortage of drink to quench the visitors' thirst.

The first game was played against New York at the Polo Grounds before a crowd of 30,000.
The New York Times
, writing about the game, helpfully explained that the sport was a hybrid of soccer and basketball! Unfortunately Kerry were badly beaten 3-11 to 1-7. In the other cities they visited the Kerrymen were victorious. At each stop they received a municipal welcome and in Chicago were given the freedom of the city. In Boston especially, Connie Neenan wanted Sheehy to meet the IRA veterans there to counter the extensive support for Fianna Fáil.

The final game in July was a replay of the contest with New York at Celtic Park. This time, before a smaller crowd of 6,000 and again after a ‘gruelling contest', the visitors were beaten 11 to 7. The New Yorkers were accused of rough play and Fr Fitzgerald, who accompanied the Irish team, put their poor showing down to the fact that the pitch was 50 feet shorter than the regulation field in Ireland.
¹⁰⁰

As with all trips, gifts have to be brought to the folks back home. And on the return voyage on the
Baltic
some of the players smuggled Thompson submachine guns in their luggage. These weapons belonged to the IRA and had been under the control of Joe McGarrity in New York.
¹⁰¹

Con Brosnan had one of the more eventful lives of the players – he went on to win a total of six All Ireland senior football medals and captained the victorious Kerry team in 1931. Politically he was involved in the ‘proto-fascist' Army Comrades Association or Blueshirts (which was allied with Cumann na nGaedheal) in the 1930s, until he fell out with them a few years later, following which he broke into the Blueshirts' offices and set fire to copies of their paper,
United Ireland
. In 1933 Neenan again proposed to Twomey a Kerry tour of America, and added that Brosnan wasn't welcome. That same year Twomey wrote to Neenan: ‘I wonder if you know that he [Brosnan] has been in Grangegorman [mental] Asylum for the past month. He is a bad case I believe. He felt he was used by Cumann na nGaedheal.' Brosnan passed away in 1975.
¹⁰²

Chemical weapons

During the 1920s the IRA made several highly secret attempts in America to obtain intelligence on chemical warfare and weapons. Some of this information was then passed on to Soviet military intelligence (see Chapter 8). The IRA also discussed plans to mount attacks using tear gas, and even mustard gas, in Ireland. This is the story of the IRA and chemical weapons.

There were two principal types of commonly used chemical weapons: poison gases and the non-lethal tear gases, both of which the IRA were interested in.

In the First World War vast quantities of poison gas were used by all the major belligerents. But it failed to have a significant effect on the overall outcome of the war, as armies quickly developed counter-measures and adopted their enemy's technology. By the end of the war, much of the gas was deployed in specially adapted artillery shells, though attacks could also be mounted by releasing the gas from an array of cylinders, or by using crude mortars which fired gas canisters. On occasion gas was sprayed from modified flame-throwers or packed into hand grenades.

Probably the most effective agent used was mustard gas, known as the ‘king of gases', which took its name from its faint mustard-like odour. It was primarily a disabling rather than a lethal agent, and was toxic both when inhaled and when it came into direct contact with the skin. The effects of exposure developed slowly over four to eight hours, it irritated the eyes and the lungs, could lead to temporary blindness, and caused blistering and burns of the skin which often took months to heal. A small number of mustard gas shells fired over an area could cause casualties for hours or even days afterwards. It is classified as a persistent gas and, depending on the weather conditions, can linger in the affected area for up to a week or more. Troops had to don both gas masks and special clothing to protect themselves, which severely impaired their fighting ability. The characteristics of mustard gas, especially its persistence, made it particularly suitable as a defensive agent.
¹⁰³