Dan Breen

“ Many a night we were wakened by their nibbling at our hair. Whenever I protested, in action as well as in words, Sean Treacy would plead—“Ah, the poor little creatures! They might as well be happy when we can’t. Don’t be vexed with them, Dan, even if they take a little of your black hair.” I argued that it was enough to have the peelers after us, and that if the mice had any decency they ought to leave us alone. ”

“ Sean saw he was cornered and pulled his gun. It was a hopeless fight from the first, but like the man that he was Sean Treacy fought till he was riddled.
The whole contingent of British troops and Auxiliaries, regardless even of their own comrade who was in grips with Sean, turned their rifles and machine gun on the man they feared. They killed Sean and three civilians who came in the line of fire, but Sean had left “Christian” dangerously wounded before he fell himself.
Thus died the greatest Irishman of our generation. He gave his life to save his comrades. ”

“ So certain were we that everything would work out according to plan that some of our men in the vicinity of the Bridge, within a hundred yards of Dublin Castle, had actually drawn and thrown away the pins from their bombs. It was a bitterly cold night, and there they stood with their fingers pressed on the springs of the cold metal ready to release the bombs. But he never came. For almost two hours our men had to endure the agony of holding the springs of the bombs, and in the end they had to make their escape as best they could, still gripping the cold bombs. ”

“ Sharp to time the military car came tearing along from Limerick. Just when they turned a corner and drove almost into the barracks we opened fire. Like a shot every man jumped from the car and took cover to reply to our men.
A fierce encounter followed for half an hour. In the first minute two of the British dropped their rifles and rolled over dead, but the others continued to pour volley after volley in the direction from which our fire came. But we were in a difficulty. There were only seven of us there, and we had only ten rounds of ammunition per man. ”

“ Disheartened at the failure of my efforts to get the boys united once more against the enemy, I made up my mind to leave Ireland. I intended to go to India and strike a blow against the old enemy there and help those who were fighting the same battle as we had been fighting in Ireland. But when Sean Hogan and I got in touch with Indian leaders in London they asked how could Irishmen be trusted to fight for India when they had deserted their own country?
In despair I decided to go to America. In the middle of December I acted as “best man” for Seumas Robinson when he was married in Dublin. ”

“ Suddenly to our dismay another enemy car is rushing towards us from the opposite direction. We are now in greater danger than ever for we are trapped between two fires. I felt a bullet pierce my left leg, but I had no time to examine the wound though I reckoned the bullet had passed through. The British had by this time about a dozen rifles and a machine gun in action; but the marksmen’s nerves must have failed them, otherwise we could never have stood up so long against them. One man, however, gets his mark and poor Martin Savage falls into my arms, shot through the body. ”

“ We didn’t leave a dead wall or a cross-roads in the country that we did not decorate with appeals to “Rally to Sinn Fein,” “Vote for the Republic,” “Stand by the men of 1916.” Such were the rallying calls addressed to the people during those few critical weeks. No secret was made of our policy. Every Republican was pledged never to take his seat in the British Parliament, but to work at home in Ireland for the establishment and recognition of the Republic.
We knocked plenty of fun out of the election. Alas! many of those who worked hardest in those days have passed under the sod since. ”

“ At an early stage in the Civil War it was the scene of a sad tragedy when two Republicans—Theo English, of Tipperary, and Mick Summers—were surprised by Free State troops, and killed in the encounter which followed.
At last we got restive again. The country showed signs of following our example, but at this time the signs were few—an odd attack on a police barrack and the capture of a rifle or two from a soldier here and there. We felt the time had come for more energetic and general action. We knew we could not remain any way safe within Tipperary or over the border of Offaly. ”

“ The British soldiers and police, particularly the Black and Tans and the Auxiliaries—the latter were all ex-officers of the British Army, and were the garrison’s gentlemen murderers—were day and night looting shops, burning private houses, and murdering prisoners and torturing youths. But the more savage became their methods of repression the more determined the Irish people became to fight to the bitter end. Practically the whole country was now on our side, helping us with food and information when they could not give us more active assistance. ”

“ The plain people were realising that ours was a fight for Irish Freedom. They realised too that we had no enmity against the police as such, if they confined themselves to the work of ordinary police; but when they became spies and soldiers in the pay of England we had to treat them accordingly.
This is the true story of Knocklong, condemned as it was at the time by archbishop, priests and press—the same people who, two years later, would have treated us as heroes and loudly boasted of “the freedom we had won.” Time works wonders!
The heroes of the fight were Sean Treacy and the two O’Briens. ”

“ It was death for the man who dared to “harbour a rebel,” but hundreds of men and women were every night sheltering our Flying Columns. In spite of an Anglicised Press the people had realised that we were right, that their cause was ours, that Ireland could never have peace or prosperity until we had driven the British out of Ireland. In our delight at the change, Sean and I [192] were becoming almost reckless. The hotter the fighting the better and more perfect the I.R.A. became as an organisation. ”

“ In the course of that fight I lost nearly all my old brothers-in-arms. Even in the war against the Black and Tans Tipperary suffered less heavily. Dinny Lacey gave his life for Ireland; so too did Jerry Kiely, “Sparkie” Breen, Paddy Dalton, Paddy McDonough, Mick Sadlier, D. Ryan, Liam Lynch, and several others with whom I had campaigned in the old days. They were noble and courageous soldiers, true and unselfish comrades. Ireland will miss such men as these. ”

“ I have no hesitation in declaring that Sean Treacy was not only the noblest patriot of our time, but the greatest military genius of our race. It is a big claim to make for a man who died before he was 28 years of age, and who had had none of the training that we associate with military leaders of fame and reputation. The world has since acknowledged that the tactics adopted by the I.R.A. in its guerilla warfare with the British were inspired [222] by genius of the highest order. ”

“ On that morning fourteen British Intelligence officers were shot dead in their lodgings in Dublin by our men. These officers, living the lives of ordinary civilians in private houses, were really spies, and the brains of the British Intelligence Department at that time. In every land spies pay the death penalty during war, and even the British Ministers of the time justified all their actions by [226] saying they were “at war with Ireland.” But there could not be one set of war rules for their men and another for ours. ”

“ But there was no prisoner! We were sadly disappointed. In a sense, too, we felt a little relieved for there would be still time to seek help before the next train was due. But waiting is always the hardest part of any fight; suspense is more severe than action.
As we returned crestfallen to our resting-place, after scanning every carriage, our pill was made more bitter by the thought that the Tipperary men had failed us. Our minds searched for other help. We thought of the old Galtee Battalion, the boys from the mountain districts, from Galbally and Ballylanders. ”

“ Dick McKee and Sean Treacy and Hogan were all kind too, and came to see me regularly. Peadar and Dick and Sean Treacy alas were not to see another Christmas. But I know they died smiling and happy.
Apart from my good and thoughtful comrades [149] there was an even stronger reason which made me think little of the pain and the indoor confinement. That was my kindest and ever attentive nurse—then Brighid Malone—now my wife. Few people have the good fortune to be nursed through sickness by their future wives whose presence counts for more than all that medical skill can give. ”

“ I jumped out and looked into the barrels of several Free State rifles. I had no option but to surrender.
I am not a soft-hearted man. I have gone through too much to feel it an easy job to weep; but my pride alone kept me from crying like a child that day.
For five years I had defied England’s garrison in Ireland. Everything I had suffered willingly for my country and my countrymen. And now in my native county I was a prisoner in the hands of my own countrymen.
I was first taken to Galbally where I met my old [258] friend of Knocklong, Ned O’Brien, his brother John Joe, and James Scanlan. ”

“ Now and again the British surprised bodies of men here and there, and captured them. But when Sean came home he brought back the word that we were to come out in the open to drill, even if the British Government attempted to arrest every man of us. It was felt that if England carried out the policy of wholesale arrests she would soon have tens of thousands of Irishmen in jail, and would again make herself a laughing-stock to the nations. ”

“ As the war developed we were closely watched by the police. We were known as “pro-Germans.” The majority of the people, carried away by the campaign of lies and calumny in the Press, were in favour of England as against Germany in the war. The aristocracy and the wealthiest merchants and farmers generally supported the movements that were started to provide comforts for the British soldiers in the trenches. But we of the Irish Volunteers—henceforth in using that term I must be understood to mean those who declined to take England’s side in the war—stood aloof. ”

“ The dear old soul has suffered much for the crime of having taught her sons their duty to their country. [71] Even the house over her head was looted and burned, and her hens and chickens had to pay the price of English hate, for they were bayoneted by the Black and Tans. Through all her trials she never lost heart, and would always have her jibe at the enemy. Once when the British came and asked if her son was in, she sarcastically asked them if they would venture under the same roof with him. ”

“ The enemy’s bullets whistle round us and his grenades burst at our feet, but so close are we to our objective that we must also run the gauntlet from the bombs which our own men are hurling from the ditch.
With our smoking guns still spitting fire at the occupants of the car we back behind the cart, seeking what little cover it affords from the enemy’s hail of bullets. Another second and the cart is being riddled and the splinters from its shafts are flying round us. But our work must be accomplished and the fight must be kept up. ”

“ What I can never understand is why their two companions who had come on the tram with them did not come in pursuit of me when I chased the other three from the car. Possibly loyalty to comrades was not part of their creed, if it involved danger.
It was one of these five men, I found out, who later tracked us to “Fernside,” the night of the terrible fight there. I slept that night at Fleming’s, of Drumcondra. Next morning I told Sean Treacy of my adventure and he laughed heartily, consoling me with the remark that I could hardly escape much longer. ”

“ Such a stirring drama has seldom if ever been acted on the stage of Irish life. It is doubtful if any other individual in Irish history received a like number of near-fatal wounds, fighting in defence of his country—and survived to tell the story of the engagements in which the wounds were inflicted.
Fired with a burning love of country and a fixed determination to achieve her independence, Dan Breen with a handful of men declared war on England on their own account, convinced that their countrymen would follow their example. ”

“ Our Irish people have a sense of humour, and they have always been noted for their happy knack of giving appropriate nick-names. In the district which surrounds Knocklong—South Tipperary and East Limerick the name Black and Tan was born. For generations there had been in that district a famous pack of hounds known as the “Black and Tans.” Is it surprising that the people soon saw how like the new force was to their hounds, not only in colour but in other respects? Such is the origin of a name that will survive in all languages for terrorism, loot and murder. ”

“ The journeys that Sean Treacy and I had done to and from Dublin were less wearisome. As we approached Donohill, Seumas Robinson’s bicycle was put out of action. We had neither the time nor the means to try to repair it on the roadside, but we had faithful friends. Patrick O’Dwyer, of Donohill, whose wife was a first cousin of Sean Hogan’s, put a new bicycle at our disposal, and we resumed our journey. Our fatigue was telling on us. We could have fallen off the bicycles and slept by the roadside, but the excitement and our sense of loyalty to our comrade [81] kept up our strength. ”

“ Meantime I was far from being out of touch with affairs in Ireland. The American papers gave much prominence to the development of events at home following the acceptance of the Treaty. It was plain that our old comrades were irrevocably divided and heading for Civil War. Every day brought fresh stories of new differences and minor conflicts that showed the situation could end only in one way. In America our countrymen were divided in the same way as our people at home.
Early in March came the news that Limerick was on the verge of an outbreak. ”