an englishman who has lived in ireland for any length of time, knows that rivalry in religion and politics not only divides parts of ireland, but even causes divisions in families. at one time recently things had reached such a state of passion that an irish soldier or policeman who visited his home in the south or west was liable to find the door of his home shut in his face, and even to lose his life.
in a small town in the west of ireland—in england you would call the place a village—there lived some years ago a shopkeeper named john dempsey, a steady hard-working man, who left politics alone and attended to his own business. in due course dempsey married and had three children—two boys, patrick and william, and a daughter, sheila.
the children were educated at the national school, and as soon as their minds were capable of understanding anything, the wicked and stupid policy of hatred of and revenge on england was drummed into their ears week by week, month by month, and year by year, 55until the english appeared to their childish imaginations to be the greatest monsters of brutality in the world.
after the late war started, not before, the british newspapers and magazines impressed upon us the thoroughness of the german preparations for this war, and amongst other things, of how the present generation had had instilled into their minds from early childhood a hatred of the british by every schoolmaster and learned professor in germany. for years past this german method has been carried on in ireland, irish national school teachers preparing the present generation of young men and women for the present sinn fein movement.
you have in england a saying that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, which applies very well to many national school teachers in the west and south of ireland, who, though they can tell you of every wrong which england has inflicted on ireland during the last three hundred years, yet know nothing of the greatness and power for good of the british empire; nor do they realise the vast benefits which ireland reaps as a partner of the empire.
as time went on john dempsey made and saved much money on porter, eggs, and other things, and as the boys appeared to be clever and anxious to get on in the world, he decided that they should complete their education in dublin, patrick eventually to become a doctor, and william to enter the priesthood; but as soon as the father announced his intentions, 56sheila, who had never been separated from her brothers, implored that she might go with them and become a hospital nurse.
in the end the old man gave way and the three children went to dublin, where patrick duly qualified as a doctor, sheila became a nurse in one of the hospitals there, but william did not become a priest.
when the brothers and sister first went to dublin, sinn fein was rapidly becoming the great party of the celts in ireland, and every young man and woman was pressed hard to join. patrick and sheila joined eagerly, but william refused, and the idea of becoming a priest being now distasteful to him, he joined the r.i.c., to the bitter resentment of his brother and sister, who refused even to see him.
during the summer of 1919 the two brothers and sister met again at home, sheila on her summer holidays, patrick waiting for an appointment, and william, who was now stationed at the neighbouring town of ballybor, on leave. at first the other two resented the presence of william, and there were bitter and passionate political arguments at every meal; but after a time their natural kindliness prevailed, and the three became nearly as great pals as formerly, but the shadow of william’s uniform seemed always to come between them.
sheila was the first to go back. a letter from her matron came one morning asking if she would care to go abroad, to take entire charge of a patient who had been ordered to live in switzerland by the doctors. she did 57not wait to answer, but returned to dublin that day, lest she should be too late.
patrick and william were at this time typical of the two parties into which the people of the greater part of ireland were divided—in plain language, patrick was a rebel and william a loyalist! and though the loyalist party was very small in comparison to the other, yet it would never have been so small if proper support from the government had been forthcoming at the right time, but would have grown larger and larger as the outrages increased, and the decent elements of the population ranged themselves on the side of law and order.
during his time in dublin, patrick, young and enthusiastic, had become deeply involved in the sinn fein movement, and when one day he found himself bound hand and foot to a policy of outrage and murder, he made strong efforts to regain his freedom, but was quickly made to realise that he now belonged, body and soul, to sinn fein.
no sooner had sheila gone than the two brothers began to quarrel—to end in hot and bitter words at supper one night, when william left the table and returned at once to ballybor. a few days afterwards patrick received an order from dublin to report at once to the sinn fein h.q.’s there, and though he would have liked to refuse, he dared not.
on arrival in dublin, patrick duly reported at h.q.’s, and there learnt that he had been chosen for a most unpleasant job. about this time, after their signal initial successes, the 58i.r.a. were endeavouring to organise a force which would entirely wipe out the police, or at any rate reduce them to complete impotence.
to this end the general staff of the i.r.a. were determined to leave no stone unturned to achieve success in the ambuscades of patrols and attacks on barracks. during the preliminary attacks the rebels had lost heavily through lack of medical care, and it was now determined that a doctor should attend all ambuscades and attacks.
funds were plentiful, and in a few days patrick found himself set up as a practising doctor in a large house in dublin, and it was arranged that, when an attack was to take place in a certain district, he should receive a wire calling him to hold a consultation in a district close by. they supplied him with a good car, there were no restrictions on the movements of doctors, so that the busy young dublin doctor, hurrying to the sick-bed of a country patient, excited no suspicion.
the plan was quite simple, and worked smoothly. an ambuscade would be arranged at h.q.’s in dublin to take place at a certain point where it was known that a police patrol passed. the day before patrick would receive his wire, and early the next morning would leave dublin for the scene of operations. when within a short distance of the attack he would stop his car, and remain there until the fight was over, attend to the wounded, and afterwards return to dublin.
on two occasions he was surprised by relief 59parties of military, but each time he was able to explain his presence—that it was a mere chance that he happened to be passing, and that his professional instincts were at once aroused by the sight of the wounded men.
in the case of an attack on police barracks the procedure was somewhat different. some days before patrick would receive his usual wire—never from the place where the attack was to take place, but from a neighbouring town—and at the same time would receive instructions in dublin of the time and place of the attack.
on arriving at the place of attack he would put up at the best hotel, giving out that he had come to attend a consultation in the town, from which the wire had been sent. after a talk with the local volunteer captain, a house would be decided on as a temporary hospital, to which the wounded would be taken, and after the attack patrick would simply disappear.
at first the danger and excitement appealed to his high-strung temperament, but soon the novelty wore off, and he saw that there could only be one end for him—exposure and professional ruin, if not a long term of imprisonment. in vain he asked to be allowed to resume his profession, but he might as well have begged for mercy from the inquisition of old.
one evening, on his return from an ambuscade, patrick found a wire from sheila, saying that her patient had suddenly died in switzerland, 60and that she was crossing to dublin that night. the next morning she arrived, radiant with health, and eager for news.
under her patient’s will sheila received a legacy of about ￡2000 and a car, which was stored in a dublin garage, and now she was free to devote herself to the cause of ireland’s freedom. on hearing of patrick’s occupation, she at once determined to join him.
patrick was devoted to his sister, and tried hard to put the idea out of her head, but in the end had to give way. that very day she made him take her to h.q.’s, where she offered the services of herself and car to the i.r.a.
owing to an insufficient number of rifles for ambuscades and attacks on a large scale all over the country, the general staff had decided to collect rifles in dublin and send them down to the scenes of attacks in cars. sheila’s offer coincided with this decision, and to patrick’s horror he and sheila received orders to attend attacks, and also to carry the rifles and ammunition.
the car was found to be a large touring car, to which a false bottom was fitted to take rifles, whilst further false bottoms under the seats gave sufficient room to hide revolvers, and a dummy space which was packed with s.a.a. sheila had large red crosses painted on the lamps and wind-screen, and the camouflage was complete.
for months the brother and sister—patrick looking a typical young doctor, and sheila dressed as a hospital nurse—carried arms and 61first aid to ambuscades throughout the south and west, and not the slightest suspicion appears to have been aroused in the minds of the authorities. sheila thoroughly enjoyed the excitement, and soon became known as the florence nightingale of the i.r.a.
one day there came a wire from home that their mother was dangerously ill, and begging them to go to her at once. patrick knew that if they asked leave to go, their taskmasters would refuse, and so decided to take “french leave.”
william had also been sent for, and again the two brothers and sister met. after a few days their mother took a turn for the better, but patrick, who dreaded returning to dublin, insisted on staying, in spite of sheila’s urgings to get back to their work.
soon after their mother was out of danger sheila received an invitation to a dance at a large farmhouse about two miles away, and drove there in the car, resplendent in a paris evening dress. patrick and william refused to go, the former making the excuse that he did not like to leave his mother, the latter because he knew that the presence of a policeman would break up the dance.
that evening, after it was dark, william walked across the fields to see an old school friend, one of the few men in the district who would speak to him at all, and then only at night in his own house. when william left, this man warned him that knockbrack wood would not be a healthy place for the next few 62days, but when pressed for an explanation would say no more.
when william reached home he learnt from his father that during his absence a stranger had called for patrick, and that soon afterwards the two had left hurriedly to fetch sheila, patrick saying that he would have to return to dublin that night by car.
old dempsey seemed much upset, and after the warning received that night william’s suspicions were aroused. as soon as supper was over he retired to bed, or rather to wait in his room until the house was quiet, when he meant to bicycle back to ballybor.
william had not been in his room more than ten minutes when he heard sheila’s car drive up, and the front door open and shut. then he heard sheila come upstairs to her bedroom, followed by patrick and strange footsteps, and then the closing of patrick’s door.
the bedrooms of the two brothers were separated by a thin partition, and william managed to overhear enough of their conversation to make out that there was to be an ambuscade in knockbrack wood on wednesday night (this being monday), and that patrick was returning at once to dublin.
william lay as still as a mouse, hoping that patrick and sheila would not realise that he was in the house, and in their hurry forget about him. he could tell from the tone of his brother’s voice that he was not for it, but further conversation was cut short by sheila calling out that she was ready to start.
63shortly afterwards william heard the three leaving the house and the car go off in the direction of dublin. he waited for a few minutes to give the stranger time to get well away, then got out his bicycle, and with his revolver ready in his right hand, started off for ballybor.
while william was riding for dear life to ballybor, sheila and patrick were tearing across ireland to fetch the arms for the ambuscade. they reached dublin without any trouble, had a short rest and a meal, collected the arms from the secret hiding-place, and then started off on the return journey by a different route.
by previous arrangement they were met outside the town after dark by the local volunteer captain and a party of men, who took over the arms from them, when they drove on home. owing to the fact that they had left and returned at night, no one in the town had any idea that they had been away.
for some weeks past the police had been bringing tremendous pressure to bear on the rebels throughout the south and west, which pressure corresponded with the appointment of a new inspector-general of the r.i.c. so strong was the pressure growing that the rebel staff were afraid of a collapse, and when their secret service learnt that the i.g. would be motoring to ballybor on this particular wednesday night, they determined to ambush him in knockbrack wood, and to kill him at all costs.
knockbrack wood lies along both sides of 64a main road for a distance of about a mile and a half, and in the middle the road makes a sharp bend to avoid a huge granite rock which towers above the trees and makes this corner quite blind. on the far side of this bend from the direction of ballybor the road rises suddenly, so that a car going towards that place would be likely to approach the bend at a good pace, and be unable to avoid an obstacle or trench just round the corner.
here it was settled to make the attempt on the i.g.’s life, and on the wednesday the local volunteers, under the direction of staff officers from dublin, started to make the preparations. by dark all was complete, except to cut a trench across the road, and a large party of volunteers had taken up positions on each side of the road at the bend.
it was expected that the i.g.’s car would be wrecked, or at any rate brought to a standstill, just beneath the big rock, on the top of which there was a bombing post, with orders to drop a flare as soon as the car was below, to enable the riflemen to aim in the dark, and to follow up the flare with a shower of bombs.
patrick and sheila waited until it was nearly dark, when they motored to knockbrack wood, leaving the car up a narrow lane in the wood, about a hundred yards from the big rock on the ballybor side. they then retired to a safe distance to await events.
after several hours of waiting they left the wood and walked up and down the road to ballybor, as by this time they were half frozen 65with cold. shortly afterwards they were joined by the volunteer captain, and as it would soon be daylight, patrick suggested to him that the men should be sent home.
the volunteer captain was a stupid fellow, and further, he resented any suggestion as to what he should do from patrick; and the three of them—sheila, patrick, and the captain—began a heated argument in the middle of the road: the captain argued that an order was an order, and that he would keep his men there until the next night if necessary, or even longer.
patrick saw the mistake he had made, shrugged his shoulders, and started to return to the car with sheila.
now their whole attention had been centred on the direction from which the i.g.’s car was expected to come, and the last thing they expected was a counter-attack from the direction of ballybor; but as patrick and sheila turned to leave the volunteer captain, they found themselves covered by a party of r.i.c., with blake at their head, and at the same time heavy firing burst out in the wood on both sides of the road.
patrick and sheila had no alternative but to put up their hands, but the volunteer captain tried to escape, and was promptly shot by a constable. blake asked what they were doing at such an hour on the highroad, and patrick was starting his usual story of how he and his sister were on their way from dublin to attend an urgent case in the country, but 66when he caught sight of his brother william standing behind blake, he faltered and remained dumb.
before blake could ask any more questions they had to jump to one side to avoid a crossley full of auxiliaries, which dashed past, and stopped a few yards beyond them, the cadets at once jumping out and taking up positions on each side of the car with lewis guns trained to sweep the road as far as the big rock. blake, after ordering william and a constable to take patrick and sheila down the ballybor road out of the line of fire until he could deal with them, took command of the auxiliaries, and waited for the action to develop.
by this time it was daylight, and the police, who had worked round the flanks of the ambushers, began to make it pretty hot for the men in the trenches. now it is one thing to shoot an unfortunate policeman perched up in a stationary lorry in the middle of the road, and quite a different story when the policeman starts to shoot you in the back from behind a tree, and very soon the volunteers broke from their trenches and started to stream down the ballybor road.
there was a momentary lull in the firing, broken by two hurricane bursts of fire from the cadets’ lewis guns, and the volunteers fell in little heaps on the grey limestone road; the remainder hesitated, and then ran for their trenches, to be met by a hail of bullets from the police, who had taken up positions commanding the trenches while the volunteers 67were trying to escape by the road. again they tried to escape along the road, and again the lewis guns spat out a magazine of bullets whilst a man could count five, the noise of the guns being intensified by the dead wall of trees.
the few volunteers now left threw down their arms, put up their hands, and the fight was over.
in the meantime william had taken his brother and sister down the ballybor road until they came to the lane where the car was, and here he told them to wait. after a few minutes sheila asked him to send the constable out of hearing, as she wished to talk to him.
after the constable had retired up the lane there was a terrible silence for several minutes. patrick and sheila both realised too late that william must have been in the house when they started on their journey to dublin for the arms, and that he must have gone straight to ballybor to warn the police of the impending ambuscade. they knew that, even if they were not sentenced to death, they could not escape a long term of imprisonment, and that they had been betrayed by their own brother, but would not—or could not—realise that william had only done his duty.
suddenly sheila burst into a passionate denouncement of william’s treachery to his country and his own flesh and blood, to be stopped by patrick with great difficulty, who, controlling his rising passion and terror by a 68great effort, implored william for their mother’s sake to let them escape while there was yet time. at any rate to let sheila go—surely the british government did not wage war on women.
poor william was torn between love for his brother and sister and his duty to his king. in those short moments he went through the agony of hell, knowing well that if he refused to let them escape he would carry for the rest of his life the brand of cain; on the other hand, if he let them go he would not only be betraying his king, but also he would ruin his own career, and probably blake’s as well.
to william’s great credit be it said, his sense of duty prevailed, and he refused to let them go; and to his great relief the unhappy scene was cut short by the sudden appearance of blake.
shortly afterwards the constable returned, and reported to blake that he had found a red cross car up the lane. blake gave orders for the car to be brought on to the highroad, and after collecting his men, started for ballybor with patrick and sheila prisoners in their own car.
