at the beginning of the irish war, when the i.r.a., to use its own words, “took the field against the british army,” its activities were purely local and sporadic. some unfortunate police patrols of half a dozen men, often less, walking along the king’s highway, interfering with none except evil-doers, would be suddenly fired at with shot-guns, sometimes loaded with jagged slugs and pieces of metal, from a safe cover behind a stone wall with carefully-prepared loopholes.
these police patrols never had a dog’s chance, and should have been discontinued long before they actually were.
at first the murderers did not trouble to make sure that they had a perfectly safe line of retreat behind them when the location of these cowardly ambushes was chosen, but after a few failures they made no mistake in future, the line of retreat, either through a thick wood or down the reverse slope of a hill, being always the first consideration.
married police living in houses or rooms in the town of their station afforded an easy and safe target for the venom of these hooligan shop-boys and farmers’ sons. at first the police 282used to go home unarmed, and used to be shot down in the back while passing along an ill-lighted street or lane, or the assassins would knock at the door of the policeman’s home, and if he came to the door would fire at him and then run away.
occasionally, in districts where the standard of bravery was very high, all the volunteers would collect in a small town after dark—always after dark—and carry out an attack on the local police barracks. they knew perfectly well that it was impossible for the police to leave their barracks owing to the smallness of their numbers, and that as long as they kept well under cover (which they did) they were just as safe as they would be in their own beds at home.
these so-called attacks on police barracks simply consisted in gangs of hooligans first taking careful cover in houses adjacent to the barracks, and then firing off as many rounds as they possessed. they always ceased fire long before daybreak, in order that they might be home in good time before it was possible for the police to leave barracks or a relief party to arrive on the scene.
at this period of the war, raiding the houses of the loyalists for arms, and incidentally for money and valuables, not forgetting drink, was a much safer and more remunerative night’s amusement than shooting policemen or attacking barracks, though the price then was ￡60 for every policeman murdered.
a party of twenty to thirty volunteers, usually boys from fifteen to twenty years of 283age, would meet at a fixed rendezvous some time after dark with all the arms they could raise. they would then don black cloth masks, turn up their coat collars, pull their hats down, and sally forth to spend the night robbing, murdering, and terrorising the unfortunate loyalists of the district.
imagine the feelings of a respectable old man living in a lonely house, who had probably never harmed any one during his lifetime, and whose only crime consisted in being loyal or refusing to subscribe to the funds of the i.r.a., in many cases a form of common robbery.
night after night he lies in bed expecting to hear a loud knock at the door, and at last it comes. he opens the door to find a dozen shot-guns, old rifles, and pistols pointed at him. some brute then demands his arms; the old man says he has none. they push him aside and force their way in. the old man is made to sit down while two young hounds keep prodding him in the back of the neck with the muzzles of their pistols, to remind him what they could do if they liked. the remainder ransack the house from top to bottom, take away any money or valuables they can find, and consume any drink there may be. if they cannot find any money or valuables, they threaten him with death until he disgorges. and lonely women suffered in like fashion.
the demand for arms used to be merely a blind for committing robbery. the location of every firearm in a district was well known from the beginning of the war.
284if the reader happens to be an english country gentleman, let him think what it would be like never to know the night or hour when he would be raided by a gang of farm labourers or village loafers, armed and masked, from the nearest village. he might retire to bed to be waked up by loud knocking on his front door. if he did not open quickly a rifle shot would be fired through the lock, and if the door did not open then, it quickly would to the blows of hatchets which would follow. a wild gang of drunken brutes would burst into his nice house, smash desks, sideboards, and cupboards, searching for loot. lucky man if he escaped with the loss of arms, money, and valuables, and not of home and life as well.
if the reader is an ex-soldier, let him imagine what his feelings would be like if in the middle of the night he was pulled out of his bed by these same ruffians, and given his choice between joining trotsky’s own light infantry, or whatever the local red force may call itself, or being shot out of face. being true to his country, he refuses to have anything to do with bolshevism, and is shot before the eyes of his agonised wife.
remember that the loyal country gentlemen and ex-soldiers of ireland have sacrificed their blood and treasure on the altar of empire as well as their english cousins, and hence are entitled to as much protection.
but no, when it comes to a matter of politics and votes they are thrown to the wolves, to the eternal shame of england. the sacrifice of the southern loyalists will form one of the 285most disgraceful chapters in the history of england.
robberies on a more extensive scale followed: bank managers taking large sums of money to out-of-the-way villages on the occasion of a fair, in order to facilitate payments by buyers to farmers, were held up and robbed. mail-cars carrying pension money for the old and poor were held up and robbed; likewise post offices, banks, railway stations, and large shops—and most of this money used to forward the cause of armed rebellion. in fact, the government were largely being fought with their own money, or, rather, that of the helpless british taxpayer.
but this form of warfare, though most unpleasant for the unfortunate irish loyalist, and probably disturbing to the few people in england who knew anything about what was happening in ireland, would never have led to anything provided the british government had taken the necessary steps quickly to preserve law and order and punish evil-doers. but no, as ever in ireland, they would do nothing, except procrastinate, until it was too late.
instead of strengthening the r.i.c. and sending more troops into the country, they merely evacuated outlying police barracks, which were promptly burnt amidst scenes of triumph by the local volunteers, and hailed by all rebels as the first outward sign of the retreat of the english from ireland.
if the police released by the evacuation of these barracks had been used to form flying 286columns to quiet the worst districts, there might have been some sense in this man?uvre; unfortunately, the men were all wanted to make up the wastage in the occupied barracks caused by the large number of resignations of young constables in the r.i.c. at this time.
looking back, these constables who resigned appear to have been mean deserters of their comrades, but after-events have to a certain degree justified their action. they were certain that, no matter how often the british government swore to see its loyal servants through, in the end it would let them down, and the pity is that they were right. true, there was a day when an englishman’s word was as good as his bond, but that day appears to be quite out of date. or perhaps it does not apply to politicians!
doubtless greatly surprised at their initial success, the chiefs of the i.r.a. now determined on a much more ambitious form of warfare—namely, the formation of flying columns to harry and murder the crown forces throughout ireland, not excepting ulster; at the same time they started a tremendous campaign of propaganda in england and the states.
the idea of breaking up the british empire by means of a number of small flying columns of corner-boys in ireland, and green pamphlets at john bull’s breakfast-table, appears laughable; but sinn fein has shown itself a wonderfully astute judge of the mentality of the present-day politician in england.
the summer of 1920 saw the greater part of the south and west in the hands of the republic, 287who not only boasted an army in the field, but ran their own police, law-courts, and local government board. it was not an uncommon occurrence for a man to be first arrested by the r.i.c. for some offence, and then by the i.r.a.; sometimes there used to be quite an exciting race between these two forces to see who could catch the culprit first.
the first flying columns were made up of determined and hard-up corner-boys collected from every district in the south and west, and were sent out under specially qualified leaders to murder as many police and soldiers as they could, no matter whether they were armed or unarmed, asleep or awake. the price for the murder of a policeman rose gradually to ￡60, and eventually to ￡100.
with a terrorised population and a government which refused to function, these columns had everything in their favour, and carried on their campaign of murder and assassination practically unhindered at first.
their chief channels of information were the post-office and young girls. the larger proportion of post-office officials were openly disloyal, postmasters even being caught red-handed decoding important police and military wires for the information of the i.r.a. and young girls not only obtained information by walking out with policemen and soldiers, but also carried the gunmen’s arms to and from a murder or ambush.
it used to be no uncommon sight in dublin to see a tram-car held up by auxiliaries and searched with no result. before the auxiliaries 288had boarded the tram, the gunmen would openly pass their pistols to girls sitting beside them. any one giving information would never have left that tram alive, nor would it have done any good, as the auxiliaries were powerless (until near the end of the war) to search women.
as regards transport, they had only to take it where, when, and how they liked—motors, motor bicycles, lorries, and push-bicycles by the thousand in every part of the country. think how different the result might have been if the government had taken up all this transport and reduced the i.r.a. to their flat feet. and, of course, they used the trains freely, and without payment, both to carry arms and men.
young girls, especially if pretty, make far the most dangerous spies in the world; and though they have always been used during a war on a small scale by every country, yet this is probably the first occasion on which a nation has conscripted girls of from twelve to twenty-five years wholesale for this vicious and contaminating work.
even little children were taught the art of eavesdropping, and, of course, if they did not hear every word, readily filled in the blanks from their imagination. many a man in ireland during the last two years has lost his life through the medium of a little child. the markievicz woman ought to appear on the day of judgment with the record millstone round her neck.
despatches were carried in dozens of ways—boys 289on bicycles, men on motor bicycles, who also acted as scouts for ambushes, in the sample cases of bagmen (a common method also at one time of sending arms and ammunition about the country), by the post, and by railway guards—in fact, by every method which came to hand.
the i.r.a. obtained much valuable information through opening letters in the post, but their really important and often vital information came to them through a bad leakage in the castle.
any shortage of recruits was quickly made good by a drastic form of the old pressgang. an unwilling recruit would be dragged out of bed in the middle of the night, placed against a wall, and given a minute to decide for king george or the irish republic. king george meant a bullet in the brain, probably a dum-dum of the worst description; the irish republic meant active service with a flying column at some near future date.
money was obtained in just as simple a way. a levy of, say, a pound a cow or a pound a beast would be laid on a district. a farmer had six cows or one horse, two asses, and three head of cattle. in either case he would pay ￡6 to the funds of the i.r.a. any arguing there was would be solely on the side of the collector, who would have the butt-end of a large pistol protruding from his pocket. such a simple and effective method of collecting a tax! no troublesome forms of beastly red tape, and no large staff of fat and lazy clerks to pay! just a truculent-looking blackguard 290with a very large pistol, not necessarily loaded, and the money pours in. cases of non-payment of this form of taxation have never been heard of, nor is there any means of dodging it. cattle are not easy to hide.
rations were obtained by the simple process of requisition. in some cases they used to go through the farce of giving a receipt for the stolen goods in the name of the i.r.a.!
with the police unable to function, banks and post-offices offered an easy prey to these ruffians. the meanest form of robbery was the taking of money to pay old-age pensions from mail-cars on their way to outlying districts.
a special murder gang was formed, which went about the country to murder any man—policeman, r.m., or civilian—who was particularly active in trying or helping to restore law and order in the country—that is, any man who was too tough a nut for the locals to crack. and, of course, in many cases private feuds and spites came under this heading. as has been mentioned, the price for a policeman was ￡100. people would be heard discussing this openly, and wondering if the price would go up or down, in the same way as they might discuss dunlop’s or guinness’s shares.
but the most effective weapon of sinn fein has been their propaganda campaign in america and england, coupled with the treasonable and treacherous aid from certain politicians and the effective silence of the daily press, with one great and notable exception.
291the following letter, which fell into the hands of the crown forces in ireland, speaks for itself:—
dail eireann (department of finance),
mansion house, dublin, 21st march 1921.
to director of propaganda.
a chara,—the enclosed copy of notes from ireland will probably be of some interest to you. i have previously sent some copies of these and other things from the unionist alliance people.
many figures have been given in the papers recently with regard to r.i.c. resignations, dismissals, recruitment. all these questions have been asked on instructions from me, and i think you might be able to make very good use of some of them. for instance, in the 10th march ‘hansard’ (pages 688 and 689) are given the figures which appeared in the ‘independent’ some days ago. in a few days’ time we shall get total strength and total numbers recruited over certain periods.
i have got an arrangement made in london whereby the ‘independent’ correspondents will always quote the figures pretty fully for our benefit.
do chara,
michael collins.
sinn fein first learnt the art of propaganda from those pastmasters the boches; but if ever the latter think of trying their luck with another “der tag,” they will find that sinn fein can teach them now more than ever they taught sinn fein. the celtic mind seems to be peculiarly adapted and susceptible to propaganda consisting largely of half and three-quarter lies.
but nothing surprised and dismayed irish 292loyalists more than the suppression of reports of murders and outrages in ireland in the great majority of english papers, though later on these same papers filled columns with any murder or atrocity alleged to have been committed by police or auxiliaries. moreover, from their tone, it soon became obvious that some papers were strongly pro-sinn fein.
to an irishman the english radical has always been one of the greatest wonders and mysteries of this world; and often he cannot help asking why god has sent him into this world. of course, there is no doubt that all are here for some purpose, good or bad, but of what use is the radical to england?
is he the wee drop of poison in the whole which is to bring about the downfall of the empire as a punishment for the sins of its leaders? at any rate, he has always been a puzzle and enigma to irish and french alike, and they have no use for a man whose chief idea of patriotism appears to be to take any and every side against his own country.
there is no possible doubt that the government were forced or frightened, by the howls of the radicals, incited by sinn fein propaganda, to order that reprisals by the crown forces in ireland should cease, whereby the crown forces’ most effective weapon was taken from them, though it was still left in the hands of the murder gang.
fierce were the denouncements by the radicals in the house of the unfortunate irish police; but one waited in vain for a like denouncement of the murder gang (men who 293have committed as bad atrocities as the world has seen) by these same unctuous gentlemen. ye hypocrites!
much has been said and written (chiefly propaganda) about the wickedness of reprisals, but it is better first to examine the situation before condemning them.
it must be clearly understood that the whole power of the murder gang lay in reprisals: they took reprisals against every one who was against them by murder, arson, and intimidation. the crown forces had only the law, which was paralysed. no one dared give evidence; it was death to do so.
under these circumstances the crown forces, principally the r.i.c., took counter-reprisals; this was the only possible method by which they could save their own lives and the lives and property of the loyalists, who looked to them for protection.
for many weary months unhappy ireland was rent and torn by this form of warfare, and it became obvious to most that if one side did not win pretty soon the country would be ruined. twice the crown forces wriggled their hands free, and on both occasions had the i.r.a. on the verge of collapse: one stout blow would have finished the show. and each time the i.r.a. were saved by the screams of their english allies. each time the government quickly took fright, quickly tied the crown forces’ right hands, and even threatened to tie up their legs if they set the english radicals on the howl again. and once more the i.r.a. plucked up courage, and the old 294weary game of ambush and murder started afresh.
at long last the government took a sudden notion to make a desperate effort to finish off the gunmen before the gunmen finished them.
after the failure to round up the big force of gunmen in the maryburgh peninsula, blake returned at once to ballybor with all his men, arriving to find a cipher wire from the county inspector to tell him that the gunmen had turned up in the ballyrick mountains, and that as soon as the crown forces could be regrouped another effort would be made to come to grips with these slippery customers.
no sooner had blake started to deal with a fearful accumulation of official correspondence than the head constable told him that constable john m’hugh, who came from the east centre of ireland and had not been long in the force, wished to see him—adding that m’hugh’s father had been murdered, and that the constable was most anxious to go home, but that the police at his home had wired that it was not safe for the man to go.
blake saw m’hugh at once, and found him in a pitiable state of grief, the first great sorrow of his young life—but had to refuse his request, though the boy pleaded hard, with the tears running down his cheeks. m’hugh’s case is a good example of the murder gang’s reprisals on those who will not fall in with their views.
old m’hugh was a widower living with his two sons near a large town on the east coast. unfortunately john was an unwilling witness 295of the first murders of british officers in ireland during the present rebellion, and in order to save the lives of his sons old m’hugh got them into the r.i.c. as soon as he could.
on several occasions old m’hugh was threatened by the i.r.a. that if he did not make his sons resign they would do for him: every time he refused, and told his sons nothing about being threatened. finally, the usual pack of masked fiends went to the old man’s cottage in the dead of night, and murdered him by the refined process of dragging him out of bed and kicking him on the head until they smashed his skull in—a deed hard to beat for pure brutal savagery.
the following day blake received a long visit from the county inspector, who gave him the outline of the new plan of campaign, and instructions for the part blake and his men were to take.
the country of the ballyrick mountains is a square-shaped peninsula of, roughly, fourteen hundred square miles, consisting of vast flats of bogs on the north, west, and east, intercepted by hills, while the south part consists of nothing but mountains. one main road runs through the centre, east and west, and another skirts the coast for three-quarters of the north coast, then turns inland, crosses the other road at about the centre of the peninsula at the village of ballyscadden, then continues due south until it reaches the coast. in the whole peninsula there are only half a dozen small villages, all not less than sixteen miles apart.
to drive this huge country would require at 296least twenty times as many troops as were available, and a.s.c. train to keep them supplied with rations; there remained the possibility of starving the gunmen into surrender.
all the villages were to be occupied by military, and every road picketed and blocked with barbed wire; at the same time the military were to endeavour to form a cordon across the neck of the peninsula, a distance of thirty-five miles.
the police, who were to do the actual hunting, were divided into flying columns, with all available transport. the navy was to be responsible for the numerous islands on the west and south coasts, and were to open fire on any parties of gunmen who came within the range of their vision and guns.
aeroplanes were to work continuously over the country during daylight, and on locating the enemy, were to drop their messages at the police headquarters at ballyscadden.
it was expected that at the first sign of danger the gunmen would make for the mountains in the south, when the area of operations would be greatly restricted.
when all preparations were completed a start was to be made as soon as there seemed a reasonable prospect of fine weather. finally, at blake’s suggestion, they tried to collect every flock of mountain sheep and confine them to the flat country to the north, but after the first day many of the sheep returned to their own mountains in spite of the efforts of the shepherds.
blake’s part was to keep all his available 297men at headquarters, ready to dash off at a moment’s notice on receipt of information of the location of any party of gunmen.
owing to a bad westerly storm operations had to be postponed for a few days, during which time the gunmen were left undisturbed.
as had been expected, they drew a blank in the flat country, though it was reported by the first ‘plane up that a large party of cyclists had been spotted making their way south from ballyscadden some time before the police occupied that village.
the weather then turned very fine, and as there was a full moon, it was decided to sit tight for a few days in order to see whether starvation would force the gunmen to attempt a break through.
for two days the aeroplanes had nothing to report except the movements of small parties of not more than six men, and always in the mountains to the south. on the third a ‘plane dropped the exciting news that a big column, estimated at several hundred men, was marching south-west with an advance of scouts to a depth of two miles.
blake at once turned out his men, and made off south at full speed. at the same time a column left castleport to make its way up the coast road and intercept the gunmen before they could debouch from the mountains—their orders being to advance up a valley from the coast to a shooting-lodge, which was situated at the junction of three valleys, two of which lead north-east and south-west round the foot of falcon mountain. here they were 298to wait while blake endeavoured to drive the gunmen down the north-east valley towards them.
for twenty-four hours blake kept up a running fight with the gunmen in the mountains, always trying to head them towards the valley which leads to the foot of falcon mountain, and at last, when his men could hardly move, had the satisfaction of seeing the gunmen making for the valley.
the police followed slowly and painfully, to find not a sign of a human being at the shooting-lodge. the men flung themselves down in the heather, beat to the world, and some of them even burst into tears of rage.
the explanation came afterwards. the castleport party received orders to proceed up the valley from the sea, and intercept the gunmen at a shooting-lodge. unfortunately there were two lodges—one on the shore of a lake about half-way up the valley from the sea, and the second and right one at the junction of the three valleys. naturally the castleport party, none of whom had been in these mountains before, stopped at the first lodge they came to on the shore of the lake.
a thick mist came up off the sea that night, and the gunmen, who had taken refuge on the upper rocky slopes of falcon mountain, slipped through the cordon in the mist in twos and threes, commandeered bicycles, and so made good their escape.
some time afterwards, being again very hard pressed, large parties of gunmen took up their quarters in the ballyrick mountains, and lay low. gradually their numbers increased, until 299it was reported that the mountains carried as many gunmen as sheep.
at this time the government appeared to have at last realised that the only way to restore order in ireland was to oppose force by superior force. many people could have given them this information months previously.
a report went through ireland that the government was massing artillery at holyhead to mow down the i.r.a. with their brutal high explosives and shrapnel. in reality what happened was that all batteries in england were turned into mounted infantry, only about twenty-five men being left with a battery, and concentrated at holyhead, preparatory to crossing to ireland.
to blake’s joy, the ballyrick country was chosen as the first scene of what was fondly supposed would be the end of the rebellion.
quickly 20,000 troops were massed across the neck of the ballyrick peninsula with every available auxiliary and a large force of r.i.c., while a naval force was standing by off the coast ready to land sailors and marines. all that was wanted was a good weather forecast to start in, and put an end to this great mob of gunmen—the curse of modern ireland.
the good weather forecast came along all right, and on the morrow they were to get a move on and put an end to this miserable breed of cowardly warfare.
but on the morrow, instead of the advance, they heard the stand fast sounded, and to their dismay learnt that a truce had been proclaimed—a truce with murderers, forsooth!
