Massacre in West Cork (30 page)

33
Hart was found guilty but insane. The case would never have got to trial without Mr Brady’s insistence on making a statement. The Auxiliaries travelled to Cork in two lorries. Hart had been arrested by his commanding officer, who had turned back once the second lorry was missed and before anyone else arrived on the scene.

34
House of Commons debate, 17 February 1921, ‘Ireland: Murder, Courtmartial’, vol. 138, cols 244–6:
http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1921/feb/17/murder-court-martial
 (accessed 26 July 2013).

35
BMH WS 1741, Michael V. O’Donoghue, Part 2, p. 209.

36
BMH WS 444, Peter (Peadar) Kearney, p. 16.

37
A detachment of the Essex Regiment occupied Glengarriff from December 1920, and there is a small amount of evidence that the Beara Peninsula suffered from some Essex excess.

38
For a brief history of the regiment see ‘Army Careers’ at
http://freepages.military.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cfgamblesresearch/
(accessed 22 August 2013).

39
Callwell (1906), p. 148. See also Davies (1975).

40
These included intelligence officers Captain C. J. Kelly and Lieutenants Green and Keogh. The source is Tom Hales’ statement to the Wood Renton Commission sworn at Bandon in July 1924, quoted in McDonnell (1972), p. 161. See also
Torture & Terror
, Pamphlet no. 3 (Chicago, Benjamin Franklin Bureau).

41
Many BMH witness statements mention this incident: BMH WS 1738, Jeremiah Deasy, p. 8; BMH WS 908, Laurence Nugent Athy; BMH WS 1479, Seán Healy; BMH WS 540, Mrs Anna Hurley-O’Mahony.

42
McDonnell (1972), pp. 159–61; BMH WS 682, Vincent Ellis, p. 2; National Library of Ireland, Collection List No. 150, Art Ó Briain papers (Mss 2141, 2154–2157, 5105, 8417-61) Accession No. 1410, six different items; Ms. 8428/25 is the most comprehensive direct testimony of their treatment.

43
BMH WS 682, Vincent Ellis, p. 2.

44
Southern Star
, 9 February 1924, p. 3, col. 5 for report of Harte’s funeral;
Southern Star
, 2 February 1924, p. 7, col. 3 for details of Harte’s death and of their imprisonment.

45
BMH WS 832, William Desmond (Newcestown), pp. 43–4. For his full account of his capture and imprisonment see pp. 38–50.

46
BMH WS 443, Frank Neville, p. 8.

47
Ibid. There is no proof that Jagoe was a spy other than that he left the area.

48
McDonnell (1972).

49
See Hughes, M., 2010, ‘From law and order to pacification: Britain’s suppression of the Arab revolt in Palestine, 1936–39’, Journal of Palestine Studies 39, no. 2, pp. 6–22, ‘Pacification’, pp. 6–9, ‘Illegal acts of violence’, pp. 9–13. See also Duff, D. V., 1953,
Bailing with a Teaspoon
(London, J. Long), for his time in both the Auxiliaries and the Palestinian police.

50
McDonnell (1972), p. 193. She states that the date was 29 October, but that is clearly a mistake.

51
Her husband, John Annan Bryce, was the former chairman of the Midland Bank and a former member of the House of Commons. The case made the House of Commons in January 1921. For one perspective, see Dyas, E., 2006, ‘The Crown campaign against Protestant neutrality in Cork during the Irish War of Independence’,
Church & State
86, Autumn. Available at:
http://www.atholbooks.org/archives/cands/cs_articles/articles.php
(accessed 18 December 2012).

52
McDonnell (1972), pp. 193–5.

53
Steel or chain mail vests seem to have been standard issue for intelligence officers; BMH WS 380, David Neligan, p. 14; BMH WS 663, p. 12; BMH WS 1337, p. 8; BMH WS 496, p. 13. While such vests would not stop a rifle bullet, they would easily stop a shotgun blast or revolver shot.

54
BMH WS 827, Denis Collins, p. 17.

55
Hughes (2010), ‘Pacification’, pp. 6–9, ‘Illegal acts of violence’, pp. 9–13. 750 ex-RIC left Ireland in February 1922 to join the Palestinian police.

56
Callwell (1906); Davies (1975), p. 25.

57
Kipling R., 1898, ‘Fuzzy Wuzzy’,
http://allpoetry.com/poem/8445285-Fuzzy-Wuzzy-by-Rudyard_Kipling
(accessed 18 December 2012).

58
BMH WS 1478, Ted O’Sullivan, p. 30.

59
Colonel Hudson wrote to Barry from the Curragh Camp on 28 August 1921 to make sure that he had got the coat back. His letter is in the Tom Barry papers in the Cork City and County Archive with a note from Barry saying that he had. Hudson expresses a wish that he could have met Barry when he was recently in Cork after the Truce: CCCAUI6/1/5.

60
The hotel was leased to the British War Office from 1918 to 1920. During this time it was known as the Queen Alexandria Home of Rest for Officers and was occupied by soldiers recuperating from the trauma of the Great War. It cost one guinea (€30) per week for full board with fishing and shooting rights. From 1920 to 1921 the hotel was occupied by troops of the Essex Regiment, ‘Eccles Hotel History’ (online),  
http://eccleshotel.com/history
(accessed 12 December 2012).
The Irish Times
reported on 30 December that the hotel had been commandeered by the Auxiliaries on Christmas Eve. This was clear retaliation, as the commandeering of the hotel would mean the paying guests were evicted. Mrs Annan Bryce’s main interest at the time was designing her famous Italian gardens on Garnish Island (which are now cared for by the Irish state).

61
The Auxiliaries.com, ‘The Eccles Hotel’:
http://theauxiliaries.com/companies/j-coy/eccles-hotel/eccles-hotel.html
(accessed 28 June 2013).

62
‘The Sack of Bantry’,
Southern Star
, 25 October 1920, p. 3; ‘Stirring times recalled’,
Southern Star
, 18 October 1930, p. 10;
Southern Star
, 22 January 1927, p. 5, shows that the Biggs’ premises was only starting to be rebuilt.

63
Museum of Liverpool Life (Maritime Archives and Library Information Sheet 40),  
http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/maritime/archive/pdf/kings%20regiment%20no40.pdf
 (accessed 13 May 2013). It must also be remembered that Liverpool was a very Irish city and the territorial battalion of the regiment was known as the Liverpool Irish, so there may have been a personal element in this.

64
Barry, T., 1949,
Guerilla Days in Ireland
(Dublin, Irish Press), p. 116.

65
BMH WS 444, Peter (Peadar) Kearney, pp. 15–16.

66
Barry, T., 1974,
The Reality of the Anglo-Irish War, 1920–21 in West Cork: refutations, corrections, and comments on Liam Deasy’s Towards Ireland Free
(Tralee, Anvil Books).

67
BMH WS 1402, Edward (Ned) Young, p. 17.

68
BMH WS 1234, Jack Hennessy, p. 12.

69
BMH WS 1741, Michael V. O’Donoghue, Part 2, p. 225.

70
The Irish Times
, 16 December 1920, p. 5.

71
Cork & County Eagle
, 29 January 1921.

72
BMH WS 470, Denis Lordan, p. 20; Dr Crowley is the doctor (Roman Catholic), but Dr Welply (Protestant) did attend to Charlie Hurley; BMH WS 1771, Florence Begley, p. 5, observed that Welply was medical officer to the British troops stationed in Bandon.

73
BMH WS 792, Tadg O’Sullivan, p. 9; the £12,000 O’Sullivan was carrying is the equivalent of €326,193 today.

74
See Mitchell (1995), pp. 268–70 for examples of the difficulty of collecting money from nationalist farmers.

75
Cork & County Eagle
, 29 January 1921; see the compensation claim for Sam Shannon on same page. Sweetnam was seeking compensation and made his suffering as dramatic as possible. County Court Judge Hynes was notorious for accepting without question ‘loyal’ compensation claims and granting huge sums to the victims (John W. Hynes, KC, is better known as an Irish international cricketer – he won 174 caps between 1883 and 1896).

76
For further information about the Sweetnam family see Census of Ireland 1911, 
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Cork/Killeenleagh/Lissangle/440679/
(accessed 20 September 2012).

77
Cork & County Eagle
, 5 February 1921; McCarthy was Roman Catholic and Townshend was Church of Ireland.

78
BMH WS 1740, Cornelius O’Sullivan, p. 12.

79
BMH WS 710, Patrick Cronin, p. 5. The valuation was the British Poor Law Valuation. Cronin also identifies an IRA prison in Aherla where three British soldiers and three spies were shot (pp. 1–2). The spies were Nagle from Waterfall, another named McCarthy and Jimmy Devoy; Cronin states Nagle informed on Leo Murphy but BMH WS 1524, Michael O’Regan, p. 9 suggests a different local man as culprit.

80
National Library of Ireland, Ms. 31,325, Florence O’Donoghue papers,
http://www.nli.ie/pdfs/mss%20lists/A18_%20FlorODonoghue.pdf
(accessed 30 May 2013).

81
BMH WS 1542, Richard Collins, p. 9; see also BMH WS 1529, Patrick Wilcox, p. 8.

82
Barry (1949), p. 114.

83
Sheehan, W., 2005,
British Voices from the Irish War of Independence 1918–1921
:
the words of British servicemen who were there
(Cork, Collins Press), p. 113.

84
BMH WS 1603, Michael J. Crowley, p. 3. One raid in Ahiohill went disastrously wrong for Michael: ‘On bursting in the door I was shot by the occupant receiving a full charge of shot in left lung from a range of approx. five yards. The occupant was driven back to the rear of the house by revolver fire and I was removed.’ The house was Thomas Bradfield’s.