Tom Barry (18 page)

Barry understood the difficulty of the
Irish Press
, but he told Liam MacGowan ‘not to touch it'. If it was necessary to do so then he wanted put ‘in italics in brackets some such sentence … that the author writes strongly of the Excommunication Order'. And he asked that the corrections and ‘deletions' be sent on to him.
[55]

Strickland, commander of the 6th Division, wrote in his diary, Sunday 12 December 1920: ‘Bishop came in afternoon to ask [if] I have question for some of his people'.
[56]
Barry, in his notes stated: ‘Everyone knew that if the IRA laid down their arms as requested by the bishop at least 200 members in Cork City and county would be killed off within a week by the British forces. Yet Dr Coholan did not even extract a promise from the British commanding officer that there would be no executions or murders if the fight for independence stopped.'
[57]

Tom's health was improving. He was allowed to take short walks around the room. Towards the end of the month his doctors told him that he would be discharged in a few days and would have to avoid exertion for some months, perhaps take a long sea trip. But Tom had other ideas. He grew impatient. On the night of 28 December he slipped out, headed towards brigade headquarters; once outside the city he took to the fields. Suddenly a thought struck him: if he dropped dead as the doctors' said could happen, his body could remain in the field for months being eaten by rats. The vision of such a predicament horrified him, so he got out on the road. It was 2 a.m. when he reached O'Mahony's at Belrose. He went in by the sitting-room window, which was always left unclasped.
[58]

‘I removed my boots and tip-toed upstairs to the large bedroom reserved for us. When I lit a match Charlie jumped up. “Mother of God! How did you get here?''

‘I walked the whole twelve miles, so I must be cured. Shove over there, and give me the warm place.'
[59]

Notes

Since early December 1920 the British government had engaged in ‘indirect negotiations with the leaders of Sinn Féin' and was according to
The Times
‘exploring avenues' to peace. Archbishop Clune of Australia had met and acted as intermediary between Lloyd George and the Irish leaders, especially Michael Collins.
[1]

Meanwhile the terror of the Auxiliaries and the Black and Tans continued. Scores of unarmed Volunteers and their supporters were arrested, and many were tortured. In West Cork civilians were beaten, many homes, factories and creameries were burned. Since the bishop's decree, Auxiliaries, Black and Tans and military were daily raiding homes in the countryside. The Essex regiment killed two unarmed Volunteers, Pat O'Donovan and Denis Hegarty in mid January.
[2]

As 1921 began Tom Barry and Charlie Hurley talked. Charlie had disbanded the flying column after the 8 December Gaggin ambush, and was upset. He felt he had handled it badly. Tom assured him he had done his best. Together they'd make it.

When the Irish problem came up in the British House of Commons, Cork was again the county to be dreaded, so troops were poured into Bantry, Bere Island, Bandon, Ballincollig, Cork city and Cobh. At headquarters in O'Mahony's of Belrose, Tom, Charlie, Seán Buckley, Liam Deasy and other officers of the Third West Cork Brigade discussed the future. Their decision: Get going again.
[3]

In the early days of January Tom and some leading officers had to find out if Bishop Coholan's excommunication threat would have an effect on the men, so they made a tour of the companies. The men were told that anyone who felt, because of religious scruples, unable to carry on in the IRA was free to leave. ‘Not one man in any company did so,' said Jim Kearney.

‘We were convinced that Tom was one of the greatest leaders of all time. Any man who went out in the road to stop the lorries as he did in Kilmichael, wouldn't we do anything for him? Men would even die for him.'
[4]

Policy and strategy were outlined. Each battalion was instructed ‘to send rifle-men to re-form the Brigade Flying Column which was to mobilise on 18 January 1921. Meanwhile, the Bandon battalion section was to assemble immediately to carry out the first attack of the New Year.' Barry in a letter to Mr Dempsey,
Irish Press
later wrote: ‘since Bishop's Excommunication … Cork 1 Brigade was also inactive for all that period, the fact of the resumption of the attacks was all important – far more so than the curfew.'
[5]

Shortage of arms was their biggest problem, so attacks were made on Kilbrittain, Innishannon and Bandon Barracks. Two well-planned attacks on Kilbrittain Barracks failed because explosives did not work. A raid on Innishannon Barracks in a fortified village was their next target. If this ‘inconvenient' building could be destroyed and the arms captured, Charlie Hurley and Barry decided, the difficulties that the Bandon battalion now experienced would be removed. To find out the feasibility of a raid, Barry and Hurley crept quietly down the village at 1 a.m. on 17 January 1921. Even if they had been innocent unarmed civilians this action would have rendered them liable to arrest and punishment since the curfew was now strictly enforced. Crouching beneath the shadows of the houses, the two men came within twenty yards of the police barracks, fired six rounds at its shutters from their automatics and then ran back to watch.

Immediately, from the barracks gun-fire started, and a moment later the flare of rockets lit the winter sky. The two men had proof that this barracks was prepared; troops from Bandon, Dunmanway and other areas would be on the way shortly. Barry and Hurley made their way to high ground and waited. Below, the defenders of the police barracks continued to fire at nothing. The two smiled with satisfaction at this venture, and also at how easily they had acquired their information. Fifty minutes after their foray lorries were seen approaching Innishannon from the Brinny direction on the northern road. Satisfied, the two men returned to headquarters.
[6]

At headquarters they received a welcome cargo from Michael Collins. Leslie Price (Charlie Hurley's girl friend) with Moya Llewelyn Davies, intelligence officer, had motored from Dublin with wrapped guns and ammunition hidden in cases of ladies clothes and underwear and sometimes hidden in bags of flour. Leslie, as chief organiser for Cumann na mBan, had been travelling on her bicycle throughout West Cork as well as countrywide setting up membership groups. Periodically, on visits to GHQ she'd return with guns in her luggage. She did quite a few ‘missions' with Moya in her ‘motor car' transporting guns from Michael Collins to the Cork brigades. Michael Collins (know to them as Mick) often sent notes to Leslie. The notes began with ‘Leslie dearest' or ‘Dearest Leslie' or some endearment, signed ‘Love M'. This would would give the appearance of love note if intercepted. Strickland in an interview believed that ‘in many cases arms would be brought out, for use at the scene of an ambush or other attack, by women who concealed them in their skirts.' Their method of ‘getting at' women was to raid houses, he said.
[7]

Two days of intensive training of 70 rifle-men followed. This was the strongest number in the flying column to date. Equipped with arms and ammunition, Barry divided his men into seven sections and moved to take up positions at Mawbeg, five miles outside Bandon on the Ballineen road. Most days of the week a convoy of five lorries of the First Essex travelled from Bandon on this road, the plan was to ambush them. Before the ambush an informer was arrested and brought before a court-martial. Details of his activities were known for some time. Found guilty, the man was shot. His body, bearing a boldly lettered placard ‘Shot by the IRA! Spies and Informers Beware!' was positioned on the roadside in a conspicuous place while the column lay in wait. Barry calculated that even if the Essex were not inclined to come out, passers-by might report the body and a party would be sent out to investigate. The men lay in wait from early morning on 22 January, but after seven hours of anticipation with no sign of British troops Barry reluctantly decided to withdraw his column.

Next day Barry and his men again took up positions a little closer to Bandon. The body of another self-confessed informer was labelled and laid on the roadside. Barry made sure the news would reach the barracks by having word passed to a military sympathiser who would spread the tidings. Another long fruitless wait followed. Through their intelligence section word reached Barry that the barracks had been aware of the column beside the corpse on each occasion. With the largest column yet mustered, he decided they should not be mobilised in vain. In sections he marched the men across the Bandon River to a pre-arranged meal in a number of houses and billets. He had tried to get the Bandon forces one way, now he would try another!

Curfew in Bandon was between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. and an Essex patrol consisting of an officer and 45 men marched out of the barracks on the North Main Street each night at 10.30 p.m. Barry decided to attack this patrol. The timing of the whole operation was a matter of precise calculation. Barry divided his men into sections. As a masking device two sections were positioned to attack Black and Tan posts in the northern side of the town with a third under Liam Deasy to attack the barracks at the western end. The main body of the flying column at Shannon Street (now Oliver Plunkett Street) – the point furthest from the barracks where the military curfew party generally made their about-turn. A barricade against armoured cars was set up in a lane through which the IRA was to withdraw. All Barry's sections were to reach positions at precisely 11.05 p.m. Simultaneous attacks were to last on posts for seven minutes. The men were ‘well schooled as to their actions'.

Midnight passed and no patrol appeared. By 2.55 a.m. it looked as if the enemy was in possession of information. Barry asked himself if he were commander of the opposing forces what would he do? Instantly he visualised troops from all surrounding barracks encircling them. However Barry felt some form of attack was necessary if only from the point of view of morale for his own men. He brought the detached sections into action. They opened fire on the barracks, but nobody came out. Immediately he fired his signal shots for his men to withdraw. Soon incoming enemy fire began to crackle.

Barry knew informers had sold his plan but discovered that they could penetrate the heart of the most dreaded enemy garrison in the area and the enemy failed to tackle them, eventhough there was some fighting close to the military barracks and Vol Dan O'Reilly was killed. At this point the morale of the men, which had risen after Kilmichael, continued to rise, with Barry at the helm, to a new peak of confidence. It wasn't for the want of trying that there were no major engagements. ‘Where the IRA were active it affected the British troops more … We entered Bandon, a garrison town at least 40 to 50 times. It was necessary to keep on the offensive and to be aggressive.'
[8]

No time was to be lost. Barry and Hurley prepared to put what they had learned from the dummy attack on Innishannon into operation.
[9]

On the night following the Bandon affair, Barry posted 18 rifle-men at Brinny on a byroad in the Innishannon direction. Ten men took up positions on the direct road between Bandon and Innishannon and 10 more covered the Innishannon-Cork road. Commandant Barry and 32 rifle-men were positioned for the actual attack on Innishannon Barracks. Three parties of four men were placed to open fire on the back and side windows and doors of the barracks to prevent any inmates from bursting out. The remaining 20 men were equally divided into sections.

They laid a mine and Barry himself was prepared to rush the front door when the explosion went off. The plunger was depressed but no explosion followed. The rifle-men opened fired, the defenders sent out rockets, and after much shooting and wasting of ammunition nothing happened; no re-inforcements appeared. Barry cursed himself for his dummy attack. He also cursed the useless explosive; they must try to find an explosives expert! ‘Rifle and revolver bullets were about as useful as snowballs against those strong enemy posts.'
[10]

He left four men behind to keep the garrison busy, and marched the rest of his column north-westward to Brinny and on to Newcestown, which they reached on the morning of 28 January 1921. Barry was aware of the courage of his men, prepared to walk into towns and villages and openly attack fortified barracks. He sent two small sections to harass the Bandon enemy posts and prevent them from resting, while the flying column moved off to Ahiohill to billet. Now, he set sights on the well-fortified Rosscarbery Barracks. Tom Kingston, a British Loyalist known as Lord Tom, was the owner of Burgatia House, a large mansion a mile outside Rosscarbery. Through the IRA civil courts he was charged with espionage. As well as constantly conveying information on IRA activities, he secretly carried all ‘Military mail' between Rosscarbery and Clonakilty enemy garrisons. Expecting a long and arduous battle at Rosscarbery, Tom Barry decided to take the family hostage and billet his men for a day's rest. It was a daring idea with the house so close to Rosscarbery and retreat cut off by the sea, but Barry had a plan made and scouts well placed.

Barry found that ‘a continual worry' for him were the ‘nests of British Loyalists' when he was preparing for an engagement. There was ‘a possibility that an informer would see the flying column pass, and slip in to report to the forces that the IRA were preparing for ambush.' It required constant vigilance.
[11]

At 3 a.m. the column moved in and took Lord Tom and his household hostage. The house was well stocked, so Tadgh Sullivan and a few more men prepared a great feed of bacon, eggs, bread, butter and tea for all. John L. O'Sullivan and Paul Leary were to meet Lar Cunningham and go into Clonakilty to bring out a suspected spy for trial at Rosscarbery. John L. recalls: ‘we set out walking from Castlefreke to meet Cunningham. When we met at Clonakilty he told us that the order was countermanded; we were to go to Ballyvackey and pick up our rifles there and go to Sam's Cross where orders would be left for us. We went on, picked up our rifles and then on to Maurice Collins' house (Michael Collins' brother). It was four o'clock in the morning. Maurice came down the stairs to tell us Barry left instructions that we were not to go to the column at that hour, as he was afraid that dogs barking or any other noise would draw attention to where the column was; we were to go back and be with the column at half-nine in the morning.

‘We both went home as we felt, being on the run, we may not have a chance of being home for a long time again. When I think of the irony of it ... I was just coming down the stairs at half-eight in the morning when British military who had come on cycle patrol were inside in the hall before me.'

John L. was then arrested, questioned and knocked about. He was certain that only for Fr Hurley arriving on a sick call, he would have been severely beaten that morning. Blood was already flowing from his mouth. He was sent to Spike Island where he got a ‘woeful doing' and then to Maryborough until after the Truce was signed.
[12]

Lord Tom was put on trial at Burgatia House. Barry led the questioning which continued for over an hour. Since the beginning of the year Barry had become very conscious of ‘the menace of spies'. Lord Tom admitted that he had been secretly engaged in carrying dispatches between Rosscarbery, Dunmanway and Clonakilty garrisons. During their intelligence mail raids, Barry said, ‘We wondered why there was no mail going to Rosscarbery'. Lord Tom confessed he constantly took the mail in his motor-car. ‘He was only trying to organise an anti-Sinn Féin Party in the interests of peace', he explained. In summing up Barry told Kingston that he deserved to die. The evidence of spying against the army of the elected government of his own country was strong against him, but not conclusive. He would spare his life, as he had not caused the death of any member of the IRA. ‘Once this siege is over', he told Kingston, he would have 24 hours to leave the country. His house would be burned; his property would be forfeited to the Irish Republic to be distributed to the brigade men in the area who were without means of subsistence, as it had originally been taken from the Irish people during the Plantation. Kingston appeared ‘surprised and relieved that he was not to be shot'.
[13]