Tom Barry (9 page)

Unknown to Barry, Liam Deasy had been ill for some time before the publication of
Towards Ireland Free
. Barry's
Reality of the Anglo-Irish War … Refutations and Corrections
... was in the hands of the publishers when Deasy died on 20 August 1974.
[86]

After publication of Tom Barry's booklet, some former members of the West Cork Brigade disassociated themselves from the contents of Barry's booklet. Only one of the men, Paddy O'Brien fought in Kilmichael. He was ill when he signed the form, and told me afterwards that he was not aware of what he was signing. He believed that his signature was ‘to help with the book' and confirm that ‘Liam Deasy was a great officer who knew all about the Third West Cork Brigade'. He was unaware that there were errors in the account of Kilmichael ‘in the book', as he hadn't analysed it.
[87]
Paddy's son Liam said ‘I grew up with the knowledge of the false surrender. From my meeting with these men, they always said that Tom made men of them.'
[88]
The other eleven Kilmichael survivors did not sign – not all were asked. Those who were, and knew of the omission and the controversy, refused. (As many of the signatories regretted signing, the facts of this controversy will be dealt with later – in chronological order). Liam Deasy died in August 1974, and the original letter with signatures ‘in the possession' of Flor Begley was published in December 1974.
[89]

(Paddy O'Brien was among the many participants in the Kilmichael ambush who mentioned the false surrender to me: ‘... Well sure, it was that false surrender, that's how our boys were killed. The Auxies paid for their tricks. Those boyos did a lot of havoc [in] ... the country.)
[90]
Paddy O'Brien did not see the men fall as he was in the sub-section of No. 3 section (across the road), but he did hear the surrender call, the lull and the resumption of Auxiliary firing. ‘They were not far away from us.' For the Bureau of Military History collection, Jack Hennessy, James ‘Spud' Murphy, Patrick O'Brien, Michael O'Driscoll and Ned Young, Kilmichael ambush participants, related some of their War of Independence activities in brief, answered leading questions, but were not queried on any omissions or inaccuracies. Familiarity with the subject would have been necessary in order to query, clarify and rectify certain aspects – names, section place locations and details of engagements such as Kilmichael. The men signed the statements that were thus compiled. None of these men mentioned a surrender, nor a false one, during the Kilmichael ambush. (Unless participants were queried specifically on a particular aspect, they just didn't mention it.) Jack Hennessy, who doesn't mention the sidecar or other relevant details or sequence of events, was in No. 2 section where the three Volunteers were fatally wounded. Without detailing, he mentions that when the Auxies got out of the second lorry and into positions, he was ‘engaging them on the road'. He doesn't mention that Barry O/C and the command post men had come to the area behind these Auxies, but says, ‘We heard three blasts of the O/C's whistle. I heard the three blasts and got up from my position, shouting “hands up”. At the same time one of the Auxies about five yards from me drew his revolver. He had thrown down his rifle. I pulled on him and shot him dead. I got back to cover where I remained for a few minutes firing at living and dead Auxies on the road. The Column O/C sounded his whistle again. Nearly all the Auxies had been wiped out.' (This is a false surrender: after the ceasefire whistle was blown an Auxie who had thrown down his rifle ‘drew his revolver'.) Barry had reservations about the method of BMH collection. ‘At least every statement made should have been submitted to a Brigade Committee which would have verified or rejected it …'
[91]

Den Carey remembers Tom, in his latter years, after he had had a few drinks, ‘he'd talk about Kilmichael and tears would fill his eyes. “It's the one thing I'll never forget till the day I die. It pierces my heart to think of the lads being shot down by an enemy,” he'd say, “while they held the white flag.” He'd always ask, “why didn't I warn them? I'll regret it forever. 'Twas an old trick of the British – the false surrender!” He'd go mad over it.'
[92]
In an interview with Nollaig Ó Gadhra in 1969, Barry spoke of the Auxiliaries' deceptive methods of the false surrender. ‘I have a vivid recollection of that … if they hadn't done the false surrender … for what they had done I hated them, but no! No! I wouldn't have killed a prisoner.' His voice tone and the content of the interview conveyed that he would not and did not kill prisoners. The Auxiliaries had resumed the fight; therefore, they were not prisoners.
[93]

(On Sunday 28 November 1982, after a ceremony in Castletown-Kenneigh graveyard where the men killed in Kilmichael are buried, a discussion, which began in Mrs Peggy O'Callaghan's kitchen and ended in Creedon's Hotel, Inchageela, centred on the Kilmichael ambush. Two survivors, Ned Young and Jack O'Sullivan could recall exactly where they were and how they felt. Because of the occasion, ‘the false surrender' and its consequences for their comrades was discussed. I can recall
The Tom Barry Story
had been published. The discussion was wide-ranging and the two survivors regretted the wedge that had been driven between Tom Barry and Liam Deasy. I took no notes. Many of those present are still alive.)

Tom Barry's
Guerilla Days in Ireland
was first serialised in
The Irish Press
in 1948 and published in book form in 1949. Before this Barry wrote a full account of the Kilmichael ambush in
An Cosantóir
, 1941, and in
Rebel Cork's Fighting Story,
March 1947. Barry stated, in 1973, that the false surrender account was never challenged until its omission from
Towards Ireland Free
‘fifty-three years afterwards' caused reviewers to question the omission. Neither Deasy nor any of the men who had participated in the Kilmichael ambush made any correction on Barry's published accounts at that time.
[94]
Furthermore, in November 1969 a television programme
Seven Days
invited veterans from the Kilmichael and Crossbarry ambushes to the studio. The false surrender aspect was not refuted by any of the men. When asked if he had any regrets Ned Young replied, ‘No. None!' Jack Hennessy said, ‘all we wanted to do was to get rid of the enemy in our midst'. Nudge Callanan who signed the statement (was not at Kilmichael but at Crossbarry) told Brian Farrell of the need to tackle the Auxiliaries as ‘they were terrorising the country'. In answer to the presenter's question to the group if any of them had regrets, there was a chorus: ‘None. No. No. None.' Barry said, ‘People who weren't born then will never appreciate the spirit of those who fought.'
[95]

In a side issue to the Kilmichael ambush, Barry queried Liam Deasy's kind words about Lieut Col Crake (Craik) commander of the Auxiliary garrison who was killed that day at Kilmichael. In
Towards Ireland Free
there is an account that Deasy was held up twice previously by Crake and allowed to go free.
[96]
Barry asks: ‘I wonder how Deasy got to know his name, and if he is sure it was Crake who was present, as the men in charge of such raiding parties never introduced themselves. Deasy states that when ever he thinks of Kilmichael he thinks of four men, the three IRA freedom fighters who died and Crake ... because of “the soldierly humanity which he showed” ‘to Deasy when arrested.
[97]
When I questioned Rev. Fr Chisholm on this, he said that it was only natural that Deasy would also think kindly of this man who did not arrest him.
[98]
However, Deasy was unarmed and gave a false name, purporting to be a private citizen without military connections.
[99]
Major Percival found that ‘hostile leaders were seldom known by sight and often gave false names. A number of them thus slipped through our hands after being actually captured.'
[100]

Flor Crowley remembers a very different Craik (Crake), who came to his home some days before the Kilmichael ambush and questioned his father on the whereabouts of a Danny Crowley who had participated in the Mountpleasant ambush in February 1920. The Danny he was seeking was not Flor's brother, but a neighbour. In a raid on houses, by Craik and his men, one morning other lads escaped but Danny ‘was cut to pieces by close range bullets ... a savagely mutilated corpse, with almost twenty-five bullet wounds. I know because I saw the corpse with part of its jaw shot away', he wrote. ‘The two men who laid him out described in gruesome detail what his broken body looked like.'
[101]

When the ambush was over Barry thought all the Auxiliaries were dead, but some of his men informed him one man had escaped. According to the British casualties list at Kilmichael, Cadet C. J. Guthrie, late Royal Air Force, ‘is missing' and Cadet H. F. Forde, MC, late Royal Air Force, ‘is wounded'.
[102]

Guthrie, driver of the second lorry, slipped over the ditch, off through the fields in the direction of Macroom barracks. When he reached the River Lee at Dromcarra he couldn't cross and was forced to take to the road. He went to Stephen Twohig's house and asked to be taken in his pony and trap to Macroom. Twohig refused. Two Volunteers in the house at the time recognised the uniform so they followed him. ‘Realising the danger of letting him into town with the certainty of immediate reprisals on the surrounding country ... they held him up by using a pipe disguised as a gun, and shot him with his own weapon.' This was not the only reason why they shot him and buried him in Anahala bog. From intelligence reports it was known that Guthrie had killed Jim Lehane, ‘an innocent civilian' and boasted of the deed some days before. He gave them his name, not realising they knew what he had done.
[103]
On 26 November 1926, Guthrie's body was removed to Inchageela old graveyard – a tombstone now marks the spot.
[104]

When the doctor went out, the following day, to Kilmichael he found Lieut H. F. Forde's pulse still beating. He was removed to Shanakiel Hospital, Cork, and contrary to all opinions, lived for many years afterwards. A bullet scraped his brain and he was partially paralysed and had a bad limp throughout his life. ‘Forde was awarded £10,000 compensation'.
[105]

According to Bill Munroe, ‘after “the first shock” of the ambush “had passed” the Macroom Castle Auxiliaries' ‘immediate reaction was to hunt down as many of the ambushers as we could and exterminate them'. But their commander Col Buxton Smyth ‘counselled patience'. Getting ‘participants' was ‘a difficult task as potential informers were much too scared to come forward and the raids carried out were based on previous information.' This regiment was recalled to Dublin and replaced by another company.
[106]

Col Buxton Smyth hadn't ordered his men to take grenades in the tenders that day. Afterwards he regretted it. He was unhappy at his men's lawlessness in burning so many houses. Furthermore, knowing that men under his command broke a military rule by falsifying their surrender call they brought ignominy on him; he was recalled to England, so like Brigadier Crozier, he resigned his position. A year later he was found in a toilet, shot through the head by his own bullet. He died ‘on Wandsworth Common, having been let down by the government and having become destitute'.
[107]

Notes