(DOC) LENNONS IN TIME | Ivan Lennon - Academia.edu
LENNONS IN TIME Ivan Lennon 242 Beresford Road navilenn65@gmail.com Rochester, New York 14610 1 CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 5 INTRODUCTION 7 I IRISH NAMES: AGLICISATION 8 II LENNON SURNAME 11 Family Crest 13 Pronunciation 13 Modern Variants 14 DNA 15 North America 16 III ULSTER 18 Distribution of the Name 18 County Down: Crolly/O Crilly 21 County Fermanagh: O Luinin/O Leannain 24 IV FERMANAGH MONASTERIES 26 Inishmacsaint 28 Derryvullan 28 Lisgoole 29 V IRISH ANNALS 30 Annals of Inisfallen 30 Annals of Ulster 30 Annals of Ireland by the Four Masters 31 VI POST MEDIEVAL PERIOD 33 Strongbow to the Flight of the Earls 33 The Maguires 34 Upheavals of the 1600s 35 Penal Times 38 Emancipation, and Nationalism 40 The Great Hunger 40 VII COUNTY WATERFORD 44 Waterford City 44 The Desii 45 Dungarvan 46 VIII SHANAHANS IN THE DEISE 48 The Town Park 50 1901 Census (#5 Jacknell) 52 1911 Census (#10 Jacknell) 53 IX LENNONS IN THE DEISE 55 The Gas Works 56 1901 Census (#83 O' Connell) 57 1911 Census (#81 O’ Connell) 58 2 Locating Dungarvan Lennon Residences 58 George Gerard Lennon and Parents 59 St. Mary’s Church Controversy 62 St. Mary’s Family Plot Disappearance 64 X TROUBLED TIMES (1913 – 1921) 66 Volunteers 69 Easter Monday 1916 70 1916-1918 72 Redmondites in Waterford 75 Guerrilla Warfare 77 Cork Male Prison 78 Fermoy, Co. Cork 81 Ardmore, Co. Waterford 82 Dungarvan, Co. Waterford: Inspector King 83 Dungarvan, Lismore, Ring: Impeding Administration 84 Kilmallock, Co. Limerick 84 Bunratty, Co. Clare 88 Bruree, Co. Limerick 89 Co. Cork 90 The Deise Flying Column 91 Bunmahon, Co. Waterford 95 Kill, Co. Waterford 96 Brown’s Pike, Co. Waterford 96 Piltown, Co. Waterford 97 Walsh’s Hotel, Cappoquin, Co. Waterford 101 Aborted Ambushes, Co. Waterford 105 Rockfield Cross, Cappagh, Co. Waterford 106 Cappoquin, Co. Waterford 107 Pickardstown, Co. Waterford 109 Roberts Cross, Ring, Co. Waterford 112 Durrow/Ballyvoyle, Co. Waterford 113 Kilmacthomas, Co. Waterford 116 Ballyhooly/Cappagh: Train Station Escapes 117 XI TRAUMA AT THE BURGERY (1921) 121 Accounts 121 Background 123 R.I.C. 124 Volunteers 127 Ambush 131 Execution 135 Sequel 139 Burials 143 Aftermath 145 Kilrossanty Burial 148 Grawn Ambush 149 Seeds of Discord 150 3 XII FINAL MONTHS (1921) 156 Ballyvoyle/Ballylynch, Co. Waterford 156 Brigade Reorganisation, Co. Waterford 157 Cappagh Station, Co. Waterford 160 Kilgobnet, Co. Waterford 161 The Truce 163 XIII END OF THE ROAD (12 July 1921 – 1923) 165 Cheekpoint/Ballinagoul: Arms Landings 166 Dunkitt, Co. Kilkenny: Arms Seizure 170 The Treaty/Barracks Seized 171 Mick Collins in Dungarvan 174 The “Unmentionable” Civil War 176 Attack on Waterford City 177 Retreat from Waterford 181 Legion of the Rearguard 184 XIV EMIGRATION (1926-1936) 190 New York City 193 The Irish Review 194 Military Service Pension 196 Medals 198 XV RETURN OF THE NATIVE (1936 – 1946) 200 Church Controversy 200 Pre – War Rathfarnham 205 On the Left 208 Marriage 210 Employment: The Emergency 213 Parenthood 215 Wound Pension 216 XVI UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (1946 ff.) 218 Family Emigration and Citizenship 218 Rochester, New York 221 Last Years 230 Belated Recognition 233 XVII CONCLUSIONS 237 Waterford Didn’t Do Much? 237 Seoirse O Leannain 239 APPENDICES 245 A Lennons in Time 245 B Irish Volunteers: A Revolutionary Chronology 248 C A Deise Tale: The Burgery Ambush 250 D “Down From the Comeragh Hills He Came” 256 E The Munster Express (March 17, 2006) 257 F In Search of a Forgotten IRA Commander 259 G Plays 263 H Escapes 264 I “Last Monday” (A Poem in Honour of George Lennon) 265 BIBLIOGRAPHY 266 4 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Starting points for this study were George Lennon’s military service pension application (January 10, 1935), a Dublin interview with the pension examiner (10 October 1935) and his short memoir, Trauma in Time, completed in the late 1960’s. Of value were the Bureau of Military History 1950’s witness statements of the Deise men of Oglaigh na hEireann who chose to file them. Sincere appreciation to Milan Stolka PhD for his patience and technical assistance. Thanks to Tommy Mooney of Ardmore who is committed to garnering a greater degree of recognition for, in the words of O/C Sean Moylan, “the handful of men” who put “their puny strength against the might of Empire.” A sincere “go raibh maith agat” to Abbeyside’s Eddie Cantwell whose assiduous research of largely forgotten early twentieth century Dungarvan written materials necessitated this updating of earlier research. NOTE: Appendix material, for the most part written at a different time, are largely recapitulations with each entry meant to stand by itself in isolation from the body of this work. To be viewed similarly are the Chapter XVII conclusions regarding George Lennon and the Republican struggle in County Waterford. 5 The Thirty Two Counties 6 INTRODUCTION Not atypically of Irish people of their generation, my parents were not always forthcoming about family matters. It was subsequent to their demise that I began to uncover the twentieth century story of this pre-Norman Ulster family. A story that reached an apotheosis in revolutionary Ireland, followed by the Free State theocracy and, lastly, emigration on two separate occasions. Perhaps surprisingly, it was my mother, Eveline May Sibbald, of Dissenting Presbyterian background, who most loved Ireland. In a certain sense, she never left her native Kingstown (Dun Laoghaire), despite emigrating, albeit reluctantly, with the author in late 1947. My father, George Gerard Lennon, the erstwhile Old I.R.A. rebel, rarely spoke well of his native land. Steeped in tales of Patrick Sarsfield, the Wild Geese and the ideals of Connolly and Larkin, Ireland represented for him a revolutionary dream (“a dead star’s light”) shattered by a premature Truce, an “unmentionable” civil war, a Jansenist Church and a conservative Free State Government. Religion in Ireland has been for centuries a convenient means of differentiating between Celt and Sassenach (foreigner) as well as Unionist/Loyalist and Republican/Nationalist. The Lennon/Shanahan/Crolly/Power/Walsh narrative falls largely on one side of these divides. However, twentieth century political events led to disagreements with the Roman Catholic Church and its “special position” as embodied in the 1937 Irish Constitution. The Irish theocracy did not sit well with George and May Lennon. For George it was a journey that began with minority “physical force” Irish Republicanism and came to embrace leftist politics in the 1930’s. The 1940’s saw him attracted to the pacifism of the Society of Friends (Quakers) and, ultimately, Zen Buddhism. He became a founding member of the Rochester Zen Center. An article in the Dungarvan paper of 3 May 1973 remarked that “when the history of that period comes to be written, George will figure largely in it.” Unfortunately, he was not one to dwell on his accomplishments and was unaware of, or perhaps did not even respond to, the Bureau of Military History when it compiled witness statements in the 1950’s from the men of Oglaigh na hEireann (I.R.A.). Hopefully, along with other endeavors, this investigation, the 2009 Terence O’Reilly biography, the 2011 Nemeton documentary by Cormac Morel, Muiris O’Keeffe’s 2012 play, the books of Tommy Mooney, Dr. Pat McCarthy, Eamon Cowan and the author’s numerous PowerPoint presentations have resulted in a measure of belated recognition. I would like to think that this study is more than a simple search for an emigrant’s roots. Perhaps more accurately, it is an attempt to draw attention to one family’s largely forgotten past. In the words of one émigré observer, it is “ultimately a story of emigration and return, of belonging and not belonging and of always wondering.” 7 CHAPTER I IRISH NAMES: ANGLICISATION Historically, Irish surnames fall into three broad categories: Gaelic (native Irish), those of Anglo-Norman origin, and those with English (Saxon) roots. English surnames have generally been maintained as originally transplanted to “John Bull's Other Island.” Obviously there was no necessity to "Anglicise" them as occurred in the case of indigenous Gaelic surnames. Numerous American presidents trace their ancestry to people of "planted" Ulster-Scots background. In Ireland, Ulster Scot Protestants were part of the Gaelic Revival at the end of the nineteenth century. The leading figure in the late eighteenth century United Irishmen movement was the Protestant Wolfe Tone. Others were members of the Young Ireland Movement of the mid nineteenth century and later, in the twentieth century Protestants included such notables as Countess Gore-Booth Markievicz, Bulmer Hobson and Erskine Childers. 1916 martyr Padraig Pearse (Pierce) came from a "mixed" background. Some twenty per cent of Irish names fit into this category. Anglo-Norman surnames are likely to trace their origin to places where the families originated before coming to Ireland: Power (Poiters) from France; Landers from London; and Barry, Prendergast and Walsh from Wales. The prefix "Fitz” (Fitzgerald, Fitzgibbon) comes from the French "fils” meaning "son of.” Norman names are most common in County Waterford and the Lennon family tree includes the names Walsh and Power. Some eight or nine per cent of Irish surnames fit into this category. Surnames of native Irish Gaelic origin arose from the original population of Ireland where history began to be recorded in the sixth century A.D. The Irish tongue, however, has reportedly been spoken since pre-historic times. Scholars differ as to when this Celtic language arrived with estimates varying from roughly 1000 B.C. to 100 B.C. About seventy per cent of surnames found in Ireland before 1850 were of Gaelic origin. In medieval England, a "byname" from an occupation or locale was unremarkable (e.g., Cooper, Mason, Walsh, Newcastle), but in Irish Gaelic it was extremely rare. Occasionally, Irish surnames did reflect an occupation or place of residence; but the vast majority of Gaelic names did not fit this pattern. Those descriptive bynames found in Old or Middle Irish stem from an individual's appearance: Age Og (young) Coloration Dubh (black) Fionn (fair) Ruadh (red) 8 Buidhe (yellow) Ballach (freckled) Riabhach (swarthy) Appearance Mor (big) Beag (small) Behaviour Garbh (rough) Posture Cam (crooked) Bacach (lame) Speech Balbh (stammerer) Irish name are patronymic, deriving from the name of a paternal ancestor. In ancient Ireland there were no fixed surnames but, by the twelfth century, most all of Europe, including Ireland and England, had adopted standardised surnames. Ireland was one of the first in Europe to do so, perhaps as early as the tenth century. Brian Boru being credited by some with introducing the modern concept of a surname into Ireland. A man was known as the son of his father's first name or, of his grandfather's. In some cases (e.g., O'Briain or O'Brien) the reason for adopting a surname with the Uibh or Uib (Old Irish), Ua or Ui (Middle Irish) or the more modern O, meaning descended from, is fairly clear: it allowed members of the family who were not sons, but more remote descendants, to use a name that reminded their peers of a prestigious ancestry and, in some cases, thus boost their claim to be natural rulers. Generally to follow later were surnames preceded by “Mac,” abbreviated “Mc,” the Irish for son. There is a widespread misconception that one is Irish and the other Scottish. Both variations are in wide use in both countries. In the fourteenth century the Statutes of Kilkenny (1366 A.D.) sought unsuccessfully to limit Irish influence upon the Anglo-Norman community. This action was taken to combat the perception that the newer arrivals were becoming more Irish than the Irish ("Hibernis Hibernicres"). Beginning in the late sixteenth century, a process of Anglicisation took place with English government officials writing Irish surnames phonetically without any regard to the Irish spelling. The fada above the prefix O was moved to the right (O') and, even- tually, in many instances, including Lennon, the O was lost entirely. Others, with native Irish names, took a surname that was known amongst the Scottish and English settlers – a process not unlike that which took place in the American South where the descendants of black slaves in North Carolina can be found bearing the Lennon surname. Anglicisation occurred in other aspects of native Gaelic culture. Brehon Law was replaced by Anglo- Saxon common law. Also, in the decades prior to the Great Hunger 9 (An Gorta Mor), British government surveyors and their Irish advisors went through Ireland mapping terrain and, in the process, Anglicised the local place names; thus abetting safe and fast movement in the event of threats to the 1801 Union of Great Britain and Ireland. In the nineteenth century the Board of National Education decreed that the following be learned in Irish schools: I thank the goodness and the grace That on my birth have smiled And made me in these Christian days A happy English child However, the Gaelic Revival of the latter part of the nineteenth century (e.g., the Gaelic League and the Gaelic Athletic Association), the early twentieth century establishment of a separate Irish political identity (the Irish Free State) and the more recent emergence of an economically vibrant Ireland ("Celtic Tiger"), have led to a greater awareness of, and pride in all things Irish. Part of this movement has been a reversion to more traditional Irish first names (e.g., Aoife, Niamh, Oisin, Ciaran) and last name spellings, in contrast to the non-Irish names popular well into the twentieth century. For example, Christian names for the Dungarvan Lennon/Shanahan/Power/Walsh families included Sarah, James, William, Ellen, John, Mary Anne, Thomas, Agnes, George and Eileen, inter alia. The most recent Lennon family birth, in 2008, witnessed the arrival of Aoife Lennon. This is perhaps fitting in light of the fact that the twelfth century marriage of Aoife MacMurrough to the Norman Strongbow took place in Waterford. This symbolic joining of Sassenach and native Irish was to end some 750 years later when an I.R.A. “Irregular” contingent, commanded by Aoife’s great grandfather, entered the City and declared it to be of an Irish nation. 10 CHAPTER II LENNON SURNAME “Prisco Stirte Hibernico” To some observers, the modern Lennon surname may seem less "Irish" than those preceded by the prefix O' or even names of Norman origin. In fact, Lennon forebearers may be traced to before the 1170 A.D. arrival of Strongbow in County Waterford. One ancient form of Lennon is Ó Leannain derived from the Irish "leannan” meaning lover or "leann,” a cloak or mantel. Another form, Ó Luinin, (perhaps stemming from the Irish "lon" meaning blackbird) is now almost indistinguishable from Ó Leannain, except where it has been Anglicised to Linnegar. Be it Ó Luinin or Ó Leannain, an assumption of Ulster origins points to the medieval ecclesiastical enclave at Lough Erne, County Fermanagh, Ulster. Ulster, the most Gaelic of the four provinces, was home to the great Irish Chieftains. While not approaching the fame of the Ó Neills or the Ó Donnells, the Ó Luinin/ Leannain were "a noted family of clerics, scribes, historians and stewards of church 11 lands (pp.26-32) who served for many generations as the royal scribes and historians to the Maguire dynasty” (p.34). Septs (people of a common ancestry living in a given locale) of the Gaelic form of Lennon also arose separately in east County Galway and County Mayo. The Galway sept eventually spread, per researcher David Larkin, across Connacht to the Midlands and Dublin. The Fermanagh sept, while spreading to Dublin and parts of Munster, basically remained in Ulster, chiefly Armagh, Monaghan and the Ards Peninsula of County Down. Name searches in Ulster are complicated by the fact that the upheavals of the 1600s were particularly catastrophic for the native population as evidenced by the Crom- wellian edict of "to hell or Connacht.” By 1703, reportedly, less than five per cent of Ulster lands remained in native Catholic hands. Even with the population "dispersals" though, many Irish names remain localised. This is particularly true in County Waterford, Province of Munster, where Anglo-Norman names such as Power, Prendergast and Walsh remain common more than eight hundred years after the arrival of the Normans. Appearing in nineteenth century Dungarvan, Co. Waterford (the Deise or Decies), the Lennons, not surprisingly, included in the family tree people of Norman background. Records, on the maternal Shanahan side reveal Sara Eliza Walsh (1846-1894) and her parents, William Walsh (1811-1891) and Ellen Agnes Power (d.<1891) who were married (22 September 1845) during the early years of the Great Hunger. Power and Walsh (pronounced as Welsh) being two of the most common surnames found in Waterford. Likely antecedents would also have included Desii, a native Gaelic people who settled in County Waterford. On the paternal side, the family narrative involves the nineteenth century Dungarvan Lennons and Crollys who trace ancestry to Ulster's County Down (pp.18 ff.). Northern historian Monsignor Ambrose Macauley maintains that the Crollys had been in the Downpatrick area since Anglo-Norman times. Originally called Swords, the family later adopted the Irish Crolly surname. Not unlike the O Luinin/O Leannain many were of a “priestly caste” (pp. 21 ff.). What remains to be determined is the route Lennon/Crolly forebearers in Ulster took to nineteenth century bourgeois respectability in County Waterford. Ultimately, however, early twentieth century political and economic developments were to force both the Shanahans and Lennons of Dungarvan to leave an island where they had resided for more than a millennium. 12 Family Crest A family crest does not necessarily denote common ancestry via prior family status in that the Irish system of elected chiefs, under Brehon Law, diverged from the English primogeniture hereditary system. Moreover, the origin of the Dungarvan Lennons is difficult to trace because of Gaelic and Anglicised variants (e.g., Ó Leannain, Ó Luinin, Ó Lionnane, Linnane, Ó Lennan/Ó Lennon) and the fact that several families have changed their surname to Lennon. A coat of arms is only to be borne by the heirs of the family to which it was granted. Were it otherwise, all bearers of Irish surnames would trace their pedigree to kings and chieftains rather than the more numerous "hewers of wood and drawers of water.” Genealogist Ken Lennan cautions that "it is ... unlikely that any of us can claim” the shield. It may be said definitively, however, that a particular sept of this surname was granted a shield, motto and crest. The Lennon crest being the buck browsing on the shield with the motto "Prisco Stirte Hibernico.” The presence of the stag on both the McCarthy and Lennon crests is indicative of a shared ancestry. The use of the stag as an icon symbolizing chieftaincy can be seen in ancient stone carvings and in Irish art across four millennia. A grazing stag denotes contentment, lack of concern and an animal in the ancient Celtic world secure in its own power as ruler of the animal kingdom. Its use on the crest thus denotes a family of pre- Norman origins. This is corroborated by the family motto, which translates as "of ancient Irish stock.” For the ancient Celts, the stag was depicted as a guide for people journeying from this world to the next. This suggests that people bearing the surname were spiritual guides or priests. Logically, the background to the scene would be a blue sky, but the crest shows a white sky. White has been used since ancient times to denote purity suggesting spiritual leadership as borne out by family monastic and diocesan service to this day. Pronunciation A very brief exposure to the native tongue, at the long since departed Mariners School in Dun Laoghaire, has left this writer totally deficient in the language of his Gaelic forbearers. Ken Lennan, schooled at least in "Parnell Square," Irish, offers the following analysis: ...Leannain (is) in (the) genitive case (because of the O) given the "i" second from the end. Don't forget the acute accent over the last "a" since this changes (Anne) to Awn - as in yawn or for 13 "ain" to awe-in. Probably the most difficult part to describe is the "Lean". This is not an English "lean" but something like "lan with a "yah" somewhere between the L and the N.... Ó Luinin: Cannot immediately find an "original" Gaelic version - it is in the translation (of the) Annals of Ulster. As written ...it would sound like "Luhnen" Modern Variants Although Ireland was subject to an influx of Vikings, Normans and “planted” Scots, it has essentially remained, at least until the latter 20 th century, a most homogeneous nation and therefore, lends itself to fruitful genealogical research. However, any absolute blood relationship between bearers of a particular surname would have to be based upon documented pedigree. Possessors of the same surname are generally not descended from a common ancestor. Moreover, further complicating the matter are the aforementioned Gaelic and more modern variants of the surname. Lennon has even been used as the English version of completely different surnames; in particular Ó Lonan or Ó Lonigan (Lenane or Lannigan) in West Cork and Ó Luinigh (Lunney) originally from Donegal but now closely associated with adjoining County Fermanagh. Leonards, likely descended from the royal family Mac Giolla Fhinnein (son of the follower of St. Finnian), are prominent in Waterford City (Portlairge). Fortunately, for the purposes of this study, is the preponderance of the modern Lennon as the most common variant of the original Gaelic Ó Leannain/ Ó Luinin. Griffith's Valuation of the mid nineteenth century, per Ken Lannan, reveals the following distribution of surname variants as a percentage of the total: Lennon........ 52% Lennan....... 11.8% Lannan....... 9.2% Lannon....... 7.7% Linnane...... 6.9% Lennane..... 6.6% Lannin....... 1.7% Lenan......... 1.3% Lannen....... 1.0% Lenane....... 1.0% Linnen....... .6% Lennin....... .2% Lennnon.... .2% Lennen...... .1% 14 DNA Data received from http://www.familytredna.comwww.familytredna.com (Kit #8747, password: J1045) may also be found at http://www.ysearch.org/www.ysearch.org/ (User ID M9M5D, password: Guinness). The database of "Recent Ancestral Origins" (RAO) below show the ancestral origin of those matched for Ivan Lennon (12 Marker Y- DNA Exact Matches). Exact matches show individuals closest to this writer genetically and where their ancestors' are reported to have lived. Each testee provided the known, to the best of his knowledge, ancestral origin of his family's male line. For example, the author, with a church records dating to the 1820's and likely medieval Ulster origins, listed Ireland as the origin of the Lennon family line. ORIGIN MATCHES Germany 34 Ireland 23 England 23 Scotland 11 United Kingdom 8 France 2 Italy 2 Cuba 1 Exact matches are to be expected for the nations of the British Isles. This is most particularly true for Scotland, which was settled by the Irish, as evidenced by its very name which is based on the Latin "scotti" for Irish. Scots Presbyterians of the 17th century subsequently returned as "undertakers" for the "planting" of Ulster. Similar plantings of the London and Virginia Companies occurred along the coast of British North America. The great Irish Diaspora was not limited to Great Britain, the Continent, Australia and North America but extended to portions of South America and the Caribbean as slaves and indentured servants, per Oliver Cromwell's mid seventeenth century edict. Dispersals included the "Flight of the Earls,” (1607), the "Wild Geese,” (1691),the Ulster- Scots (1700’s) and the "Famine Irish" (1845 ff.). It was to the Roman Catholic countries of Europe (Spain, France) and their armies that many of the pre-Famine dispossessed fled. In France some are known to this day as the "Wine Geese" (e.g., Barton, Hennessey). Former French Olympic champion skier, Jean Claude Kelly, in all probability, traces a similar pedigree. 15 Tied into deep ancestry are "Haplo group markers". By deep ancestry one must think 10,000 or 10's of 1000's of years. Countries in this database are listed by the place one came from or currently lives. The value therefore, is that it tells researchers about migratory patterns. Everyone not in Haplo group A or B has lived outside Africa for at least 60000 years. Ivan Lennon attaches to Haplo group R1b1 and again exact matches are found in the countries of the British Isles (4) and the Continental countries of France (1), Germany (1) and Russia (1). North America In that the Dungarvan Lennons and Shanahans did not emigrate until the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, there can only be a tenuous family link with the “Famine Irish” in mid nineteenth century American cities and the Ulster-Scots in the ante-bellum South. It is of some peripheral interest, however, that some pre-Famine Lennons settled in North Carolina. Approximately six miles south of Bladenboro in Bladen County, is Lennon's Crossroads and the Lennon's Crossroads Baptist Church, reportedly founded in 1797. Also in the area there is an old Lennon Road and a Booker-Lennon Road. Haynes Lennon Highway was named for a Baptist minister who was a prominent member of the community. Haynes and his family are the only non-blacks buried in the family cemetery at the African American Crossroads Church. In addition to the descendants of the slaveholding Lennons, there are numerous African-Americans who currently bear the surname in Bladen and Columbus Counties. The name was apparently appropriated from their former owners and, hence, there is no known admitted genetic relationship. However, it was not uncommon for slaveholders to father mixed race offspring as witnessed in the case of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings. This raises an interesting juxtaposition for the Southern Lennons: Ulster abbots and Roman Catholic clerics on the one hand and, on the other, willing participants in the institution of slavery. The Carolina Lennons would have been part of the earlier Irish Diaspora, largely from non Roman Catholic "planted" Ulster. Their specific religious loyalty (Dissenting Presbyterian, Protestant Church of Ireland or Roman Catholic) is a matter of conjecture. However, Haynes Lennon was noted as a Baptist. Ulster-Scots, often incorrectly labeled in America as "Scots-Irish," had themselves being the object of discriminatory Penal Laws in Ireland. These enactments were not only applicable to Papists but to Presbyterians who were "excluded from all places of public trust and honour.” Marriages by Presbyterian 16 ministers were not marriages by law and were not valid until 1782. Tithes were demanded of all in support of the state “Protestant” church, the Church of Ireland. Upon arrival in the United States, these émigrés were to apply many of the same strictures, under which they suffered in Ireland, against Negroes in the form of Black or Slave Codes. It is also deserving of note that supporters of the Protestant William of Orange had formed in Ireland the militantly anti-Catholic Orange Order. Similarities abound between this organisation and its American nativist variant - the anti- immigrant, anti-black and anti-Catholic Ku Klux Klan whose membership included many descendants of these "Billy Boys" (a follower of William of Orange) often derided as "hillbillies". "Redneck" is another word whose derivation is found in Ulster-Scots history. In 1638 and 1641 Scottish Presbyterians signed a covenant, some in blood, rejecting the established Anglican Church. Red pieces of cloth were worn as symbols of this opposition with redneck becoming slang for a Scottish dissenter. This term has been applied to a white member of the Southern rural labouring class. Also descriptive of this group is the word "cracker," arguably derived from the Northern Irish word "crack," meaning chat or conversation in a social sense. This word may be said to have been “Gaelicised” in the Irish twenty-six Counties in the 1960’s as the non-existent “Irish” word “craic.” In the American mind, though, it is the later wave of largely poor, rural Roman Catholics that is associated with being Irish. Many of these mid nineteenth century Irish arrived on "coffin ships" at eastern U.S. ports or via the less expensive Atlantic route to the St. Lawrence River and Canada. Mortality rates, at times, on these ships matched or exceeded those found on the earlier slave ships. Due to their mid nineteenth century arrival in northern coastal cities, this largely un- wanted group was not directly involved in that "most peculiar institution" of slavery. Lacking, at the time of the American Civil War, the financial means to buy their way out of the Union Army, some resorted, as in the 1863 New York City draft riot, to violence against blacks. Men who served in the Irish Brigades for the Union were later to engage in the Fenian "invasion" of British North America via such northern New York border points as Malone and Buffalo. Relegated to the bottom of the economic pecking order in urban enclaves, such as New York City's infamous "Five Points," the Irish were subject to discrimination as embodied by the term "No Irish need apply.” Castigated by Thomas Nast caricatures as simian like creatures or apes, they were forced into wage slavery. That the Irish were not viewed as being white or Anglo-Saxon is evidenced by the title of the book How The Irish Became White. Numerous academic studies have dealt with the similarities between African-Americans and the Irish as both groups struggled for economic, political and social equality. Stereotypes applied to both groups include 17 laziness, a propensity to drink, a fun loving nature, violence, dysfunctional families and inherent abilities as entertainers and athletes. "Burnt Irish" in fact was a term used to describe African - Americans. CHAPTER III ULSTER Distribution of the Name Historically there were more than the four provinces of today. Additional provinces included Breifne (between Ulster and Connacht), Oriel (Clogher and County Armagh) and Meath (northern half of Leinster). In ancient times a king ruled each province. These provinces were dynamic with their borders in flux. 18 Today's four provinces (Ulster, Munster, Leinster and Connacht) incorporate- rate thirty-two counties with an explanation required for “Ulster.” Under the Government of Ireland Act (1920), the Ulster counties of Monaghan, Cavan, and the most northerly, Donegal, were ceded to the Irish Free State. Northern Ireland, thus, is not synonymous with Ulster. Only the truncated version of Ulster containing six counties (Armagh Derry, Down, Fermanagh, Antrim and Tyrone) is a part of the United Kingdom. The removal of the three counties with sizable Catholic and Republican populations has served to ensure a Loyalist (Unionist) majority in the “Six Counties” for nearly one hundred years. In the British North, the six counties, as subdivisions of provinces, survive merely as curiosities - i.e., basically serving no actual governmental purpose (save for automotive licence plates), having being replaced in 1972 by unitary authorities. In the Republic of Ireland the twenty-six counties serve as the basis of local government and hotly contested Gaelic sporting events. Family historical research in Ireland is complicated by the fact that 19 th century census returns were largely destroyed, both intentionally and unintentionally. This necessitates reliance on Griffith's Valuations, an in depth valuation of all land and buildings for the purpose of taxation in the thirty-two counties. This extensive under- taking of 1848-1864 was under the direction of Sir Richard John Griffith. A study of the most common surnames was undertaken in 1863-1864. Births by province are available for 1864-1870. For the years 1871 to 1886, there is a listing of marriages by province and deaths by provinces, 1891-1900. Published in 1909 there is a statistical report on surnames (Matheson), which is based on births registered in Ireland in 1890. Few Lennons were reported by Griffith in the western province of Connacht, save for 52 in County Roscommon. In Munster, home to the Dungarvan Lennons, Griffith, for County Waterford, listed only nine Lennons. Perhaps surprisingly, this mid nineteenth century property survey listed no members of the surname in Dungarvan. However, there was a John Lennon in Curraheen, Kilrossanty. In Leinster, twenty-three Lennons were listed for County Dublin, forty-five in Langford, thirty-six in Westmeath and, closest to the northern border, the highest number, seventy-four, in County Louth. Interestingly, fourteen households were reported for County Wicklow, which had been the site of an erenagh sept of the surname in Kilranelagh, close to St. Kevin's monastic site at Glendalough. 19 The concentration of the family in the northeast is dramatically reflected in the figures for the Ulster counties. Ninety-nine households were listed in County Armagh, the ecclesiastical capital of Ireland. To the east of Armagh, County Down listed eighty-eight households. Immediately southwest of Armagh, County Monaghan had thirty-four. County Fermanagh, home to the medieval Ó Luinin and Ó Leannain erenagh septs, listed only four households. A search for the most common surnames in 1864, shortly after Griffith, again revealed a preponderance of the surname in Ulster and Leinster. In the former province, the largest concentration was found on the Ards Peninsula of County Down. Specifically, it was the most common surname in the parish of Ballytrustan. Concentrations were also found in the peninsula parishes of Ardquin and Ballyphilip. In the Downpatrick area, in the parish of Down, the name was also fairly numerous. Coincidentally, it was in nearby Killybegs that family ancestor Archbishop William Crolly was born in 1780. 20 Births by province for the years 1864 - 1870 show some eighty five percent of Lennons born in Ulster and Leinster. Marriage statistics for the periods 1871-1880 and 1881 - 1886 show more than ninety per cent of Lennon marriages occurring in these two provinces. Deaths for 1881-1900 reflect the same distribution. The concentration in Ulster and Leinster was confirmed by 1909’s Matheson's Special Report on Surnames in Ireland for the year 1890. Of a total of one hundred three Lennon births, nearly half were in Leinster (forty nine), concentrated in Dublin, and more than one third (thirty six) in Ulster, largely in Armagh. Robert Bell's The Book of Ulster Surnames lists Lennon, for 1970, as the forty-second most common surname in Ulster's County Monaghan and somewhat numerous in County Armagh. In Ulster's County Down, Lennon remains a fairly common name on the southern tip of the Ards Peninsula near Ardquin. Coincidentally, Ardquin had been a monastic site, the outline of whose walls may be traced today. Whether any of the Lennons in the vicinity can trace their pedigree to the monastic inhabitants is a matter of conjecture. A subject for further enquiry would be the religious affiliation of these Northern Lennons: Dissenting Presbyterian, Roman Catholic or Church of Ireland (Anglican). Religion, in most cases, being indicative of Loyalist/Unionist (Protestant) or Republican/Nationalist (Roman Catholic) sympathies. County Down: Crolly/O Crilly Lineage to the Ulster Crolly/O’Crilly family can be traced via the rebel George Gerard Lennon’s (1900-1991) paternal grandmother, Mary Anne Crolly Lennon (1825-1898). Crilly is a Mac name of Irish origins. Associated with the place name Ballymacreely, it derives from the medieval Gaelic MacRaghallaigh, loosely translated as "the son of the descendant of the rakish one.” It should not be confused with O’Croly, which is the older form of Crowley. There are two separate septs, which carry the name, and it is now spelled largely as Crilly but also as Crolly. It is also occasionally found with the prefix O', Mac or Mc. Name holders are found chiefly in Country Louth or in Ulster's County Armagh and south County Down. Found in an ecclesiastical history of the Diocese of Down and Connor is mention of a George Crolly, Baron of Ulster, who, in all likelihood, was an Anglo-Norman. A direct family link remains problematic. 21 In the 1640's Abbot Patrick Crolly (O Creely) acted as an intermediary between the Crown and the Catholic forces of Owen Roe O'Neill with the object of affecting an agreement on the basis of toleration of the Church of Rome. The plan came to naught. Also of a "priestly caste," circa 1647, was a Maghera priest named O'Crilli. The family, at the end of the seventeenth century, gained note as supporters of James II. One of the few of a "military caste" was James O'Crilly (Crolly) who served in the O'Neill regiment of the Jacobite army at the Boyne. Retreating with James II to Waterford, Niall O'Neill was to die of his wounds and his remains lie today at Greyfriars (The French Church) in Waterford City. Many others of these “Wild Geese” fled to France. The nineteenth century witnessed three noted Ulster clerics of the Crolly or Croly surname, including Archbishop William Crolly. Archbishop Crolly of Armagh The Archbishop was born at Ballykilbeg (the townland of the little church) near Downpatrick, County Down on 8 June 1780. Land there remained in Crolly hands until 1784 when the family remained as tenants. As there were no Catholic schools in the north of Ireland, William attended a classical school in Downpatrick conducted by Rev. Mr. Nelson, a Unitarian minister. Attending Maynooth, he obtained first place, in 1801, in dogmatic theology. For six years he lectured in logic, metaphysics, and ethics. In 1812 he moved to the Parish of Belfast, a large district of some thirty miles across. Appointed Bishop of Down and Connor from 22 1825-1835, he built a large church in almost every parish and founded St. Malachy's Seminary. This was made possible by the easing of the Penal Laws in the latter 18th century. Accordingly, the Catholic Church began to erect edifices of some architectural significance following the Relief Act of 1793. Known for his liberal views on inter church relationships, he was something of an ecumenist before his time. On two occasions he was allegedly reported to Rome for his liberal ideas. His relations with the other main churches during his time as Bishop of Down and Connor was excellent as demonstrated by the manner in which financial support for church building and for Catholic Emancipation in the 1820s was reportedly extended by Presbyterians and Church of Ireland alike. Owing to the shortage of Roman Catholic schools, he was obliged to allow Catholic children to attend Protestant schools. This was a course of action destined to cause fierce controversy after his death. He was also one of the few bishops who looked favor- ably upon the establishment of Queen's colleges. The project was formally condemned by the Vatican as being pernicious to the Faith. In 1835 he was appointed Archbishop of Armagh and thereby Roman Catholic Primate of Ireland. He took up residence in Drogheda as well as in the See of Armagh. Up to his time no Roman Catholic primate had been allowed to reside in Armagh. His great work was the foundation of St. Patrick's Cathedral and, earlier in 1838, St. Patrick’s College. Having with great difficulty acquired a site on an historic hill by the side of the town, he laid the Church’s foundation stone on St. Patrick's Day, 1840. 23 St Patrick’s, Armagh As described in 2008 in Patrick Vesey’s The Murder of Major Mahon, Strokestown, County Roscommon, he reacted to the November 1847 assassination of Roscommon landlord Major Denis Mahon by attributing his death to the harshness of the owners of the soil and the vengeance of their evicted tenants. There was to be no red cardinal’s biretta for Dr. Crolly. Work on the cathedral was halted during the Great Hunger. His life was taken, in 1849, by the same disease, cholera, which caused so many deaths in the final years of that mid nineteenth century catastrophe. He was buried in the centre of the choir of the unfinished cathedral. Construction was resumed in 1854 and dedication occurred in 1873. A nephew of the Archbishop was Reverend George Crolly (1813-1878) who wrote a biography of his uncle. The Reverend was born in Downpatrick, County Down, educated at Maynooth and, in 1837, became a parish priest in Belfast. In 1843 he was appointed professor of theology at Maynooth. He assisted the famed Young Irelander Gavan Duffy 24 in establishing the Belfast Vindicator newspaper. Duffy also founded the famed weekly journal of the Young Ireland movement, the Nation, in 1842. Easily confused with the above Rev. George Crolly, is the noted poet and preacher of the same name, spelled Croly, who was born in 1780 and died in 1860. The Christian name of George and the Crolly/Croly family name, hence, were shared by four individuals: the Anglo-Norman Baron of Ulster, the poet, the Reverend biographer and, ultimately, Dungarvan’s George Crolly Lennon (1870-1914), father of George Gerard. County Fermanagh: O Luinin/O Leannain That Lennon family ancestry likely traces to medieval County Fermanagh in the Province of Ulster is supported by Australian genealogist David Larkin and by the listing of the two Gaelic forms of the name at the Lough Erne monasteries as detailed in medieval written works known as the annals. Larkin maintains that the sept developed as an offshoot of the McCarthys. Most noteworthy, Briain Mhoir Lennan MacCarthaigh who settled in the eleventh century in the Lough Erne area near Enniskillen. Possible corroboration of this connection may be seen in the presence of the stag on both family shields. Reference is made to the family in the Fermanagh Genealogies written by members of the family who served as scribes at Lisgoole, County Fermanagh. According to these pedigrees, an O Lennon of Lisgoole traced his ancestry to Cormac MacArt (226-268 A.D.), King of Tara. This was the same king who reportedly drove the Desii from Tara to "South Desii," today’s Waterford or the Deise. An assumption of the family's presence at the ecclesiastical enclave at Lough Erne, as detailed in chapter IV, does not necessarily mean a presence in that area after the monasteries had been subdued and a diocesan system introduced. Later years were to see the establishment of an Anglo-Saxon hegemony as the native culture was brought to its knees. The early years of the seventeenth century witnessed the "Flight of the Earls" from Donegal and the "Ulster Plantation" followed by the flight of the "Wild Geese" after the Treaty of Limerick (1691). Cromwell's mid seventeen- century edict ("to hell or Connacht") moved the landed Irish to west of the Shannon River. The ultimate catastrophe of the late 1840's was the Great Hunger. While Fermanagh maintained a sizable Catholic population throughout those years, it was without a notable number of Lennons. Pinder's Census of 1659 revealed a total Fermanagh population of 7102 of whom 1800 were "planted" English and Scots with Anglican (C of I) congregants, rather than Presbyterians, predominating. Listed was a native Irish population of 5202 with a multitude of McGuire and Maguire’s with whom the O Luinin were associated as 25 historians. Listed in Derryvullan (site of Ard O Luinin on Inishmore Island) was an O Lynnan. Also noted was another at "Ennismacsaint" (Inishmacsaint). A total of seven O Luinins were listed at the old abbey site of St. Aid, Lisgoole, Rossorry Parish. Later, a Franciscan Abbey was established there in the sixteenth century. Useful in studying nineteenth century families is "The Tithe Composition Act of 1823" which replaced in kind payments to the Church of Ireland with landlord cash payments. To effect this change, a Tithe Applotment Survey surveyed all land from 1823 to 1837. The continuation of the tithes was not a measure which appealed to either native Roman Catholics or Dissenting Presbyterians. The survey, in that it applied to landlords, showed a preponderance of names of planted origin. Moreover, there was a tendency on the part of British authorities to Anglicise native Irish names. Listed was a "Willm Lennon" of Derryvullan, Townland of Rossighth. Indicative of a thorough Anglicisation is the English phonetic spelling of the surname minus the Irish prefix of O or Ui. The Christian name of William is the English form of the Irish Liam or the French Guillaume. A 1909 report on Irish surnames for 1890 (Matheson) listed 109 Lennon births. Only a handful were to be found remaining in the Enniskillen-Lough Erne area of County Fermanagh. CHAPTER IV FERMANAGH MONASTERIES For more than half a millennium, monasteries (a.k.a. abbeys) played a unique role as centres of religious life in Ireland. Sometimes grouped into "parachiae" or families, they presented a very different form of church organisation than the episcopal system widespread elsewhere in Europe. On the Continent, church structure was based on bishoprics, which simply copied Roman administrative units called dioceses. In an 26 Ireland without cities, the Church did not see the necessity of having bishops. It was abbots and abbesses who ruled over increasingly larger and powerful monastic communities. Families ensured continuity with both sexes performing all church rites. As noted by writer Frank O'Connor: The rulers of the monasteries after having disposed of the Romanist prigs are no longer the harsh, unworldly men... who read nothing but their Gospels and Psalm books. They are far more like the parsons of Peacock and Meredith - wealthy, worldly, scholarly men who live in the little oases of civilisation among the bogs and the woods, in comfortable wooden houses with wine cellars and libraries, with clever sons...and clever daughters. They are custodians of relics and treasure worth the ransom of a great many kings. Abbeys were usually established on arable land because they were intended to be self- sufficient centres of prayer, productivity and communal harmony. They were also centres of culture, learning and social progress. Monks established schools, copied and illuminated manuscripts, improved farming methods and organised early cooperative farming. They also developed the first hospitals in the western world to care for the sick on pilgrimage. Church lands were farmed by often-hereditary tenants under lay abbots known as erenaghs (or herenaghs) from the Irish "airchinnech" (chief man). These keepers of church estates functioned as stewards, collecting rents and tithes. Lay erenaghs knew Latin and claimed spiritual powers of blessing as guardians of the relics of their founding saints. They took no holy orders but had the tonsure or shaven crown as a sign of dedication to special service. A possible early antecedent of the family is to be found in the personage of Colman MacLeinin, credited with the founding of the sixth century monastery of Cluain Uama, Cloyne, County Cork. However, the surname is more generally associated with the Ulster monasteries in Fermanagh (Fear Managh), "the region of the monks.” After 1100 A.D reformers sought to subdue the monasteries with a diocesan system to provide priestly services - the exception being the abbeys revitalized by the Augustinians. Drained of resources, the communities declined in importance bringing to a virtual close the 600-year tradition of fostering culture and the arts that was so different from anything on the Continent. After 1200 it was the Cistercians, Dominicans, Augustinians and Franciscans who continued, in a different form, the monastic way of life in Ireland. Specifically, in County Fermanagh, the Augustinians came to the Devinish Island Priory on Lower Lough Erne, to Derryvullan and to Lisgoole in 1145 A.D. where they were to be 27 replaced, in 1583, by the Franciscans. Other monastic settlements in the Lough Erne area included Inishmacsaint and Derrybrusk. The reason for this particular concent- ration of communities remains a matter of conjecture. Possible explanations include the concentration of people in the area and the Erne's importance as a means of water bound transportation and communication. Fermanagh Civil Parishes Inishmacsaint (14) The Ó Luinin sept held land and ecclesiastical office on the island monastery at Inishmacsaint located a mile from shore on Lower Lough Erne in the present civil parish of Inishmacsaint. The abbey was founded in the early sixth century by St. Nenn (Nennid). Reportedly, it is accessible by the Enniskillen to Belleek road. Visible today are headstones and an ancient Irish cross. 28 Derryvullan (8) This monastery was located on the east side of Lower Lough Erne, in the Parish of Derryvullan, north of Enniskillen town and west of Lisnarrick in Castle Archdale Bay. The townland of Arda (Ard Ui Luinin) is located on Inishmore (a.k.a. Davy's) Island. Erenaghs of Arda included the fourteenth century Matha Ó Luinin (d.1396 A.D.) who was described by contemporaries as "skilled in praise-poetry, history, music and Latin learning." Described as "a learned historian and poet and a man greatly reverenced and honoured" was erenagh Piarus Cam ("stooped") Ó Luinin (d.1441) who reportedly had a one third share in the administration of Derryvullan. Scribes included Chief Herald of Ulster, Matha mac Briain mhic Cormaic Oig Ó Luinin (1470-1516 A.D.) and Ruaidhri (d.1528 A.D.) scribe of the greater part of the Annals of Ulster. Other Ó Luinins included Cormac mac Deinis mac Phiarusa Ó Luinin (d.1529 A.D.); Neime Ó Luinin and his family died of the plague in 1540 A.D.; Ruaidhri's grandson, Matha, wrote, in 1571 A.D., a manuscript entitled Bretha Nemed; and Cormac Ó Luinin (a.k.a. Seurlas Ó Luinin and Charles Lynegar) was an early eighteenth century professor of Irish at Trinity College Dublin and "chief antiquary of the Kingdom of Ireland." Dated 1632 is a certificate signed by Patrick Ó Luinin (a.k.a. Lynegar) at his residence on Inishmore that he had received "genealogies from his ancestors, chief antiquaries of Ireland.” A contemporary, also residing on Inishmore, was chief Maguire historian, Giolla Padraig Ó Luinin, In her 1982 book, Prospect of Fermanagh, Mary Rogers reports the ruins of a church on the island surrounded by a roughly circular graveyard indicative of Celtic monastic origin. It now contains no datable stone earlier than 1762. At the beginning of the seventeenth century the island belonged to the Augustinian Canons of Lisgoole and an abbey is marked on the island on the 1834 ordnance survey map. Rogers theorises that the island may have been used as a hostel for the use of pilgrims on their way to St. Patrick's Purgatory ("the mouth of hell") at Lough Derg in Donegal. However, Fermanagh historian John Cunningham is unaware of any monastic remains with the nearest ancient graveyard being to the south at Aghalurcher near Lisnaskea. Lisgoole (19) A most noted monastery was located at Lisgoole (Lios Gabhail), Rossorry. Located on the shore of Upper Lough Erne the old monastery of St. Aid was taken possession of, in 1145, by the Canons Regular of St. Augustine. In 1360 the Duke of Clarence, second son of Edward III, came to Ireland, dispersed the monks, and burned many religious houses, including the Lisgoole monastery. 29 Circa 1583, however, a Franciscan Abbey was begun on the site under the direction of Cuchonngacht Maguire II. Forced to leave in 1598, the Franciscans returned in 1616 and served in the region well into the eighteenth century. Local historian Cunningham states that some of the remains were incorporated into a private house and the surrounding headstones were removed to make a foundation for the Enniskillen Military Barracks, now a Gardai Station. The Book of Invasions (Leabhor Gabhala Erenn), which includes the Ulster Cycle of Cuchulain and the Ossianic Cycle revolving around the legendary Finn McCool, had a connection with this monastery when, in the early 1600's, Giolla Padraig Ó Luinin assisted in writing a new edition. This was to be part of the larger Annals of the Four Masters. Successive Ó Luinin scribes at Lisgoole compiled, from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century, the Fermanagh Genealogies (Geinealaigh Fearmanach). Conchubhar Caoch Ó Luinin, in 1712, brought the initial genealogies up to date. Earlier having written a manuscript known as G129. The most delightful feature of the genealogies is that they give nicknames of their subjects, whether complimentary or otherwise. All the original Fermanagh Genealogies manuscripts are now lost. However, the sole remaining edition of a transcript (1842) by Pol Ó Longan resides at St. Colman's College, Fermoy, County Cork. While attacking British forces at that garrison town in 1919, a teen aged George Lennon was, no doubt, unaware of any possible family connections to the manuscripts at the college. Modern day Lennons, however, may more likely trace their ancestry to the Ó Leannain variant of the surname whose existence at the Lisgoole abbey is confirmed by the Annals of Ireland by the Four Masters which lists six Ó Leannain priors or canons from 1380 to 1466 Included in AFM is a reference to the fourteenth century prior, Domnail Ó Leannain (d.1380), who is also noted as being a master of history in the Annals of Connaught. CHAPTER V IRISH ANNALS The Irish annals are a unique collection of yearly records of political and ecclesiastical events accumulated in monasteries from the late sixth century to the end of the sixteenth century. It was Colm Cille, third of the three patron saints of Ireland, who was 30 responsible for the sixth century Iona Chronicle which identified the founders of Irish Christianity (St. Patrick and St. Brigid), terrestrial phenomenon and political events related to the Ulster Ui Neill from whom Colm Cille was descended. This chronicle was maintained at Iona until its removal to Ireland in the eight century. Here it was continued and copies made that form the basis for all the surviving collection of annals, each of which reflects something of the monastery and the district in which it was compiled. Among the numerous ancient histories included in this work are the Annals of Connaught (1224 -1544 A.D.) for the west of Ireland and, relevant to St. Ciaran's monastery at Clonmacnoise (established circa 540's A.D.), were the Annals of Tigernach. As scribes of the annals, the O Luinins kept these records and were noted in them; earning for themselves the description as “peaceful sept(s) of lay abbots, scribes and ecclesiastics.” The O Luinin/O Leannain presence at the Lough Erne monasteries and the Lennon family connection with the numerous religious Crollys lends credence to the observation that large numbers of the family were associated with the Church in its monastic and diocesan forms. Adding credence to this assumption is the crest’s portrayal of a stag (p.13) on a white background. George Lennon’s journey, from “physical force” Irish Volunteer to a pacifist influenced by the tenets of the Society of Friends (Quakers) and Zen Buddhism may understandably be viewed in the context of a “peaceful sept” of a “priestly caste.” Annals of Inisfallen Lennon Ulster antecedents mentioned in this annal (written 1092-1326 A.D.) includes the earliest possible reference to a Colman "Lenin" in 606 A.D. A perhaps more obvious reference to the name, however, was not until 898-899 A.D. when note was made of a County Clare erenagh at Inis Cathaig (Scattery Island) in the mouth of the Shannon: Lennan MacCathranagh (Lennan, son of Cathrannach) who was to die in 913 A.D. The death of Bishop Diarmait Ua Lennain, also an erenagh of Inis Cathaig, was recorded for 1119 A.D. Annals of Ulster Reflecting northern Connaught, Derry, Armagh and Fermanagh are the Annals of Ulster (circa 1489 A.D.) that are cited as a most valuable source for the early history of Ireland and Scotland. Preserved, with an astonishing degree of accuracy, were copies of contemporary records from the late 7th century to the 1540's A.D. Maintained, based on memory with somewhat less accuracy, are matters prior to that period. The complete edition is available at Trinity College, Dublin. The major portions of the A and B texts were penned by Ruaidhri (Ruiri) O Luinin (d.1528), scribe and historian to Cathal Og MacMaghnusa (Cathal the younger son of Maguire), Chieftain of Fermanagh. 31 Continuing the family's tradition as scribes was the aforementioned Matha O Luinin (Bretha Nemed) a "sage in history" who complained, in 1579, that a manuscript allegedly written by a O Cassaide (another Maguire sub sept) was, in fact, written by Matha's grandfather, Ruaidhri. He maintained that O Cassaide's penmanship was too poor to have written the manuscript. The Annals of Ulster reported a death, in 780 A.D., of Abbot MacLeinne of Innis Bairein and, in 1540 A.D., a plague in the Ard of Muintir resulting in the deaths of the family of Neime O Luinin. Annals of Ireland by the Four Masters With the Tudor-Stuart plantations and the suppression of the monasteries, this tradition of yearly monastic records ended, except for one final flourish in the 1630’s which was a period of unprecedented literary activity in many parts of Ireland. This activity was borne out of desperation to preserve records of an ancient Gaelic civilisation. It was felt that if the works were not done at that time, the original manuscripts might never again be brought together. This fear proved prophetic, with the Great Rebellion of 1641, when most of the sources used were scattered and became no longer available. Compiled, in the Franciscan monastery in Donegal, under the direction of Brother Micheal O Cleirigh (O Clery) was an enormous compendium known as the Annals of Ireland by the Four Masters (AFM). Drawn upon, as archival sources, were (inter alia) the aforementioned Annals of Tigernach, Annals of Inisfallen, Annals of Ulster and the Book of Invasions (Leabhor Gabhala Erenn). The latter, first written perhaps in the 32 eleventh century, was an elaborate legendary account of the origins of Ireland and the Irish people. Drawing on these sources, AFM, begun circa 1630 A.D., was completed on 10 August 1636. It has been hailed as the "greatest intellectual legacy of the early modern Francis- cans" and covers events from earliest times to 1616 A.D. It is probably the best known and most referenced account of Irish history. Owen Connellan later, in 1846, translated them into English. The Franciscans reportedly supplied the food and lodging for the Four Masters; although there may have been as many as seven scribes involved including the chief Maguire historian, Giolla Padraig O Luinin ("follower of Patrick, grandson of Luinin"). Giolla Padraig, of Inishmore Island (Davy's Island) in Lower Lough Erne, is also credit- ed with a new edition of the Book of Invasions. An examination of these manuscripts, many of which reside at the Royal Irish Academy, reveal a multitude of references, although on occasion reported to be "chronologically inaccurate," to possible O Luinin family antecedents including: Flanagain O Lonain, abbot of Leamor Iniscealtra in Lough Derg (d.900); O Lonain, blind poet of Munster (d.1064); Piarus Cam O Luinin, Erenagh of Arda, Fermanagh (d.1441); Matha O Luinin, Erenagh of Arda (d.1477) and Tadhg Finn Luinin (d.1478) a Maguire historian. Of the O Leannain form of the name, six are referenced as priors of Lisgoole: Domnail (d.1380), Giolla na-Naev (d.1430), Lucas (d.1434), Tomas (d.1445), Eoin (d.1446), and Domnail (d.1466). CHAPTER VI POST-MEDIEVAL PERIOD 33 Strongbow to the Flight of the Earls While the erenaghs, historians, canons and industrious Irish scribes of Lough Erne, County Fermanagh provide a most fertile ground for Lennon family historical research, there is no analogous entity in later years to replace these writers of ancient Irish history. As subsequent historical events were destined to have a negative impact upon Gaelic Ireland, to follow a Lennon family pedigree from medieval Ulster to nineteenth century Dungarvan is a daunting and perhaps impossible task. This brief chapter, therefore, involves a rather simplistic representation of Irish history and how, on occasion, the family was involved in that narrative from the time of the Norman incursion in Waterford to the early twentieth century. Under the "Donation of Constantine" in 1156 the pope granted the island to Henry II. Less than two decades later there began the rapid military domination of a politically fragmented Gaelic polity by subjects of the King of England. Most notable was the 1170 A.D. Waterford arrival of the Norman Richard Fitz Gilbert (Strongbow). With the Normans becoming, in many instances, "more Irish than the Irish," the English Parliament sought to Anglicise the population through the largely ineffectual fourteenth century Statutes of Kilkenny (1366 A.D.). In actuality, by the 1500's, wide- ranging control was to be exercised by the Norman Great Earl of Kildare, Garret More Fitzgerald. Tudor conquest was to eventually prevail, however, beginning with the 1537 A.D. Tower beheading of "Silken Thomas" Fitzgerald, tenth Earl of Kildare, and five of his uncles. Henry VIII had the Dublin Parliament, controlled by the Anglo-Irish elite, declare him head of the state Church of Ireland in 1537 A.D. By 1541 he had been declared King of Ireland. When Henry's daughter, Elizabeth, became Queen (1558 A.D.), she was convinced that even more stringent measures would have to be taken to stabilise English domination in Ireland. The Act of Supremacy confirmed her as the head of the Church of Ireland and required all civil officials to swear allegiance to her as such. She then began to steadily expand the plantation system displacing the indigenous people. However, Saxon law did, on occasion, re-grant sept lands to the Gael. Pardons were also, on occasion, granted to native populations. Included, in the sixteenth century, were Moreirtagh Luinion and Conogher Rowe O Lonnan. Using loyal English subjects, the plantation of Munster began in the 1580's. In Waterford this involved Richard Boyle (Earl of Cork), Sir Walter Raleigh and the Cavendish/Hartington family of Lismore Castle and England’s famed Chatsworth 34 House. The various Dukes of Devonshire were to leave their imprint on west County Waterford (p. 47), including Dungarvan. To be subdued next was the Province of Munster, the most Gaelic part of Ireland, and home to the famed Chieftains – the O Donnells and the O Neills. Educated as an English nobleman the orphaned Hugh O Neill returned to Ulster in 1567. Elevated to the peerage as Earl of Tyrone in 1585, his loyalties swayed back to his native Irish and he was inaugurated as The O Neill in 1593. Five years later, in union with other Irish Chieftains, he defeated the Sassenach forces at the Battle of the Yellow Ford. Badly beaten at Kinsale in 1601 A.D., he surrendered in 1603 and fled, in the 1607 "Flight of the Earls" from Lough Swilly, Donegal. He died in Rome in 1616. The old Gaelic order had passed and the plantation of Ulster began with Scots and English "undertakers." The Maguires No discussion of family forebearers in post medieval County Fermanagh would be complete without mentioning the ties between the O Luinin and the Maguires (MacUidhir), the Chiefs of Fermanagh. The O Luinin sept were noted as chroniclers of this family. The frontier of the Maguire's country was Enniskillen located on the Erne. The Erne is a unique maze of channels, islands, waterways and semi-connected lakes covering a large portion of the County. The local saying is that "in summer Lough Erne is in Fermanagh; in winter Fermanagh is in Lough Erne." There, in Ulster, far removed from the Munster incursions of the Normans, Gaelic civilisation lived on until the end of the Middle Ages. 35 The lengthy reign of the Maguires began with Donn Currach Maguire (1260-1302 A.D.). The building of a castle at Enniskillen, in the early 15th century, served to solidify their control over the northwestern part of their territory. A senior branch of the family, however, maintained a stronghold at Lisnaskea that remained the seat of the ruling chieftain until 1484, with kingship alternating with the junior branch at Enniskillen Castle. Through the following century all but two of the chieftains came from Enniskillen. By the time of the death of Thomas the Younger (Tomas Og) in 1471, Fermanagh, thanks to an alliance with the O Neills, had become entirely Maguire country. Chronicling this was Tadhg Fionn O Luinin who died in 1478 A.D. Writer of the manuscript Bretha Nemed (1571) was Maguire historian Matha O Luinin. The O Donnells saw fit to invade Fermanagh in 1515 A.D., forcing the Maguires to submit to them. Later aligned with the ONeills in 1522, the Maguires drove out the O Donnells. In a three hundred year period there were no fewer than fifteen Maguire chieftains of the territory. It remains the most common name in the County. Cuchonngacht Maguire II founded, in 1583, the Franciscan Abbey at Lisgoole where the chief Maguire historian, Giolla Padraig O Luinin, assisted in the re-compilation, of the Book of Conquests (Invasions) to be part of the larger Annals of the Four Masters (AFM). A Maguire alliance with the other great Ulster Chieftains led to the Yellow Ford victory followed by the defeat at Kinsale. Cuchonngacht, after securing the ship to take the earls away, then joined the Earl of Tyrone (Hugh O Neill) and the Earl of Tyrconnell (Rory O Donnell) in the historic flight. Upheavals of the 1600s With the 1607 departure of the Earls the most wrenching and dramatic changes in Irish history were to occur. Symbolic of the transition was the 1610 settlement in County Colerane (Derry) by a group of London livery companies causing the name of the county to be changed to Londonderry. The period 1622 to 1641 witnessed an increase in the Protestant population from 13,000 to over 100,000. While most of the Irish remained on their lands, it was as tenants not as owners. Mentioned, as dispossessed of land in Galway was Mary Lennan, wife of Bryan, who was the son of John. She later unsuccessfully sought reinstatement of the lands from her brother in law, John Og (the younger) Lennon. Owen Roe O Neill, Phelim O Neill and Rory O More formed an alliance in the 1640's to overthrow the Dublin government (within the Pale). The leading Catholics set up a provincial government, the Catholic Confederation, in Lord Ormonde’s (James Butler) Kilkenny Castle. The national parliament stood for independence and for full liberty of religion and conscience. Serving as an intermediary between the Catholic forces of Owen Roe and the Crown was the aforementioned Abbot Patrick Crolly. Officers in the Irish army of Charles I included Manus Lenan, Robert Lenane and Peter Lenean. The rebels were subsequently dispossessed of their lands as duly recorded in 36 The Book of Surveys. Before the downfall of Ormonde, the following were noted in his papers: Bryan Lennan, John Lennon and John Oge Lennon. When the rising began in 1641 A.D., nearly eighty per cent of the island's land belonged to Roman Catholics. With Cromwell's landing in Dublin, on 15 August 1649, the fate of the Catholic Irish was sealed. The revolt was crushed, tens of thousands were murdered, the Catholic religion outlawed, and the rights of the native people reduced to little more than that of livestock. Many of the Irish gentry embarked in 1650 and 1651 for Spain and Italy. Those who remained took up their former abodes in the outbuildings attached to their homes that were now occupied by an English officer or adventurer. They were employed tilling and labouring on the land they once owned. By 1653 the island had been completely subjugated with the ancient estates and farms of the Irish people declared as belonging to the adventurers and the army of England. The Irish aristocracy banished - "to hell or Connacht" - to go abroad leaving their family and followers behind if they lacked the means to follow. If found east of the River Shannon after the first day of May 1654, they faced death. By the year 1665 only twenty per cent of the land remained in Catholic hands. In "planted" Ulster, by 1703, the figure was less than five percent. Noted as "innocent papists" loyal to the Crown in 1653-1654 were Manus and Mary Lenan Oliver Cromwell Holding the Irish population in contempt the “L0rd Protector” forcibly transported, by some accounts, more than fifty thousand men, women and children to plantations in Barbados, St. Kitt, Montserrat, Antigua and Guinea. Removing a potentially seditious population also earned money for Cromwell’s Commonwealth. 37 Recorded in the Book of Survey and Distribution was Herbert Lynon, Catholic proprietor of Ballydowan, County Mayo, who forfeited his lands to Sir Arthur Gore; a name (Gore Booth Markievicz of County Sligo) that was to play a significant role in the revolutionary years of 1916-1923. Individuals with the surnames of Lenan, Lenane, Lenean, Leonard and Lynans were listed a followers of Charles I before his execution. With the collapse of the Cromwellian regime, in December 1659, Charles II was proclaimed king. Included in the short-lived restoration of Roman Catholics in the 1660's was Bryan Lennan, County Antrim. A shortfall in English coffers, due to the war, resulted in the imposition of additional taxes. In Kilkenny, taxes were received from Patrick Lanane and four individuals with the Lonnane surname. In Sligo, payments were recorded for O Linnin, Luinnin and O Lunine. Variant spellings may be attributed to the transcriptions of Irish surnames to a more convenient phonetic English spelling by Anglo Saxon officials. Many other variants of the surname are to be found in filed wills records. The post Cromwellian period witnessed the writing of the G129 manuscript, as well as genealogies of the principal Irish families, in English and Irish characters, by Conchubhar Caoch O Luinin of Ard Ui Luinin, County Fermanagh. Listed as a 1684 Dublin inhabitant was William Linegar, formerly of the Fermanagh Lough Erne area. Cormac O Luinin (a.k.a. Lynegar) was a professor of Irish at Trinity College, Dublin. Matriculating at Trinity College in 1688 was Patrick Lenan from County Down. Enrollment at Trinity was no doubt indicative of Church of Ireland (Protestant) or Presbyterian (Dissenting) religious affiliation. Ascending the throne in 1685 was the Catholic James II. Protestant nervousness over his perceived pro-Catholic policies led to his removal in 1688. “England's difficulty became Ireland's opportunity” and the Irish prepared to rebel with James leading them. James borrowed troops from France and landed in Ireland in 1689, the year that William (III) and Mary ascended to the throne in England. James was defeated on 11 July 1690 at the Boyne by William of Orange. 38 Participating as a Jacobite officer, under Sir Niall O Neill, was James O Crilly (Crolly). Consequently labeled as "attainted Jacobites” the Crollys may well have lost their lands. Accompanying the fleeing James II to Waterford, the mortally wounded O Neill died with his remains interred at the Franciscan’s Greyfriars Abbey (The French Church). Incongruously it was the nearby Christ Church that witnessed the marriage of the Irish Chieftain’s daughter to the Norman Strongbow in 1171. The official ending of the Jacobite wars in Ireland was the ill-fated Treaty of Limerick (3 October 1691). The flight of the" Wild Geese," as they were labeled on the manifests of ships, had begun. To the Battle of Fontenoy (War of the Austrian Succession) in 1745, the French Bureau de le Guerre estimated that some 440,000 Irishmen served in the armies of France. "Remember Fontenoy" was destined to become a rallying cry for Irish rebels in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The year 1695 marked the beginning of penal legislation against the Irish Catholics and other “Dissenters” including the numerous Presbyterians. Outlawed for treason from 1690 -1699 were individuals with the surnames of Leonard, Lenard and O Lennargh. Penal Times The victory of William of Orange left Ireland at the mercy of English Church of Ireland interests who had little inclination for accommodation with the defeated. Subsequently enacted by the Irish Parliament were a series of discriminatory laws:  A 1692 act encouraged Protestant settlement in Ireland.  It was declared, in 1697, that "all popish archbishops, bishops, vicars-general, deans, Jesuits, monks, friars and all other popish clergy shall depart out of this kingdom..." Remaining clergy were subject to other restrictions. 39  Intermarriage between Protestants and Catholics was forbidden in 1697. An act of 1704 forbade Catholics to own land or inherit lands from Protestants.  Further acts prohibited Catholics from practising law, sitting in Parliament, or holding public office and voting.  Public office holders were required, in 1704, to take communion under Church of Ireland auspices. The objective was to break the political power of the Roman Catholics. Despite their formal ferocity, they were not vigorously enforced. There was arguably no sustained campaign of persecution and, from the 1720's onward, the structures and institutions of the Catholic Church began to recover. Minor enactments continued until 1755, but, by then, the tide had turned. Other laws, such as the imposition of new taxes, the payment of tithes to the established Church of Ireland, high rents and the enclosure of lands, led to rural protest movements. These included the Whiteboys, the Oakboys, the Steelboys and the Rightboys. Subsequent relief acts of 1778, 1782, 1792 and 1793 swept away most of the Penal Laws. By then, though, the persecution of the indigenous population had resulted in Catholic ownership of a meager percentage of Irish lands. The easing of the strictures did not sit well with the Ulster Protestants who formed the Peep O Day Boys and, in 1795, the Orange Order in County Armagh. Not dissimilar to these Penal Laws were the Black or Slave Codes of the American South where race, not religion, denoted the oppressed. However, unlike the slaves, the Irish were a majority in their native land. A more contemporary example may be found in the South African apartheid era. In 1798 the United (Presbyterian Dissenters and Catholics) Irishmen's Rising, led by Wolfe Tone, failed and this resulted in the abolition of the Irish Parliament and direct English Parliamentary rule in 1801 with Irish members of Parliament serving in London not College Green, Dublin. Eighteenth century variants of the Lennon name, too numerous to mention, are to be found in parochial registers. These families were largely concentrated in Galway, Down, Dublin and Roscommon. Also mentioned was the Anglicised Leonard quite common in Waterford City. Leonards trace their ancestry to the royal family of MacGiolla Fhinnein (pronounced Magilla Nane), translated as son of the follower of St. Finnian. Ancestry is also traced to a branch of the O Muldory with Fermanagh and Donegal antecedents 40 Emancipation and Nationalism After the Act of Union came into effect Robert Emmet's Dublin insurrection of 1803 failed. Daniel O'Connell was later successful in attaining Catholic Emancipation with the focus of his final years becoming the repeal of the Act of Union. While praising his organisational skills, subsequent generations of nationalists criticized his opposition to armed rebellion as a means of achieving independence. With famine raging from circa 1845 to 1850, the Young Ireland insurrection of 1848 came to naught. Assisting Young Irelander Gavan Duffy with his newspaper was the aforementioned (p. 24) Rev. George Crolly. Growing out of this failure of this mid century revolt was the Fenian movement founded in the United States and Ireland. Following the disaster of the subsequent 1867 Fenian rebellion, the movement split between those who advocated physical force (I.R.B.) as a tool and the more moderate constitutional nationalists of the Home Rule League founded in 1873 and Isaac Butt’s Irish Parliamentary Party of 1874 Espousing the latter “Parliamentarianism” were M.P.s Charles Stewart Parnell and John Redmond who was elected from Waterford City in east County Waterford. The physical force Fenian element was to find a more hospitable home in west County Waterford where the Irish language was still spoken. Cultural nationalism was fueled in 1893 by the establishment of the Gaelic League by Douglas Hyde and Eoin MacNeill. Earlier, in 1883, Michael Cusack formed the Gaelic Athletic Association (G.A.A.) "for the preservation and cultivation of the national pastimes of Ireland." Well into the twentieth century, however, this cultural revival had minimal effect on the use of traditional Irish names. Surnames by this time, had become fully Anglicised (e.g., Lennon, Shanahan) through the rendering of Gaelic names in a phonetic form. For many, the Irish O prefix was eliminated. English Christian names also predominated. The Great Hunger While James Lennon (b.1823), James Shanahan (b.1820), William Walsh (b.1811) and his wife, Ellen Agnes Power, were in the Deise at the time of the Great Hunger, there are no records, anecdotal or otherwise, to indicate any impact upon the family. Nonetheless, no discussion of an Irish family can be complete without reference to this mid nineteenth century event whose effects are felt to this day. 41 More urbanised areas seemed to have been largely spared from the ravages of this contagion. However, great effort was made in Dungarvan, considering its relatively small population, to provide succor for the afflicted through the fever hospital, the workhouse and rented facilities. Published by the Waterford Museum in Dungarvan in 1997, Desperate Haven paints an appalling picture of the effect of the Great Hunger on West Waterford and describes the futile efforts by the government to ameliorate the situation through the local Poor Law Unions. Laissez-faire capitalism was the rule of the day. A portrayal of the 1840's situation is to be found in the 1843 Parliamentary Gazetteer of Ireland: ...The lowest class in Ireland is the most miserable in the world.... Their hovels are, literally speaking, shared with their pigs and poultry. The food of the peasantry is literally is literally potatoes and skimmed milk... Throughout...animal food is never tasted...except perhaps at a festival or a wedding…. These conditions were attributable, in no small measure, to the fact that ...the produce of a farm...deducting tithes and taxes, and the potatoes and milk consumed, are exacted by the landlord. The Dungarvan Union, one of 130 Poor Law Unions in Ireland, covered all of West County Waterford. Construction of a workhouse, now St. Joseph's Hospital, began in 1839 and was completed in the summer of 1841. The earliest surviving "minute-book" account began on 1 November 1845 when there were 197 "inmates.” The 1845 blight while serious was not yet a desperate situation. In January of 1846, 200 yards of limestone were acquired to give employment with the stones to be broken and sold for road repairs. Famine public works included a road (Father Halley's Road) that begins at the Two Mile Bridge and continues on to Clashmore. Always conscious of the effects upon the ratepayers and no doubt desirous of not making the workhouse alternative too attractive, the "meals" in the autumn of 1846 saw milk replaced by treacle (molasses), water for breakfast and bread and cheap soup for dinner. In November an adult pauper's meal consisted of 10 ounces of Indian meal (maize) mixed with treacle for both breakfast and dinner. This proved to be of limited nutritional value, as mills in Ireland could not grind the corn sufficiently to make it 42 digestible. Prior to the hunger it had been used exclusively as animal feed. However, as bad as it was inside the workhouse, it was far worse in the surrounding areas. From 1847 on thousands of people were applying to the workhouse with room for only 600. February listed a workhouse population of 732. In March 2000, people sought relief necessitating the Board of Guardians to rent any available facilities. In September, Kiely's on Quay Lane was leased with room for 350. In January of 1848, Galwey's warehouse on Strandside South in Abbeyside was leased with accommodation for 150 people. Keating's store (The Quay, Shandon) was leased in mid 1848 with room for 600 and, in 1850, an adjoining building was used as an ophthalmic hospital. Another Kiely's building, with room for 150, was leased in December 1848 and closed in 1850. Also leased was Carbery’s on Strandside South in January of 1849 to house 550, mostly women. In bad repair, it was closed in September 1849. Two homes were leased on O'Connell Street. Shandon House with room for 200 was rented in 1849, closing in September. Other locales were also rented as needed. The main burial site for those who died in the early years was at Kilrush; but, by June 1847, it had become overcrowded and an alternative graveyard was located at Slievegrine about 2 miles from Dungarvan. Also used may have been the Shandon cholera graveyard. The year 1849 witnessed a total of 3,946 inmates in all premises. In 1841, the population of the town itself was only 8625 people. By the summer of 1850 it was reported that inmates had taken to eating the weeds from the workhouse grounds after they had been discarded in an ash pit. From 1841 to 1851 the population of Ireland declined from 8,175,124 to 6,552,385 with an estimated one million perishing and others emigrating. Connacht was hit particularly hard, losing some 28.6% of its population, many of whom were Irish speakers. The twin scourges of “famine” and emigration were reflected in County Waterford with a population of 196,000 (1840) that had declined to 94,597 by the late 20th century. In Dungarvan a 1841 population of 8,625 was reduced to 4,977 in 1911. No doubt folk memory still lingered in the 1840’s of earlier catastrophes such as the “year of the slaughter” (1740-1741) when perhaps 38% of an Irish population of 2.4 million succumbed to starvation and fatal diseases. With that in mind, to play a role in the contagions of the 19 th century was the Abbeyside Fever Hospital. Built in 1819, it was situated on a piece of land on Strandside South, which projected, into the Colligan River. At high tide it was almost surrounded by water. With patients transferred to the Workhouse, it closed on 29 December 1860 and remained so until 1869. At that time on 2 June 1869 the Poor Law Medical Officer stated that the building was most unsuitable for treatment of the sick and that the Board of 43 Guardians should build a proper hospital on the Workhouse grounds. However, it was not to be completed until 1876. In August 1881, Gas Works manager and Superintendent of Works James Lennon found the main building to be “in fair order with the exception of about 3 square feet of ceiling that had fallen down in the men’s ward.” Also, seawater erosion had breached the boundary wall. With the appearance of smallpox in November the rooms were reported as damp and the house sooty due to a defective chimney. The medical officer on 1 December reported that “the hospital is in a filthy state, one room rotten from the excreta of fowl, other parts sem to be used as a dog kennel…Rain is coming in through all parts of roofs, in fact the whole place is in a state of ruin.” Abbeyside Fever Hospital After inspecting the premises, Superintendent Lennon, on 8 December, listed the cost of repair at forty pounds, five shillings and sixpence. Repairs were duly carried out. Deterioration continued with seawater coming up through the flooring at high tide. In March of 1914 the Board of Guardians approved the sale of the premises to Mrs. Margaret Norris for the sum of two hundred thirty five pounds. The renovated facility is now an attractive B and B known as Cairbre House. 44 45 CHAPTER VII COUNTY WATERFORD Waterford City County Waterford (Contae Portlairge) is geographically located in the Province of Munster on the south east coast of Ireland. Administratively the city in East Waterford is the county level authority and Dungarvan, in West Waterford, is the administrative centre for the rest of the county. The original name of the area was Cuan-na-Grioth ("the harbour of the sun"); reportedly because the original inhabitants were worshippers of the sun. Vikings first established a settlement in 853 A.D. to be vacated in 902 A.D. when the native Irish drove out the Norsemen. The Vikings re-established themselves, circa 914 A.D., and built what would be Ireland's first city, known as Vadrarfjord (”ford of the rams" or "windy ford"). Upon their defeat, the native Irish applied the sad name Gleann-na-Gleodh or "the valley of lamentations,” also known as Portlairge ("hilly shore"). Diarmait (“the traitor”) MacMurrough), King of Leinster, failed in an attempt to take the city. Expelled from his kingship he travelled to Britain and the continent seeking aid in reclaiming his kingdom. Henry II allowed him to recruit Norman-Welsh adventurers, chief among them Strongbow. This marked the introduction in 1169-1170 of the Anglo-Normans into Ireland Cementing the ties between the Normans and the King of Leinster was the Christ Church marriage of MacMurrough's daughter, Aoife Rua, to Strongbow. This union may 46 be viewed as symbolic of the ensuing 750-year relationship between the foreigner and the citizens of Portlairge. In that, in the mid seventeenth century, Waterford did not capitulate to Cromwell's New Model Army, it had conferred upon it the title of "Urbs Intacta Manet Waterfordia" (Waterford remains the untaken city). The Desii A native Gaelic people called the Desii, who had reportedly been driven in the third century from County Meath by Cormac MacArt, King of Tara, settled Waterford between the Suir and Blackwater Rivers. The accuracy of the saga "The Expulsion of the Deise" has, however, been labeled "pure fiction" by some. As a tribal group, they dominated what is now County Waterford (An Deise) during the early Middle Ages. They retained a sense of their importance and claimed that their own saint, Declan, was a Christian before the coming of St. Patrick. Founded by St. Declan was an ecclesiastical complex at Ardmore, where to this day the round tower remains well preserved. Ardmore Round Tower In County Waterford were found seven baronies plus Waterford City. Midway in size between a county and a parish, a barony is an old and now obsolete administrative 47 unit. Two of the baronies west of the City of Waterford, separated by the Drum-Fineen Hills, boasted of the Decies name: Decies Without Drum and Decies Within Drum. Map of Waterford Baronies In pre - Norman times the chiefs of the Deise were O Bric and O Phelan (O Whelan). Shortly after the Norman incursion, a 1177 grant ceded control of the eastern part of the county to the LePoers (Power). In 1204 Domhnall O Faolain, King of the Deise surrendered to King John. The native Irish character of West Waterford, however, was never really eliminated with Irish spoken well into the twentieth century, particularly in Ring, to the southwest of Dungarvan. Dungarvan To the west of Portlairge, Saint Garbhan (Garvan) is credited with founding the original settlement. He is known to have founded the monastery of Achadh-Gharbhain in the seventh century. It is a matter of dispute as to whether this refers to Dungarvan. It is also possible that the town may have been named after a warrior of the time. A small Viking trading settlement is reputed to have existed, to the north of the present town, on the banks of the Colligan River at Shandon. The town really owes its development to the 12th century Anglo-Normans, being granted a charter by King John in 1204. 48 Lacking a sufficient water supply and a quay, Dungarvan was in a state of decay at the beginning of the 18th century. However, it became a notable fishing town until the 1830’s when government bounties were withdrawn. The Liberator Daniel O’Connell was moved to describe the town as “the piss pot of Ireland.” Prior to the mid century Great Hunger, it was noted that “the town has on the whole a rather neat appearance…yet it is poor in proportion to its population and makes a melancholy display of small houses …inhabited by fishermen or by persons of various and precarious means of support.” Thanks to the “largesse” of the various Dukes of Devonshire at Lismore Castle, significant internal improvements were to occur in west County Waterford. Included, over time, was a canal, a railroad (“The Duke’s Line”) with an elaborate Lismore Station, the very “tidy town” of Lismore and a rebuilt early nineteenth century (1806-1826) Devonshire Square (Grattan Square) in Dungarvan. The latter was not an entirely unselfish act in that the newly constructed housing qualified the inhabitants as forty-shilling freeholders who were expected to vote for the Duke's Parliamentary candidate, thereby increasing his influence. The houses on the square were three stories in height. On the north side, flanking the entrance to Bridge Street, were two four-story buildings. Also included were fish and meat markets, a new quay and a still extant bridge over the Colligan to connect the town with Abbeyside. On the southwest side of the square, near the corner of Mary Street, stood, somewhat incongruously between taller buildings, a two-story structure destined to house the turn of the century Lennons (photo, p.61). 49 CHAPTER VIII SHANAHANS IN THE DEISE In the case of names of pre Norman Gaelic origins, confusion often exists as to the spelling in that English surveyors, magistrates and law clerks wrote down Irish names as nearly as they could phonetically. English speakers in that day, not unlike many of the present day, were inclined to silence an internal h. Hence, Shanahan (O Seanachain or O Seanain) minus the internal h, ended up as the more common Shannon. It should be noted that the name is unconnected with the name of the principal river in Ireland. This Gaelic surname is derived from seanach meaning old or wise. O Shanahans were a sept of the Dal gCais who were chiefs of Ui Rongaile in County Clare. They were a sept of sufficient importance to have a recognized chief. In 1318, Torlough O’Brien and the MacNamaras expelled them. They first settled in Waterford, but subsequently scattered throughout Ireland with a sizable presence in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, home to the O Luinin/O Leannain. Griffith's mid nineteenth century valuation revealed a concentration in the counties of the Province of Munster with 189 households reported in Tipperary, 57 in adjoining Waterford, 76 in Cork, 124 in Limerick and 99 in Kerry. Concentration in these five counties was confirmed in 1890, with the name still surviving in Munster's County Clare. 50 With respect to the Dungarvan area, a map of adjoining Abbeyside, dated 1760, shows, among more numerous Osborne and Lord Burlington holdings, four Shanahans in what the map labels as "Dungarvan East." A member of one of these families may well have been the James Shanahan who is listed as the father of customs officer James of the Lookout, Dungarvan. The mid nineteenth century Griffith's Valuations showed Shanahans in nearby Ballyvoyle, Kilrossanty and Kilmacthomas. In Abbeyside there was an 1851 listing for a Reverend John Shanahan (d.1853) of the Roman Catholic Chapel. Customs officer James Shanahan was married on 7 September 1873 to Sarah Eliza Walsh (b.18 October 1846). The marriage certificate listed his age as 42, meaning a birth in 1831. The death certificate of 1900, however, noted an age of 80 in 1900, necessitating an 1820 birth date. If the latter is accurate this means he was age 53, not 42, at the time of his marriage. Listed cause of death is "senile phthisis” or TB. James's wife was the daughter of shopkeeper William Walsh (1811-1891) of 37 Buttery West (today’s Mitchell Terrace) and Ellen Agnes Power (d.<1891). Sarah Eliza’s baptismal certificate listed a date of 18 October 1846. Her death certificate of 11 October 1894, however, noted an age of 41 rather than 47. Assuming the likelihood of the baptismal certificate being accurate, the greater probability was an age, at death, of one week shy of her 48th birthday. The Walsh-Power marriage certificate of 9 September 1845 listed Abbeyside’s Reverend John Shanahan as a witness. He was also listed as a sponsor at the 1846 baptism of Sara Eliza Walsh. James Shanahan and Sarah Eliza Walsh Shanahan were to have a total of eight children, including eldest daughter, Ellen (“Nellie”) A. Shanahan who was to marry George Crolly Lennon. Shanahan acquired six properties and adjoining land at the Lookout, overlooking the harbour, with views towards Helvick and Abbeyside. A Dungarvan map of 1858 shows the properties, numbered one through six. Three properties faced what was to become the park and the others faced Devonshire Street as it was known at the time. Interestingly, number five Devonshire was occupied, mid nineteenth century, by Nicholas Walsh. It is a matter of conjecture as to whether he was a relation of Sarah Eliza Walsh Shanahan. The photograph, taken from the park, shows St. Mary’s Church of Ireland with three of the Shanahan properties, including outbuildings, to the right. 51 The Town Park On 3 September 1894 a special meeting of the Town Commissioners was held to consider adopting the "Parks Act" to establish "a public park for the use and enjoyment of the people of Dungarvan...." On 6 September John Walsh proposed, at a regular meeting of the Commissioners, that such a park be established. On 18 October the clerk was ordered to write to various landowners to enquire as to what sum they required for some six to nineteen acres of land. A deputation was accordingly appointed to visit the site of the proposed park at Jacknell Street on an elevated site overlooking the bay (the Lookout). Borough Surveyor, Michael Breary was appointed to design the site. On 2 November an advertisement was placed in the Waterford Star indicating the intention of the Town Commissioners to establish a park. Financing for the development was traced to the 1894 death of Church Street resident Captain William Gibbons whose will left a bequest of one thousand seven hundred fifty pounds for the creation of a park at Ringnasilloge. The creation of a park at that locale never came to fruition. In early 1895 two Commissioners met with land owner and James Shanahan. He proposed two hundred pounds for his interest in two plots comprised of three tenant's gardens of twenty two "perches" (1 acre = 160 perches) each and one garden in his own possession. As an alternative proposal, he offered to rent the land at six pounds per annum for a period of sixty years. In March, the latter proposal was accepted. A small archway (shown in photo) with inscribed plaque was erected adjacent to the three Shanahan owned properties facing the street. 52 A dispute ensued over the names of the Commissioners on the plaque. In October, a beneficiary of the Gibbons' will, Mrs. Mary Gibbons, threatened legal action unless the plaque on the arch was removed. Accordingly, on 14 November 1895, it was removed after having being defaced and photographed by Edmond Keohan. The photo was entitled "The Condemned Slab." Due to vandalism, in February of 1896, a request was made to Royal Irish Constabulary Inspector John Egan to send a man to watch the park. In May, further improvements were carried out including an iron railing and work on the cliff wall. A "rubble wall" was erected “opposite Shanahan's houses.” In July of 1918 the Council decided to purchase the park outright rather than to continue annual rental payments. The Council was informed that the park could be purchased for one hundred pounds. However, it was not until March of 1925, after the “Troubles” and the death of Nellie Shanahan Lennon in 1924, that solicitors representing her estate stated that they were willing to sell her interest in the park for that sum. The following year the Local Government Department of the now independent Irish Free State granted permission to the U.D.C. to purchase Mrs. Lennon's interest in the park for one hundred pounds. This occurred in 1926, just prior to the emigration of George, Eileen, John and Sarah Frances Lennon. 53 Lacking documentation at this time, it is nonetheless probable that the six pound per annum rental payment from the time of James Shanahan’s death in 1900 to the time of the sale of the Lennon interest in 1926 went to either married daughter Nellie Shanahan Lennon and/or spinster school teacher Sarah Josephine Shanahan. The whereabouts of the surviving Shanahan siblings was likely America. The recipient(s) from Ellen’s estate of the one hundred pounds buyout would logically have been her four offspring, then resident in Dungarvan, and eldest son James who had emigrated eastward. 1901 Census: #5 Jacknell Street By the time of the taking of the 1901 Census on 31 March 1901, father James Shanahan had died (11 February 1900). His death certificate listed him as a "retired customs officer" for the Port of Dungarvan. Earlier, in 1881, Slater's Royal National Commercial Directory of Ireland listed his occupation as "port surveyor etc." He was noted as the "head of the Coast Guard” per the 1879 death certificate of his infant son, James Joseph. James's wife, Sarah Eliza Walsh Shanahan had predeceased him (11 October 1894). Of the eight children of James and Sarah, infant James Joseph died on 12 January 1879. Eldest son John William would have been age 26 and, not surprisingly, a resident elsewhere. By this time eldest daughter, Ellen Agnes Shanahan had married (9 September 1897) George Crolly Lennon. Of the remaining five children at home, National School teacher Josephine Shanahan (b. 21 March 1879) was listed as the twenty two year old head of the family at the 5 Jacknell Street address.Also listed as residents were the four youngest: "18" year old Mary Frances (born 6 June 1880), "17” year old James Francis (born 15 October 1882),"14”year old Michael Augustine (born 1 November 1885) and 13 year old David Patrick (born 19 October 1887). The birth certificate of James Francis noted an address of the "Square.” Births for all other siblings were noted with an address of Devonshire Street which by the time of the 1901 census had been renamed (1885) Jacknell Street. Earlier also listed with a 1846 birth address of the Square was mother Sarah Eliza Walsh and, in 1848, her sister Ellen Agnes Walsh. This raises the possibility that this locale was the address of a birthing hospital, doctor's surgery or even a Walsh residence. Aunt Ellen Agnes Walshe (erroneously spelled with an e), the younger "40" year old sister of deceased mother Sarah Eliza Walsh Shanahan, was listed on the census form as " housekeeper.” The stated age on the form contradicted her baptismal date of 24 January 1848, which would have made her correct age 53. 54 Quality ("class of house") of the residence was listed as the second highest including 4 front windows and a total of 9 rooms. The roof was not thatched but of slate, iron or tile. Having inherited the cluster of six homes, upon the death of her father, (Sarah) Josephine was also listed as landholder at adjoining numbers 1, 2, 3,4 and 6. Numbers 1, 2 and 3, which faced Jacknell Street, had a smaller number of rooms (two, three or four) than the nine rooms found at numbers 4, 5 and 6 Jacknell, which had a more desirable location facing the park. 1911 Census: #10 Jacknell Street Ten years later, the 1911 Census revealed significant changes regarding the Shanahan holdings facing Jacknell Street and the park. Save for the Shanahans and Christina O'Brien in the adjoining house, the residences witnessed changes in occupancy, but not ownership. The Shanahans who owned numbers 1 through 6 in 1901 are now listed as owning numbers 14 through 9. The O'Brien occupied residence, formerly #6, is now #9 and the Shanahan occupied # 5 is now listed as #10. In that the" particulars of inhabited houses” remained the same it is apparent that 1901 house numbers 1 to 6 simply become numbers 14 to 9 in 1911. Landholder for numbers 14 to 9 is Sarah J. Shanahan (Josephine) who is the thirty two year old head of household at number 10. No notation is made of her occupation, which in 1901 was "national teacher." Noted as “domestic servant" is Aunt Ellen A. Walshe. Unlike 1901, her age of sixty-three is correctly stated as based upon her baptismal certificate. No longer listed as residents were siblings John William, Mary Frances, James Francis, Michael Augustine and David Patrick. Family anecdotal evidence suggests emigration at some point to New Jersey with the name subsequently shortened to Shannon. 55 Sarah Josephine Shanahan (standing, 4th from left) Sister of Nellie Shanahan Lennon While the properties remain today, it should be noted that as enumeration for many Dungarvan properties changed so did the name of the streets. At the Lookout the changes were from Devonshire to Jacknell to today’s Park Terrace. Additionally, the three homes facing the park are now numbers 1, 2 and 3 Park Gate Terrace. The former Shanahan occupied house is in the middle and is numbered 2. Neighbour Joe Foley (d.2016) of #8 Park Terrace recalled being asked at the last moment to serve as a pallbearer for his former teacher, Josephine Shanahan. At the time of her death (20 May 1959), due to “Chronic Bronchitis Certified,” she was a resident at St. Joseph’s Home/Hospital in Dungarvan. Save for the pallbearers, no one was present at her interment in the unmonumented (at the time) Shanahan St. Mary’s R.C. plot. Joe graciously commented that “had they known many of her devoted former students would have been in attendance.” 56 57 CHAPTER IX LENNONS IN THE DEISE On George Gerard Lennon's (1900 -1991) maternal side, the presence of Shanahans (albeit not necessarily forebearers) was noted from the 1700's in nearby Abbeyside, Kilrossanty, Ballyvoyle and Kilmacthomas. Recognised Walsh and Power forebearers traced to the Norman incursion of 1169-1170. The determination of the date of an initial Lennon presence in Dungarvan on the paternal side is complicated by the absence of census data. The 1922 bombardment by Free State forces of the Four Courts destroyed, save for fragments, the returns of 1821, 1831, 1841 and 1851. The 1861 and 1871 returns were intentionally destroyed. Those of 1881 and 1891 were pulped during the paper shortage of the 1914-1918 Great War. This forces reliance on Griffith’s Valuation of Tenements which lists no Dungarvan Lennons or Crollys in the mid 1850's; although Lennons were noted in nearby Cappoquin and Kilrossanty with Crollys in Tallow. One might arguably assume that one or both of the families arrived in Dungarvan after the mid century when the gas works was built in the early 1860’s. James Lennon (1823-1889) served as the town’s “Superintendent of Works” and, per Slater's Directory of the 1870's, gas works manager. There is a possibility that Mary Anne Crolly Lennon (1825-1898), wife of James and mother of George Crolly Lennon (b.1870), came to the Deise from the Province of Ulster. However, a Dungarvan birth for Mary Anne cannot be ruled out due to a gap in the records for her birth year. It is known, however, that her Ulster born uncle was Dr. William Crolly (1780-1849), the Roman Catholic Archbishop Primate of Ireland in Armagh. George Gerard Lennon (GGL) noted him as a “great grand uncle.” The Reverend George Crolly (1813 - 1878) of Maynooth also listed the archbishop as his uncle. To be determined is whether, separated by twelve years, the Rev. George and Mary Anne Crolly Lennon were siblings. Lending credence to this family connection is the naming of Mary Anne’s son as George Crolly Lennon. His son, George Gerard Lennon, being, minimally, the fifth family member (p.24) named George (albeit without the Crolly middle or last name). He subsequently used “George Crolly” as a nom de plume for a 1934 Irish Review article (p. 196) he wrote in New York City 58 The Gas Works The Towns Improvement Act was adopted in 1854 and Town Commissioners elected. In February of 1857, Town Clerk Edward Longan asked the Commissioners to become shareholders in a new gas works at five pounds per share. By 1858, twenty shares each were held by Andrew Carbery, John R. Dower and Benjamin Purser. Patrick Cody, James Kennedy, Christopher O’Brien, and Eliza Ahearne held ten shares each. All other shareholders owned five or less shares. The total amount raised was one thousand seventy pounds. On 7 November 1859, permission was granted to John Hollwey, a Kilkenny contractor, "to open the streets of the Town for the purpose of laying down his gas mains etc." In January of 1860, the secretary of the Dungarvan Gas Consumers Company, Ltd. wrote as follows to the Town Commissioners: Sir, the Directors of the above company propose to the Town Commissioners to light, extinguish and keep clean 50 or if required 60 street lamps for nine winter months... at the rate of 3 pounds per lamp. The gas to be produced from equal parts of best Newcastle and Cardiff coals. In December of 1863, the Dublin Builder reported that "gas works have been lately established and the town is very well lighted, there being no less than sixty lamps erected in the principal streets, a large number for a town like Dungarvan.” The Waterford News reported, "the town appeared considerably improved.” Advantages listed included improved safety and "lessening a good deal of immorality which will be a source of gratification and delight to the pious inhabitants...." The gas works was located on “Rope Walk” at Shandon, immediately southwest of the old creamery, abutting today’s shopping centre. Rope walks, found in most ports, were, of necessity, narrow strips of land used for stretching/manufacturing ropes for sailing ships. According to the “sale rental “of the Devonshire estate, dated 9 December 1859, the gas company had a lease of the land from the 7th Duke of Devonshire for a term of ninety- nine years from 25 March 1859 at three pounds per annum. An 1867 directory lists Thomas Walsh as Secretary. Slater's Directory of 1876 and 1881 refer to the gas works and manager James Lennon of New Lane, near the Lookout just off Church Street. The Shandon facility apparently served, at times, as the residence of the manager as stated on the 1897 marriage certificate of James's son George Crolly Lennon to Nellie 59 Shanahan. By this time, with the 1889 death of his father, George Crolly had succeded as a 2nd generation manager of the facility. As late as May 1926 George Gerard Lennon was listed on his siblings’ immigrant ship manifest as residing at the “Gas Works Dungarvan.” Confirmation dependent upon release of the census of April, 1926. The introduction of electricity to Dungarvan in 1920-1921 meant the demise of the gas works. At a council meeting in May 1921, there were two tenders for the public lighting of the town; one from W.P Lonergan, manager of the gas works, the other from John Dunphy of the Electric Light and Power Company. The latter's tender was accepted. The closing of the works ended whatever possibility there was of a Lennon becoming a third generation long term manager of the facility. However, eldest son James worked, after his father’s 1914 death, at the gas works to at least 1921 (p.60). Second eldest George son continued at that time his association with the Republican movement. 1901 Census: 83 O'Connell Street Despite being an essentially obsolete administrative unit, the 273 baronies in Ireland were used for census purposes. The returns were arranged for rural areas by town lands, the smallest division of land in Ireland. For urban areas, such as Dungarvan, the arrangement was by streets. Specifically, for the turn of the century Lennons their home was to be found in the Barony of Decies Without Drum, Dungarvan Parish, and O’Connell Street. The census abstract consisted of two forms. Form "A" related to the inhabitants: name, relation to the head of the family, religion, education, age, sex, occupation, marital status, where born, and whether the individual was an Irish speaker. The property, unlike the height of nearby structures, was a two-story building with a public house on the ground floor. Landholder for the pub, with the exterior inscription “Veale,” was Hannah Veale. Resident at #83 were five Roman Catholics. Listed as head of family was George (Crolly) Lennon (age 31), "gas manager," and his wife, Ellen Lennon with a listed age of 24 despite a birthdate of 4 August 1875. There were two male children: James (age two) and infant George. Also listed was an unmarried seventeen- year-old "domestic servant" named Anne Heffernan. Form "B 1" related to "Particulars of Inhabited Houses" in which the census taker had to fill in information regarding the walls, roof, number of rooms, number of windows in front and class of house. Number 83, with no landholder indicated, was listed as an ”ornate dwelling” with three out buildings, including a stable. Walls were of stone, brick or concrete (category 1) and the roof of slate, iron or tiles (category 1). There were six rooms (category 3). The three 60 front windows (category 3) resulted in a category number designation of 8. This figure merited the 2nd highest (out of four classes) rating for the "class of house." The 1901 census also noted the Whelan family residing on the other side of O'Connell Street. Listed at number 6 was Patrick (plumber) whose son Pax was to play a significant role in the Republican movement as the officer commanding the West Waterford Brigade of the Irish Volunteers (I.R.A.) and Waterford “centre” of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (I.R.B.), known in America as the Fenians. 1911 Census: #81 O' Connell Street In 1908 Kathleen Ryan from Tipperary purchased the building and added new upper signage denoting “Tipperary House.” Over the pub, the “Veale” sign was replaced by “Ryan.” The building was renumbered as #81 at some time prior to the 1911 census. In 1909 the building was enlarged with upper floors installed. The Tipp House sign was removed, per photos, and replaced by “Ryan’s Hotel” sometime before 1915. On the 4th of April 1911, the census form listed a Lennon address of #81 O'Connell Street inhabited by eight residents. Enumerated, as in 1901, were husband George Lennon ("gas engineer"), his wife Ellen Lennon and sons James and George (GGL). Seemingly with a listed age of 30, mother Ellen had only aged 6 years from a decade earlier! Additionally listed were Eileen (b.20 November 1901), John (b.1908) and youngest daughter Sarah known as Frances (b.1910). Noted as "servant" was seventeen-year-old Ellen Morrissey. Form B 1 listed #81 as a private dwelling with a Mrs. Plunkett as the landholder. Mary Ryan was listed as the landholder for the public house. The "particulars of inhabited houses" (walls, roof, rooms, and windows) matched, with two exceptions, the 1901 census description of #83. The 1909 addition to the home was reflected in the number of rooms, noted as nine. However, the number of front windows (3) seemingly did not reflect the additional floors (2) and upper windows (4) added. The "class of house" again merited the second highest designation. Form B 2 noted three outbuildings: a stable, a shed and "stors." Locating Dungarvan Lennon Residences 61 Sometime after the 1914 death of George Crolly Lennon, a family move was made from O’Connell Street to nearby #3 Western Terrace. This address is confirmed by GGL’s 1918 incarceration record at Ballybricken Prison. Newer homes now occupy this terrace. However, it was with some difficulty, due to the different building descriptions for 1901 and 1911, that I was able to ascertain the exact location and correct enumeration over the years for the O’Connell Street residence. Enumeration had changed from #81 in 1901 to #83, the enlarged structure, in 1911. The same building is today’s (2017) #88, occupied by Rossiter’s Butcher Shop, formerly the long-lived butcher shop of the Morrissey family; Kathleen Ryan having married a Morrissey. Upon GGL’s return to Ireland in August 1936, a Dungarvan address of convenience of 11 Mitchell Terrace was given on his pension application. It was also listed as his address in a 1936 letter to a Dublin newspaper. This was the family home of Paddy Duggan who had married George’s youngest sister, Sarah Frances. The row house retains that number today. A few houses down the terrace was the home of Volunteer “Nipper” McCarthy who served as George’s driver during the “Troubles.” The Nipper’s son, John, now lives in that same house (#19) in which he grew up. George Gerard Lennon and Parents Familiarly known as Nellie, Ellen Agnes Shanahan was born, on 4 August 1875, to “Customs House Officer” James Shanahan and Sarah Eliza Walsh Shanahan. The Christian names Ellen and Agnes came from her aunt (the younger sister of her mother) Ellen Agnes Walsh (“housekeeper” for the Shanahans) and grandmother Ellen Agnes Power Walsh. 62 Ellen Shanahan Lennon and daughter Eileen With their substantial properties at the Lookout, adjacent to the Protestant Church of Ireland, the Shanahans, as did the Lennons, enjoyed a bourgeoisie existence. Their parish church, St. Mary’s Roman Catholic, was the same as the Lennons. The ninth of September 1897 witnessed the marriage of Ellen Shanahan to George Crolly Lennon of Shandon, Dungarvan. Younger sister Mary Frances Shanahan was a witness. Also a witness was James Shanahan, likely her brother James Francis; although her father James was alive at this time (d. 1900). The newly occupied Lennon residence on O’Connell Street looked out on Grattan (Devonshire) Square, one block from St. Mary’s R.C. where the couple were married. Just four years after the birth of their fifth and youngest child (Sarah Frances), some two months prior to the beginning of the Great War of 1914-1918, forty four year old George Crolly Lennon passed away of heart disease on the 11th June 1914. As noted by the Munster Express: The people of Dungarvan were greatly shocked and grieved when they learned, on Thursday evening, that Mr. Geo. Lennon, Gas manager, Dungarvan, had passed away. Deceased, who was about 44 years of age, had been ailing for some little time past, but his death was unexpected. He was much esteemed. The greatest sympathy is extended to his wife and young family. 63 In a period of European and national political unrest, the impact on the young family, financially and otherwise, may possibly have been of some significance in that George Crolly Lennon died intestate (without a will). Probate of the sum of seven thousand pounds did not occur until some months prior to Nellie’s death ten years later. This would have been a strikingly large amount of money in the early decades of the twentieth century in an Ireland where agricultural labourers earned, on average, some twenty-five pounds per annum. While historical currency conversion is an inexact science, the 2016 equivalent of the estate would be between 500,000 and 750,000 English pounds. Dollar equivalency ranging from $625,000 to perhaps $800,000 at the very high end. Specific monies received by the widow, in the 1914-1926 period, perhaps included the six pounds per annum from the Town Park Rental Agreement, which would have ceased when Nellie’s estate sold the family interest for 100 pounds in 1926. There was also George Crolly Lennon’s life insurance policy payment of an unspecified amount (as recorded 16 June 1914 by life insurance sales person Tom Dee) plus wages from eldest son James. Working for the Gas Works, after his father’s death, he sold “gas cooking and heating ranges” as well as “coke, tar ashes, gas lime, fire bricks, fire clay, etc.” All items duly noted on receipts for Carriglea Convent from 1915, 1920 and 28 April 1921. Perhaps indicative of the unavailabity of intestated monies or simply an opportunity to broaden his privileged upbringing, fifteen-year-old George, in the autumn of 1915, was newly enrolled, albeit to last for only six months, at the Abbeyside Boys National School. The school register noted that George “never attended National School;” likely indicating prior home tutoring or conceivably private schooling The move to nearby #3 Western Terrace may have been attributable to the pre 1915 conversion of the O’Connell St. residence to a hotel rather than to financial constraints. Regardless of any possible lessened financial means, the Lennons, with a live in servant and private educations, were definitely of the “better element” in the town. George seemingly eschewed the rougher “corner boy” element, seeking friendships with nationalist Na Fianna Eireann scouts of the likes of neighbor Barney Dalton (p.66) who were raised on tales of the bold Fenians, Sarsfield and the men of 1798. George noted “patriotism rising with our puberty” as the intrepid lads anticipated the “longed for Rising.” Antithetical to this impulse would have been his National School reader, which noted: “I thank the goodness and the grace that…made me…a happy English child.” 64 He also sought friendships among the children of the R.I.C. chief constable at the nearby barracks in King John’s Castle. Relationships formed with Constables Neery and Hickey were to impact the trajectory of his life as events of March 1921 unfolded (pp. 119 ff.). Pre 1909 two-story 83 O’Connell Street home (upper right) St.Mary’s Church Controversy For the widow Lennon, St. Mary’s was a source of strength and comfort. The parish priest was the Very Reverend Archdeacon John Power. Keohan’s Illustrated History of Dungarvan (1924) described him as a curate who “in the stormy days of the Land League...did heroic work for the success of the farming population in their stubborn fight for justice.” Church curates were Rev. L. Egan, Rev. M. Hearne and Rev Father McGrath. Noted for her large hats, Nellie Shanahan Lennon apparently possessed a strong will and the courage of her convictions. This was evidenced one Sunday during the Troubles when the parish priest saw fit to admonish, from the pulpit, her son George and the other I.R.A. men who were "on the run" from the authorities. As described in the Una Troy Walsh novel (Dead Star’s Light), written under the nom de plume of Elizabeth Connor, she 65 ... just got up and out of the chapel...walking down to the door under the amazed stare of the whispering congregation... imagine the agony in her heart…. St. Mary's She had missed her first communion in "I don't know how many years." But her views on the Roman Catholic Church, in contrast to the priests, were made quite clear: The priests...they think they're the Church. They forget they’re only a very small part of it – they forget they should be our servants, not our masters. I often wondered what Christ thinks of ‘em – not much I'd guess. She smiled placidly. Well, if every priest that ever there was a rogue incarnate – and the pope himself the biggest rogue unhung - it wouldn't affect my religion. Sure, it's a religion that's grand enough even to get over the priesthood it has - and that ought to be enough to make any one believe it's the true one. 66 Such outspoken religious sentiments may be seen as a continuation of the liberal views expressed years earlier by her husband’s forebearer, Archbishop William Crolly, who had “advanced” views on educational matters and Church involvement in politics (p.23) Secure in her faith, her devotions continued, most likely at the Friary Church on nearby St. Augustine Street. Another possible locale, albeit less likely, was the Roman Catholic Church in Abbeyside across the Colligan River. Of passing interest are her ages as listed on official documents: marriage certificate, the census of 1901, the census of 1911 and her death certificate. These were all at variance with the official birth certificate date of 4 August 1875. Listed on her marriage certificate was an age of 20 rather than her actual age of 22. In April of 1901 the census reported an age of 24 rather than the correct 25. Ten years later, the census listed her as age 30 rather than the correct 35. Upon her death, from liver cancer on 7 November 1924, Richmond Hospital, Dublin listed her as age 46 rather than the actual 49. It would seem unlikely that all discrepancies were solely attributable to faulty official record keeping by the Church, the census enumerators and the hospital. Nonetheless, such mistakes, were quite common in documents of the period. The Munster Express of 15 November 1924 reported her 7 November death as follows: During the past week there passed away a widely known figure in the town in the person of the late Mrs. Lennon, Western Terrace. Her death occurred at a Dublin hospital on Friday, and on Saturday the remains were conveyed to Dungarvan by motor hearse followed by a large number of motorcars. Deceased was an active member of the social life of the town and one who will be much missed by a large circle of friends... After reposing in the parish church (italics added) throughout the Saturday night, the remains were interred in the adjoining cemetery (italics added) on Sunday, when there was an unusually large cortege. Per the Waterford News of 14 November 1924: The procession in the night was a very sad one, the children of the deceased being the chief mourners. After last Mass on Sunday the interment took place, when the remains were laid to rest with those of her deceased husband (italics added). Also mentioned: One of the sons of (the) deceased, Mr. George Lennon, occupied a responsible position during the fighting in the country, and in the struggles that took place he had many hair- breadth escapes 67 The latter in reference to George’s avoidance of capture, over eleven months, while “on the run” as a teenager. Subsequent escapes were to occur in Kilkenny, Fermoy, Kilmacthomas, Ballyhooly, Cappagh, Cappoquin and Grawn. During the Civil War (July 1922) there were two narrow escapes at Ballybricken and Barnakill. St. Mary's Family Plot Disappearance In light of the fact that no trace can be found today of the Lennon gravesite, the following, as noted in Keohan's 1924 town history, may be of note: The new cemetery attached to the old burial grounds was consecrated by the Most Rev. Dr. Sheehan, then Bishop of the Diocese. It... is well laid out and in the course of some twenty years it has got pretty well filled up. Parish priest Nicholas O'Mahony wrote (24 April 2005) that “no record of burials was kept.” However a schematic drawing (circa 1980’s) in the church office shows the names of those interred in each plot. No Lennons are shown to be there and civil records reveal no dis-interment of Lennon remains. Father O'Mahony continued in his letter that "the custom in Ireland is to be buried in the family grave...usually in the parish where one resided.” In light of the newspaper accounts and Lennon residences on nearby O’Connell Street and Western Terrace, there can be no doubt as to the identity of the family’s parish church. A family presence is corroborated by parish records of Lennon family christenings, Ellen Shanahan’s baptismal record of 5 August 1875 and the Shanahan - Lennon nuptials of 9 September 1897 conducted by J.C. Prendergast, C.C.,"in the Catholic Chapel of Dungarvan." 1924 newspaper accounts report Ellen's remains being "laid to rest with those of her deceased husband" at her parish church. Additionally, Eileen Duggan (d.2009), adopted daughter of Paddy and Sarah Frances Duggan (nee Lennon), informed the author that years earlier she had visited the graves which were located to the right by the wall as you enter the church grounds. An examination of the wall, in September of 2007, revealed inscriptions denoting the names of those buried there in the 19th and early 20th century. Conspicuously, in some cases, writings appear to be absent from sections of the wall. Immediately in front 0f portions of the wall are headstones which note burials of a more recent vintage, decades after the early 20th century Lennon burials. The most probable scenario, in light of the overcrowded cemetery and Lennon family emigrations in 1926-1927, is that the family plot was sold. Reportedly this was a not uncommon occurrence in the days of the Irish theocracy. 68 St Mary’s R.C. Church and Cemetery CHAPTER X 69 TROUBLED TIMES (1913-1921) In support of his original "Application to the Minister for Defence for a Service Certificate" (i.e., pension application), George submitted, as notarized in New York City on January 23, 1935, "Additional Information" regarding his service in the I.R.A. (Volunteers). In this brief summation he noted that he left school Easter Week, 1916 to take part in the rebellion and was constantly engaged in army activities during the whole period to August 1922. I did not work at our family business or any other occupation during this time ... I was almost constantly on the run up to the end of hostilities. I took part in a total of seventeen engagements with British forces. During the Truce period I took over Waterford City from the evacuating British military and commanded the garrison there until driven out by the Free State army in July 1922. Prior to Easter Week, although not pensionable, he was involved in the nationalist movement as an youthful member of Na Fianna Eireann (Irish National Boy Scouts) founded in 1909 by Protestants Bulmer Hobson and Countess Gore-Booth Markiewicz. Winner of a national essay contest (“Sarsfield at Ballyneedy”), he, with Barney Dalton of nearby Mary Street, was implicated, on the basis of informer testimony from “one of those brainy, owlish, bespeckled kids,” for exploding “a large home made bomb” (I.E.D.) adjacent to the Dungarvan sea front. George stated in his remembrance that the result “was a number of very serious conferences with the police constables, our teachers and our parents.” Excluding "matters of a confidential nature for Dublin G.H.Q.” and ambushes that did not materialise, the following, based in large measure on his pension applications, is a specific listing (including escapes) of his revolutionary activities as a member of the Irish Volunteers: Easter Week, 1916 Ballynamuck, Co Waterford: attempt to seize arms from a train 12 January 1918 Dungarvan, Co Waterford: arrested with Pax Whelan for theft of a soldier's weapon on 9 January January/February Waterford: Ballybricken Prison February 1918 Dublin: collecting arms/ammunition with Nipper McCarthy Kilkenny: stopped by British soldiers /Eludes capture March 1918 Waterford City bye election: Armed protection for Sinn Feiners April 1918 Dungarvan Court House: Riot/D.O.R.A. Arrest warrant issued April 1918-March 1919 “on the run” away from home/eludes capture for 11 months 70 Training Volunteers, resisting conscription Gun running operations of a “confidential nature for G.H.Q.” March 1919 Captured Sentenced at Lismore Court House 31 March – May 1919 Cork Male Prison solitary confinement (Charlie Daly) June - August, 1919 Ballyduff: "In ill health as a result of imprisonment" 7 September, 1919 Fermoy, Co. Cork: ambush with Liam Lynch Lennon/Mansfield elude capture 1 January 1920 Dungarvan, Co. Waterford: Petty Sessions Clerk office raided 17 January 1920 Ardmore, Co. Waterford: R.I.C. Barracks attack 2 February 1920 Church St. Dungarvan, Co Waterford: Inspector King incident Jan./April/May 1920 Dungarvan, Lismore, Ring: Attacks on British Administration Spring 1920 Eludes Black and Tans at Kents of Kilmacthomas 28 May 1920 Kilmallock, Co. Limerick: R.I.C. Barracks attack June 1920 Corbetts of Bunratty, Co. Clare: gelignite manufacture Aborted attack at Sixmilebridge R.I.C. Barracks 30 July 1920 Bruree, Co. Limerick: ambush 7 August 1920 Kildorrery, Co. Cork: ambush August 1920 Co. Cork: Cork No.2 Flying Column (“Men of the South”) August 1920 Bunmahon, Co. Waterford: Coast Guard Station burned 9 September 1920 Vaughan’s Hotel, Dublin: meeting with Mick Collins 12 September 1920 Youghal, Co. Cork: stolen motorcar 17 September 1920 Nagle Mountains/Glenville, Co. Cork: Training camp with Ernie O’Malley, Liam Lynch, George Power and Tom Barry 18 September 1920 Kill, Co Waterford: Planned R.I.C.Barracks attack September/October West Waterford Flying Column formed 12 October 1920 Brown's Pike, Co. Waterford: ambush 1 November 1920 Piltown, Co Waterford: ambush 71 27 November 1920 Cappoquin, Co. Waterford: escapes after Quirk shooting Autumn/Winter Co. Waterford: aborted ambushes at Kilminnion Bridge, 1920/21 Kilmacthomas, Whitfield, Carrickmourn, etc. 31 November 1920 Rockfield Cross, Cappagh Co. Waterford: ambush 7 January 1921 Pickardstown, Co. Waterford: ambush 11 February 1921 Robert’s Cross, Ring, Co. Waterford: aborted ambush 27 February 1921 Glenville, Co. Cork: meeting of Brigade officers 3 March 1921 Durrow/Ballyvoyle, Co. Waterford: train ambush of jurors 4 March, 1921 Glenville, Co. Cork: Liam Lynch meeting called March, 1921 Ballyhooly and Cappagh Stations: eludes capture 18 –19 March 1921 Burgery Ambush/execution of Sergeant Hickey 28 March 1921 Glenville, Co. Cork: meeting of Brigade officers 28 April 1921 Meeting with East Waterford O/C Paddy Paul 29 April 1921 Ballyvoyle/Ballylynch, Co Waterford: train ambush 7 May 1921 Glenville, Co. Cork: meeting of Brigade officers 19 May, 1921 Grawn (Faha Bridge): Eludes British forces May 1921 Cutteen House, Comeragh: Paddy Paul meeting regarding planned Ballybricken prison escape and formation of an East Waterford Flying Column June 1921 O/C of enlarged Waterford Flying Column 4 July 1921 Rockfield, Cappagh, Co Waterford: train ambush 9 July 1921 Kilgobnet, Co. Waterford: trenching disaster 11 July 1921 Sleady Castle area: Truce news received Post Truce, 1921 Vice O/C of combined Waterford Brigade I.R.A. Liaison Officer 11 November 1921 Cheekpoint, Co. Waterford: Frieda gun running January 1922 Vaughan’s Hotel, Dublin: Liam Lynch, Charlie Daly, “Fitz” 7 January Mansion House, Dublin: Dail accepts Treaty 3 March 1922 Dunkitt, Co. Kilkenny: arms seizure 72 March 1922 Cappoquin, Co. Waterford: Barracks seizure 9 March 1922 Waterford City: Occupied by I.R.A. “Irregulars” 26 March 1922 Mansion House, Dublin: Army Convention 18 July 1922 Waterford City: Free State attack 21 July 1922 ff. Ballybricken Prison, Waterford: evacuation/escape Retreat to Mt. Congreve, Kilmeadan Escapes Free State soldiers at Barnakill,Kilrossanty 1 August 1922 Resigns from Irish Volunteers Volunteers Led by Sir Edward Carson, the Unionist Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) was formed when it appeared likely that a Home Rule Bill would be enacted at Westminster. As a counter measure, Eoin MacNeill, at the instigation of the I.R.B and Bulmer Hobson, formed the Irish Volunteers at the Rotunda Rink in Dublin on the 25th of November 1913. A split in the Volunteer ranks occurred when Irish Parliamentary Party leader John Redmond pledged at Woodenbridge, Co. Wicklow, the “National” Volunteers to the British cause in the 1914 Great War. For the National Volunteers (some 170,000) and others throughout Ireland, the promise of Home Rule was seen as the equivalent of independence, albeit within the British Dominion. This split was reminiscent of the late nineteenth century split between the more moderate Home Rule League/Irish Parliamentary Party (I.P.P.) and the Irish Republican Brotherhood (Fenians). In opposition, under the leadership of Sir Roger Casement and MacNeill, were the minority “Irish” Volunteers comprised of arguably some 10,000 men or roughly six per cent of the total Volunteers. These men rejected the more moderate constitutional nationalism of Daniel O'Connell, Parnell and Redmond in favour of the I.R.B. physical force approach. Francis Phillips, Secretary, Tipperary Sinn Fein, remarked (BMH ws 1703) that what was espoused by the Irish Volunteers “was looked upon as something akin to political heresy and national lunacy.” It was to these Volunteers that the Supreme Council of the I.R.B. looked to form the nucleus for a rebellion. Sworn in by IRB “centre” Pax Whelan, Lennon became one of the youngest members of this militant oath bound Republican organisation; as had similarly occurred with his youthful Na Fianna Eireann membership and as a fourteen year old Adjutant in the Dungarvan Irish Volunteers in 1914. 73 After the Redmond split the Dungarvan Volunteers of some twenty-one men (per P.C. O’Mahony, BMH ws 118) were organised, in October 1914, under I.R.B. man O’Mahony of the Dungarvan Post Office. O’Mahony was Officer Commanding with Vice O/C Pax Whelan. Kerryman O’Mahony had reportedly spent some time with 1916 martyr Sir Roger Casement in the Belgium Congo. Active men included, among others, Phil O’Donnell, Sonny Cullinan, Phil O’Donnell, Dan Fraher and Paddy Whelan. The Decies Battalion was organised in 1917, per George Lennon, and, when enlarged, became the West Waterford Brigade. Generally though, per James Fraher, Dungarvan, circa 1918, was ...a town which up to that time had been noted for its apathy in regard to things national. Nearly a year after the January 1919 outbreak of hostilities, George Kiely, according to Volunteer Moses Roche (BMH ws 1129) "said he was the only (Irish Volunteer) at that particular time in Kilmacthomas.” Roche also noted that there was, in Kilmac, "no Volunteer company at all" in mid 1920. Police estimated, in December of 1915, some sixty-three members in the entire County. By Easter 1916, in the opinion of Pax Whelan, that number included “about three or four" in the town of Dungarvan. It is perhaps noteworthy that many of the most active men in West Waterford during the War of Independence were teenagers at the time of the 1916 Dublin Easter Week Rising. These included James Fraher (b.1898), Mick Shalloe (b.1897), Patrick ("Pakeen") Whelan (b.1901), Moses Roche (b.1900), Mick Mansfield (b.1897), George Lennon (b.25 May 1900) and John Riordan who had joined the British Army at age seventeen. Whelan and Lennon were to occupy the West Waterford (Deise) Brigade leadership position during the ensuing “Troubles” of 1919 -1921. In addition, Lennon was chosen, in 1920, to lead the West Waterford Volunteers on active service (Flying Column). With respect to the selection of officers, the Volunteers followed the ancient Brehon system of elected leaders under which Irish tribal groupings operated. Easter Monday 1916 On Easter Sunday, the 23rd of April, local Irish Volunteers learned from O'Mahony that Eoin MacNeill had called off the insurrection. The men, consequently, dispersed to their homes. On Easter Monday, O'Mahony was informed that the Rising had begun in Dublin, centered on the Government Post Office (G.P.O.), just down Sackville (O’Connell) Street from where the Volunteers were formed. 74 Donal O'Faolain (Whelan), Pax's son, noted that ...confusion was rife throughout the country. Waterford was no different... However...the men were prepared to rise and, in Dungarvan's case, took part in an actual operation.... While O'Mahony was on duty at the post office on Monday, a coded message came through from the R.I.C. County Inspector in Waterford to District Inspector O'Keefe in Dungarvan.The message stated that an ammunition train would pass through Dungarvan station after midnight. O’Mahony, possessing the key to the cipher, decoded the communication but was unable to leave his post. Dungarvan Post Office Sometime around 11 P.M. on Monday night the 24 th, O' Mahony, answered an "excited knock on the door" by the son of the widowed Ellen Shanahan Lennon. Informed of the situation, the fifteen year old Grasping my .32 revolver ... rushed off into the night to seek assistance. The rain was coming down in torrents. George and Pax, accordingly, set up a wall of stones in an "unsuccessful attempt to wreck (a) munitions train at Ballinamuck" (Ballynamuck) beyond Con Dempsey's Bridge just outside Dungarvan. No train came at the expected hour, but one eventually came at approximately 4 A.M. Tuesday morning. The train guard was questioned and a search of the train was undertaken. It was determined to be an ordinary goods train with no military guard and no arms or ammunition aboard. 75 To honour the Dublin participants in the Rising, the 1916 Medal was presented on the twenty fifth anniversary of Easter Week. Awards were subsequently made to members of Cumann na mBan, the women's auxiliary to the Irish Volunteers. Later, members of rural Volunteer units were declared eligible. With the inclusion of the latter two groups, some 2411 medals were awarded (pp.198-199). The two Dungarvan men received no such honour. 1916-1918 George’s sole six months of formal schooling at Abbeyside Boys National School ended abruptly after Easter Week, 1916 when he left to dedicate himself to the revolutionary struggle. From Easter 1916 to 11 April 1918, when he was forced to go “on the run,” he was involved, as stated in the addendum to his pension application, for "most of the period…organizing, training and securing arms.” Dungarvan: Court House (left) on Meagher Street In 1917 a meeting was held in Dungarvan featuring notables in the Republican movement. Speaking were Piarais Beaslai and Mick Collins' friend Harry Boland. Also in attendance was Easter Week Dublin G.P.O. participant George (Seoirise) Plunkett who remained in the area and helped with training and organising the Volunteers. In March 1921, he was to return to evaluate the operations of the Deise Flying Column and to command the men at the Burgery engagement. By January of 1918 the West Waterford Brigade, under newly installed O/C Pax Whelan and Vice O/C George Lennon, was organised with four battalions: Dungarvan 76 (1st Battalion), Lismore (2nd Battalion), Ardmore/Old Parish (3rd Battalion) and Kilrossanty (4th Battalion). Raids for arms were carried out. On 12 January 1918, Pax and George were arrested and charged with entering a house and carrying away a gun three days earlier. The “General Register of Prisoners" (National Archives) revealed the following with respect to the seventeen year old incarcerated in Waterford’s Ballybricken Prison: Height: 5 ft 8 1/2 inches Weight: 112 pounds Marks On Person: "old cutmark on f 'head" Residence: Western Terrace, Dungarvan Next of Kin: Mrs. Ellen Occupation: nil Education: Rw (read and write) On Remand: 13 January 1918 For Trial: 28 January 1918 Fine, Bail or Hard Labour: "no bill at assizes" Further Remarks: Bailed 11 February 1918 For Lennon, the whole experience was not altogether unsatisfactory as ...the kindly night warder let himself into my cell with the excellent intention of trying to cheer me up. The good man explained that I did not have to wear prison clothes, that I could procure books from the library, that I could have meals sent in, that I would exercise in the yard for an hour every day, and so forth. The poor man finally ran out of goodies and with a deep sigh he said this place was not built for anyone's pleasure. Bailed on Monday 11 February he returned, via the Duke’s Line, to Dungarvan, where he was noted by the Irish Times as being “followed by members of the Constabulary.” He was also “met by 400 Volunteers who cheered him” en route to the Town Hall. The Dungarvan Observer headline read: “Out on Bail: Mr. George Lennon’s Enthusiastic Reception.” Featured was a front page poem by Michael Walsh entitled “Last Monday” (see Appendix I). The last stanza read: As our captain has told us – Fall in today! Nor think ‘tis a time for idle play, Yet be sure that victory shall yet be won, If you play a man’s part as George Lennon has done Eventually larceny charges were dropped (“nolle prosequi”) on 4 March relying to some extent on the perjured testimony of his mother that her “delicate boy” had been at home that night studying for a mercantile marine examination. Once again he was accorded a magnificent reception in his hometown. Speaking to the crowd, the seventeen year old urged all to join the movement. 77 The search for arms at Ascendancy "big houses" in County Waterford and beyond continued. Employed as a driver was Nipper McCarthy of Crotty's Garage, Dungarvan. Per a recorded interview with Kilmac author Sean Murphy, the Nipper drove Phil O'Donnell and Lennon to Waterford City in February 1918 where the two Volunteers were to take a train to Dublin. Having missed the train, he then drove the men to Dublin where they spent four days collecting arms and ammunition. Returning southward, they hid the armaments beneath fire extinguishers (minimaxes) in the car. Stopped by the British military in Kilkenny, they showed their forged passes and maintained that they were on their way to install the extinguishers at Waterford Barracks. The soldiers obligingly directed them toward Waterford City. In April of 1918, British intentions to enforce conscription in Ireland led to a surge in popularity for Sinn Fein ("Ourselves"), the political arm of the Republican movement. Numbers of men were also drawn to the Irish Volunteers "but...left again when the danger of conscription had passed and they were no good to anyone," in the estimation of Donal (“The Duck”) O’Faolain. George's 1935 pension application listed to the end of 1918 time spent "training units to resist conscription.” During the autumn, operations were undertaken off the Waterford coast “...of (a) confidential nature for G.H.Q.”Also of a confidential nature were "preparatory gun running operations" and "collecting...arms: training and organising.” Volunteer training manoeuvres, according to Whittle's Saga of the Deise People, were generally carried out “at night in quiet sequestered parts of the country- side" and meetings were held in "Gaelic League rooms to learn the language of their fathers.” Military classes included signaling, demolition, engineering and bomb making. Drilling at night took place in a sunken roadway next to the Gaelic (Dan Fraher's) Field. Volunteers were eventually emboldened to drill openly using hurley sticks. The period of the 1914-1918 war witnessed thousands of voluntary Irish enlistees in the British cause. Not unlike recruits to the later Black and Tans, many joined out of sheer economic necessity, realising that mothers and wives were paid a “separation allowance.” Some returned war veterans proved to be a fertile field for the rebel cause. Notably, in West Waterford were John Riordan from the British Army and Jack O’Mara from the U.S. Army. In East Waterford Paddy Paul became Brigade O/C as did Tom Barry in neighbouring County Cork. In 1918 non-cooperation was a common tactic employed by Sinn Fein, Cumann Na mBan and the Volunteers. The occasion of Pax Whelan facing public disorder charges in April 1918 let to Dungarvan Republicans refusing to accept the authority of the local courts. In his statements before the Irish Pension Examiner in 1935 George remembered that “the Head Constable asked me to remove my hat; there was a hustle and the Magistrate (R.M. Gerald Griffin) ordered the galleries to be cleared; we attacked the police and we were driven out; we smashed the windows and there was a regular uproar in the town for the afternoon.” Arrested were Ned Kirby and John Broderick. 78 On Easter Sunday 1918 George was observed drilling the men and wearing a Volunteer uniform in violation of the Defence of the Realm Act (D.O.R.A.). He was to be additionally cited for “unlawful assembly” at the Dungarvan Court House on 6 April 1918. Consequently, the seventeen year old was forced to go on the run for the remainder of the year and beyond. This commenced 11 April when the arrest warrant was issued. While Deise physical force Volunteers continued to drill and organise, events involving Parliamentary elections (March and December 1918) to the east, in Waterford City, did not bode well for co-operation between East and West Waterford in the ensuing revolutionary 1919-1922 period. Redmondites in Waterford As noted in Chapter VII, for many centuries Waterford City, in contrast to the less urbanised West Waterford, had been closer to the more Anglicised Leinster side of Ireland. From the time of Parnell it tended to espouse the more moderate course of constitutional nationalism contrasted to the more militant “Fenianism” of the I.R.B. John Redmond (d.1918) To some extent, the Comeraghs and Monavullagh Mountains form a natural divide between East and West Waterford with the latter centered on the market town of Dungarvan. In an American context, the dichotomy in Waterford may be similar, in some respects, to the cultural, political, social and economic distinctions in New York State between 79 the metropolitan downstate region, centered on New York City, and the upstate region, comprised of smaller cities and open spaces, including the vast Adirondack Park. George Lennon was well aware of the twelfth century arrival of the Norman foreigner when he referenced mention in ancient Irish texts of King Henry II Plantagenet (reign: 1154-1189): There came into Ireland Henry (son of the Empress) most puissant king of England, also Duke of Normandy and Aquitaine and Count of Anjou and Lord of many other lands with 240 ships. And he came to land at Portlairge and received the pledges of Munster. To him came all the archbishops, bishops and abbots of Ireland who swore fealty to him and confirmed the Kingdom of Ireland to him and his heirs forever. The Viking name Vadrarfjord (weather fjord) and the Irish Cuan-na-Grioth (the harbour of the sun) were supplanted by the English name of Waterford. Lennon continued: Different English monarchs lavished fulsome charters on the city in return for this unswerving loyalty, for it was indeed, to the English, the one bright spot. The "bright spot" refers to the area's early Irish name of Gran-na-Grioth, meaning "the harbour of the sun.” Nearly 750 years later, in May of 1904. the King of England, Edward VII, accompanied by the Queen, visited the city. Whittle's The Gentle Country: A Saga of the Decies People, noted that a large majority... were in favour of it. The trend of opinion being that England was now extending the hand of friendship, and Ireland should grasp it... small opposition groups were active, and a public meeting of protest was convened and held by them on the Quay. However the population at large were in favour of receiving the King in reciprocation for the new era of good will shown, and the small opposition was smothered.... Assuming in 1900, until his death in 1918, the mantle of leader of Irish constitutional nationalism was John Redmond who served his Waterford City constituency as a member of the Irish Parliamentary Party at Westminster. His brother, William, was killed in the Great War and his son, Willie, served as an officer. The latter was elected, wearing his British officer’s uniform, in the March 1918 bye election to replace his father. Reflecting the more militant nationalism found to the west were a number of armed West Waterford men, including Pax Whelan, Mick Mansfield and George Lennon who were brought in to protect harassed Republican Sinn Fein speakers. Also present 80 was Northern poet (“My Lagan Love”) and Sinn Fein organiser Joseph Campbell (pp. 194-195). The “Khaki” general election of December reflected the political split in the two Waterfords. While Captain Redmond was re-elected in the city, the county elected revolutionary Republican firebrand Cathal Brugha. Continuing on until the armistice of 11 November 1918, Irishmen in the British forces had faced tragic consequences in the killing fields of the Somme, Verdun, Ypres, Passchendaele, Gallipoli, etc. As to the percentage of eligible males killed in British service, the number was relatively higher in County Waterford (2.64%) in contrast to 1.9% in Wexford, 2.25% in Kilkenny, 2.36% in Tipperary and 2.01% in County Cork. It was reported that thirty-one men perished in the Kilmacthomas, Co. Waterford area alone. The some 1100 Co. Waterford dead are today honoured by a large granite monument installed in 2013 at Dungarvan Castle. Guerrilla Warfare Some two months after the end of the Great War, a Volunteer attack on 21 January 1919, under the leadership of Dan Breen, Seumas Robinson, Sean Treacy and Sean Hogan, took place at Soloheadbeg, County Tipperary. This attempt to seize explosives from a convoy resulted in the deaths of two R.I.C. constables. In the words of Dan Breen "...we had nothing in mind but...to engage in some enterprise that would start the ball rolling...." For many, arguably not Dublin G.H.Q., this was the signal to commence hostilities against the foreign presence. That same day marked the fulfillment of a Sinn Fein promise to abstain from taking their seats at Westminster. Acordingly, a National Parliament (Dail Eireann) met at the Mansion House, Dublin and established the Provisional Government of the Irish Republic as proclaimed Easter Monday, 1916. The general public began to refer to the Irish Volunteers (Oglaigh na hEireann) as the Irish Republican Army or I.R.A. For the I.R.A., outmanned by British military and an armed police presence (the R.I.C.) in excess of ten thousand men, only an unconventional military approach could be successful. The earlier Boer War provided the template. As leader of that approach, Michael Collins was to be seen as an early proponent of "asymmetric warfare” in which a small group of guerrillas is able to take on a lumbering imperial giant and win. They were indeed, as Sean Moylan noted, but “a handful of men” who put “their puny strength against the might of Empire.” Such tactics were to be later used to great effect against the French and Americans in Viet Nam and the British in Palestine. Zionist Yitzhak Shamir so admired Collins that he chose the name "Michael" as his nom de guerre. West Waterford provided, in Ernie O’Malley's words, “a great base and shelter for guerrilla warfare" as it possessed, between the Suir River and the coast, the Comeragh and Knockmealdown mountains. Additional cover was provided, between Ardmore and 81 Dungarvan, by the Drum Hills as well as the Colligan Woods and the Nier Valley, located between Dungarvan and Clonmel. A matter of some debate has been the appropriate name to apply to the years of the guerrilla struggle of January 1919 to 11 July 1921. The British position, at that time, was that this was not a war, but simply a rebellion or civil insurrection. For many Irish Republicans, the most appropriate name is the War of Independence or Black and Tan War. Some have preferred the term Anglo - Irish War, arguably ignoring the internecine nature of the conflict when the Irish policeman, at least in the in the initial stage of the conflict, was the target of I.R.A. actions. Lacking an agreed upon name, others have resorted to the euphemism of "The Troubles." Unease with respect to the War of Independence years is reflected in the chosen national commemoration date of Easter Monday, 1916. Some in Ireland apparently find it easier to associate themselves with the martyrs of 1916 than an ultimately successful guerrilla campaign. Playing a part in this reticence were the developments of 1922-1923 when many of the most active rebels took up arms against the Free State Government. Some of these so called “Irregulars” were to become reluctant emigres. From 1916 to the end of hostilities in the summer of 1921, public support for the physical force movement waxed and waned depending, in part, on British actions – e.g., the onset of the Great War, the sixteen executions, enforcement of the Defence of the Realm Act (D.O.R.A.), the threat of conscription, implementation of the Restoration of Order in Ireland Act (R.O.I.A.), the introduction of the Tans/Auxiliaries, martial law and reprisals (e.g., Abbeyside, Balbriggan and Cork) for I.R.A. ambushes. Not surprisingly, the cessation of hostilities in mid 1921 witnessed the apogee of popularity for the physical force adherents. Cork Male Prison Still on the run, away from home, at the time of the January 1919 outbreak of hostilities, the eighteen-year-old George managed to avoid capture until March 1919 when he was arrested and taken, not to the local Dungarvan Court, but to the Devonshire built Lismore Court House adjacent to Devonshire Castle. With J.J. Madden and John Keyes he was initially sentenced to a month in Cork Male Prison. The men were sent off from the Devonshire built train station amidst much jeering at the Constabulary. Also forcibly detained in Cork, at the City Prison for women (Sunday's Well Prison), in June 1919 for four months, was Countess Gore-Booth Markiewicz who had successfully stood for election to the British Parliament while in London's Holloway Prison in 1918. In accordance with Sinn Fein policy of abstention she refused to take her seat at Westminster. The honour of being the first woman to take a seat in the British Parliament, therefore, went to Lady Astor. 82 Cork Male Prison For the men, abstention/non-cooperation, as mandated by the GHQ order of August 1918, involved claiming political status. George was removed to Wing 10 where conditions were shockingly bad. Beds were mere benches, barred windows were devoid of glass and food was of an appalling poor standard. My cell in No. 10 was anything but luxurious. After they had taken my shoes and locked me in I had ample time to survey my new home for the next three months to come. The bed was something that looked like the lid of a coffin covered by a hard mattress and pillow, a sheet and two army blankets. Nothing else but a sanitary utensil and a wooden saltcellar. We had to eat our meals on the floor... My predecessor had vented his wrath on the window, bursting out every last vestige of glass; he had also gouged out some minor holes in the wall. Needless to say there was not heat of any kind, and the weather was cold. A strange silence reigned. The policy, as I was soon to discover, was to break every prison regulation; non co-operation in short. So we all stayed in bed most of the day and stayed up most of the night yelling out through the cell windows...distracted parents living in the vicinity...complained that they could not get their children to sleep.... Not unlike his Ballybricken Prison experience, he observed, once again, that “the Irish prison warders were an admirable lot of men" who handled the underground mail to be 83 posted outside the prison's walls. Although he was totally ignored by all Volunteer prisoners, the gaol governor, Captain King, kindly slipped George a pack of Capstan cigarettes and a box of matches after admonishing him for not exercising! This despite the fact that the Volunteers had engaged in what George referenced as a “smash up strike.” Tom O’Connor of Kerry observed, as quoted in an interview with Ernie O’Malley, that “they had to send in the military and the RIC.” The men were subsequently placed in solitary confinement in individual cells with windows open to the elements. As further punishment they were denied exercise and quinine during the great pandemic of 1918-1919. Noted as Prison Officer Commanding the Volunteers, in George’s 1937 wound pension application, was Thomas D. “Synnott” (sic). The jail register also notes his brother Michael (Mick) Sinnott. Both were incarcerated earlier on 29 October 1918. They were Enniscorthy born - Michael in 1895 and Thomas either in 1894, 1893 or 1892 based upon jail registers from his three incarcerations of 1916 (Waterford), 1918 (Cork) and 1921 (Waterford). O/C No. 10 Wing was Charlie Daly of Castlemaine, Co Kerry. Daly’s D.O.R.A. offence was unlawful assembly with the additional charge of “throwing stones at the police.” Resident physician, Doctor Foley, upon examination of the "Shinners" under his charge, became concerned over the state of their health. Five of us, including two other beardless infants, young Barlow and young Phillips from Tipperary, were removed to the prison hospital...After being administered Parish's syrup and other nourishments to build us up, we were released. Having just observed his 19th birthday (25 May) in situ, George was released on the 28 th with J.J. Madden. The local newspaper noted that “both prisoners received a rousing reception on their return” to Dungarvan. Such adulation, before and after his incarcerations, seemingly becoming commonplace for the young rebel. "In ill health as a result of imprisonment,” recovery, at home at on Western Terrace, was hastened by his mother feeding him numerous "egg flips.” There is a possibility that his compromised well being may have been attributable in part to the Spanish Flu pandemic which killed more people (perhaps upwards of 50 million) in a twelve month period than any other calamity of similar duration. The third wave of the contagion (mid February to mid April 1919) coincided with the period of his incarceration. From June to August 1919 he recuperated with the Whelans of Lower Ballyduff – Mr. and Mrs. Whelan, Hanna, Mollie, Ned (Edmond) and Aunt B - whose "comfortable farm home was within easy cycling distance" of the Lennons’ Western Terrace home. The valuation of property undertaken by Richard Griffith in 1856 noted, in Lower Ballyduff, an Edmond Whelan and the Dungarvan Electors Register of 1936 listed the following Ballyduff Whelans: James, Edmond, Hannah and Mary. 84 In that Whelan or O'Faolain is a common pre Norman Waterford name, any relationship of the Ballyduff Whelans to the Ring family of Patrick or to the Dungarvan families of Pax or Pakeen is unknown. Fermoy, Co. Cork Planning the first County Cork attack on a British military target for September 1919, Liam Lynch asked his Dungarvan friend Pax Whelan to obtain a vehicle. Pax procured a car but was unable to travel that day. Largely recovered from his prison- induced infirmities, George volunteered with Mick Mansfield. Unable to secure the Nipper McCarthy of Crotty’s Garage, they found another driver who was not a Volunteer. Under the guise of attending a feis (festival) in Fermoy the two Volunteers left Dungarvan to join forces with Lynch. The objective was the weaponry possessed by a detachment of the Royal Shropshire Light Infantry. They were to be ambushed on their way to the Wesleyan Church, near the Fermoy Court House, on Sunday, 7 September 1919. Some twenty-three men of Cork's 2nd Brigade were involved. Included was Lynch friend Michael Fitzgerald, later to die after a 67 day hunger strike, on 17 October 1920, a week before the similar death of Cork Lord Mayor Terence McSwiney. Augmented by Lennon and Mansfield, the Corkmen took up positions around the church gate. Most Volunteers were armed but some were there simply to load any seized arms into nearby vehicles. Some fourteen or fifteen armed British soldiers were surrounded and told to surrender after having being informed that the rebels only interest was the soldiers' arms. Seeing the soldiers reach for their weapons, the men of the I.R.A. opened fire. Four wounded soldiers fell to the ground - one fatally. Mick Mansfield observed (BMH ws 1188) that "badly needed rifles and equipment were captured from the soldiers and taken quickly away by the Cork Volunteers to a place of safety.” Liam Lynch was wounded through the shoulder and taken to Youghal and over the Blackwater to the care of Jim Mansfield, O/C West Waterford Third Battalion (Ardmore/Old Parish). Proceeding to Ardmore, the men had tea at Foley’s and continued towards Dungarvan. Lynch was taken to Cooney's house in Carrigroe where Dr. Moloney of Dungarvan attended to his wounds. After the attack, the two Deise participants found themselves "in a rather precarious position" when they made their way back to a prearranged spot and found that the driver had disappeared, seemingly having become suspicious, upon hearing gunfire, of his passsengers’ intent. The men "were left stranded in a locality more or less strange..." to them and became resigned to a lengthy walk back to Dungarvan, "whilst the 85 countryside was alive with military in lorries and on horseback, searching for the raiders. Planes were also up looking about for us.” Mansfield continued: Later in the day we found ourselves surrounded by searching troops, so we hastily took off our coats and got into a cornfield and proceeded to make up stooks of corn. We were seen by the military who took us to be men engaged in harvesting work; they passed us by without suspecting a thing. Eventually they reached Lismore about 12 miles south at about 8 P.M. where we were welcomed in the house of Sean Goulding (afterwards a Senator). We remained in his house overnight and returned to Dungarvan safely the following morning.... A foretaste of British policy occurred later that night when reprisals led to the sacking of a portion of Fermoy. Ardmore, Co. Waterford With the goal of undermining morale and making the R.I.C. ineffective, military action for 1920 began with a 17 January attack on the barracks at Ardmore (the present site of the White Horses Restaurant). The garrison reportedly had a complement of 12 to 15 men including transferees from vacated barracks who had been withdrawn from rural locales in smaller villages and towns. The Dublin Castle hierarchy considered such an arrangement easier to defend in the case of attack. In the words of Irish Volunteer James Fraher (BMH ws 1232), the R.I.C. structure was a “stoutly constructed stone building, two storied and the windows were reinforced with steel shutters with loop - holes to enable the garrison to fire.” About midnight, the Volunteers, more than twenty in number, approached the barracks from the Curragh (east side) of the village and were allocated positions immediately opposite the barracks. The intention was to explode a land mine against the gable end of the building and then to attack and capture the police officers. Before this could be accomplished, an accidentally fired shot rang out from the Volunteer side. Alerted, the garrison responded with heavy fire and Verey lights were sent up to summon assistance. 86 Fraher noted: After about half an hour of this, we were ordered by George Lennon, Brigade Vice O/C, to break off the action and get away. It was obvious, now that the element of surprise had gone, that it was useless to continue the engagement, more especially as our supply of ammunition was very limited that night. The Volunteers suffered no casualties, although an undetermined number of the R.I.C. garrison were wounded. Shortly after the attack, Mick Mansfield ...was ill at home when a party of R.I.C. arrived. They found me in bed and gave me a pretty rough time of it. I remember them asking the name of the doctor who was attending me. I told them and they checked on this. My young brother and another chap who was in the house at the time succeeded in putting the police motor car out of action while they were interrogating me; as a result the car had to be drawn away by horses when the party were leaving the house. Dungarvan, Co. Waterford: Inspector King Of particular concern to the I.R.A. in Dungarvan was the behaviour of District Inspector King of the Royal Irish Constabulary. This Church Street incident led to King’s request to be transferred to Mallow Co. Cork. Involved, on 2 February 1920, were Volunteers Pax Whelan, George Lennon, Joe Wyse, Pat Lynch and Pat Power. The following account was obtained from James Mansfield (BMH ws 1229): For several months previous to January 1920, Captain King, Inspector of Police for the Dungarvan district, had been noted by us as being particularly over-zealous in the matter of raiding the houses of I.R.A. men. In the course of a raid on my own home at Crowbally, Old Parish, Dungarvan, he was particularly incensed at not finding my brother Mick or myself at home and threatened my mother (with his revolver) that he would shoot her if she would not divulge our whereabouts. Needless to say, she refused. With a view to warning him of the consequence of his officiousness, it was decided to burn his motorcar outside his house. This "warning" was intended to be a preliminary to more drastic action if King did not mend his ways. One night his car was taken, placed outside his home, and set alight. 87 Dungarvan, Lismore, Ring: Impeding Administration Dungarvan men Pakeen Whelan, Paddy Lynch, James Fraher, Mickey Morrissey, Lennon and others raided the Dungarvan Office of the Clerk of the Court (Petty Sessions). Pakeen noted (BMH ws 1357) that “the lock of the office door was broken and all documents relating to court work or R.I.C. correspondences were taken away and burned” on Grattan Square as part of the new year (1920) celebration. The aim being to encourage litigants to take their disputes to the newly established Republican Courts. Such actions were part of the non-military objective, in early 1920, of hampering British administrative structures in its variant forms. In that spirit the I.R.A., according to Mick Mansfield .... intensified our raids on postmen, post offices and mail trains with a view to capturing correspondence addressed to military or R.I.C. personnel in the area, or to loyalist sympathisers. Letters of this nature were passed to the brigade for examination. In April 1920, we raided the Income Tax offices at Dungarvan and Lismore. The offices of the Sheriff in Ring were also raided. All books and documents helpful to the British administration were taken away and burned. Operating under the leadership of the nineteen year old Brigade Vice O/C , these raids were carried out at gunpoint using weapons previously obtained at Ascendancy "big houses” and R.I.C. barracks. Kilmallock, Co. Limerick In his pension application George noted that, from 26 May 1920 to August 1920, he served with the two Limerick Brigades that formed that summer the first Active Service Units commonly referred to as Flying Columns. West Limerick was under the command of Sean Finn who had organized safe movement through his area for Sean Hogan and Dan Breen after the beginning of hostilities in January 1919 at Soloheadbeg. In East Limerick, Tomas Malone (a.k.a."Sean Forde") was the outstandingly successful Brigade Vice O/C. On Liam Lynch’s orders Lennon moved northward to organise and to gain experience of guerrilla tactics. South of Limerick, he was met by the Limerick men and taken by car to Newcastle West. In the vehicle he made the acquaintance of a boy by the name of Frost. He was struck by the young man's intensity as he sat in the back cradling a Lee Metford rifle. In Newcastle West Father Hayes heard the men’s confessions prior to the engagement. 88 The R.I.C. barracks in nearby Kilmallock had been unsuccessfully attacked in the ill- fated Fenian Rising of 1867. As a result of the police response at that engagement, Sub Inspector Millings of the Kilmallock Irish Constabulary was granted a Constabulary Medal. At the awards ceremony, in Phoenix Park, Dublin on the 6 September 1867, it was announced that the armed Irish Constabulary were to be known as the "Royal" Irish Constabulary in honour of their role in suppressing the Fenians. The symbolism of another attack at the same barracks was not lost on the Volunteers. Raised on tales of failed rebellions of the past, Lennon saw this as the perfect locale "to get our own back with a vengeance.” Facing the Volunteers on the night of 27 May was a more than substantial facility protected by steel shutters whose ...destruction...would constitute an important blow against the morale and effectiveness of the Royal Constabulary, who regarded their barracks as impregnable...and that it would continue to keep the unruly and seditious in there proper places in 1920. It was decided that tactics similar to those successfully employed at Ballylanders (17 April 1920) would be utilised. At that time the barracks roof was attacked. Accordingly, a room was booked at Clery's Hotel, directly in front of the barracks and at about twice its height. Also occupied, adjoining Clery’s, were the premises of the Provincial Bank of Ireland. On the R.I.C. side of the street, abutting it on the north, was Willie Carroll's residence and store. In that the barracks was set back from the street, its front was level with the rear of Carroll's shop and the roof of the shop was slightly higher than the roof of the police station. Lennon observed: There was a most eerie silence before the attack began as if all the people in the town were lying awake waiting for something awful to happen. The moment the signal light flashed we put our rifle butts through the window glass, knelt down behind the ledge and opened fire. There was immediate response... and a frightened wail went up from all the houses around... the top glass was soon peppered with bullet holes ... pieces of plaster came... down from the ceiling...Soon...the barracks were ablaze...the noise was terrific. At about two o'clock in the morning our leader ordered a ceasefire and called upon the police garrison to surrender. The answer was a shout of defiance and a renewed outbreak of firing from the building, now quite half consumed by the flames. So it went on all night until all but a small part of the barracks was enveloped in flame. It seemed impossible anybody could remain alive there. 89 Near daybreak I descended into the street and, with a young man named Liam Scully (Glencar, Co. Kerry), stood watching the now almost consumed buildings. Suddenly my companion dropped to the ground, shot through the throat. When day began to break we had to withdraw Frost and I had been running around everywhere for each other. We climbed into the back seat of one of the cars, happy to be together again. The dead man (Scully) was on a stretcher in the other car. Black clouds of smoke were going up over the town as we drove off. The building was never again to be occupied by R.I.C. or British forces. The death of Scully was reminiscent of a Fenian who had died in the 1867 barracks attack. He was a stranger in Kilmallock and ultimately had a monument in the local cemetery erected to him as the "unknown Fenian." History nearly repeated itself with Scully, the County Kerry native, being the "unknown Volunteer.” As a stranger in the area, the identity of his remains was unknown for a period of time. Because of the need to avoid the attention of the authorities, Scully could not be buried. Consequently he was waked locally and buried at midnight. Some years later the largest headstone in the old Templeglantine (Inchabaun) graveyard was erected in his memory. This not uncommon quandary, involving the ultimate disposition of the body of Deise Flying Column member Pat Keating, was to reoccur at the Burgery outside Dungarvan in March of 1921. By most accounts, the Kilmallock engagement proved to be one of the “fiercest of all barracks attacks during the War of Independence.” Unfortunately,in the words of Tomas Malone, “because so much ammunition had been expended…the area was a bit dosorganised after it.” 90 Kilmallock is also of note in that, after the attack, the East Limerick Brigade organised Ireland’s first flying column composed of Volunteers on full time military service. This was a direct consequence of Malone’s men being forced to move away from home (“on the run”) to avoid detection. Leadership of the column was placed in the hands of Donnchadh O h-Annagain (O Hannigan). No stranger to being on the run (11 April 1918 – March 1919), George accompanied them as they moved northward. 91 Bunratty, Co. Clare The Limerick men with George moved off to West Limerick and County Clare with plans for a large-scale attack in Clare. It was hoped that the Kilmallock success could be replicated with an attack on the R.I.C. Barracks at Sixmilebridge, just north of Bunratty. It was anticipated that a hole in the wall of the barracks could be blown by using gelignite and a storming of the building, using hand grenades supplied from Dublin, would follow. On the Clare side of the Shannon, he and Frost stayed, along with Ernie O’Malley and Seumas Robinson (O/C Mid Tipperary Brigade, O/C 1st Southern Division, 1921 ff.), at the not insubstantial home of sympathiser Mr. Corbett of Bunratty. The house, or rather mansion (now a hotel) was quite large and he catered for the lot of us in a most princely manner. What happened...was not without humour (if working with explosives can be called humorous). I remember that we had to thaw out a large quantity of frozen gelignite that we intended to demolish a police barracks. The thawing operation took place in a fisherman's hut on the banks of the river. A huge pot of water simmered on the fire and into this we dipped sweet cans full of the frozen explosive. Corbett’s of Bunratty Unfortunately, I.R.A. awareness of the workings of land mines, bombs and gelignite was rather rudimentary at this stage of the guerrilla war. According to North Cork O/C Sean Moylan: 92 Our knowledge of explosives was so meager that it was only by a continuing miracle that we escaped disintegration. Dublin G.H.Q officer, Ernie O'Malley had ... warned the officers about the poisonous fume which nitro glycerin exudes; they gave what we called a gelignite head, a terrible roof splitting pain. When we came back to the house we found a number of the men yellow green; their stomachs heaved in dry spasms.... Lennon duly noted that "under such conditions...the proposed military operation had to be called off at the last moment.” Recrossing the Shannon River with others to the Limerick side, the two young rebels rowed together in the leading boat as all lifted up their voices in song. "We were always singing in those days of happy unquestioning youth," Lennon was to later observe. Bruree, Co. Limerick Continuing with the East Limerick Column, Lennon stayed with Johnnie Lynch and his two spinster sisters, Minnie and Maggie, of Tankardstown. On Friday the 30th of July a man rushed into the Lynch kitchen and announced that an enemy cycle patrol was coming down the nearby Bruree-Kilmallock Road. All rushed to arms and dashed across the intervening fields and there was a sudden and headlong collision... with a tall frightened looking constable; by mutual consent they drew off in opposite directions. Lennon continued by noting that, in the subsequent engagement, “this was, one of the rare occasions in which he distinguished himself as he captured two military bicycles under fire.” Per the New York Times of August 3, 1920: Details of a fight which assumed the dimensions of a small battle at Bruree, County Limerick... are given in an account issued by (British) general headquarters. Fifty armed men ambushed a patrol of military cyclists, consisting of an officer and five men. One of the men was seriously wounded, but owing to the intensity of the attacking party's fire, his comrades were unable to assist him. The raiders reached the wounded man, seized his rifle and used his body as cover. This prevented the soldiers from firing effectively, 93 and the struggle lasted for half an hour before they were able with difficulty to rescue the wounded man and drag him to a cottage. Surrounding the cottage the raiders poured in a heavy fire. The soldiers' ammunition ran short, and one of them, disguising himself as a civilian, ran for reinforcements, at the arrival of which the raiders fled. Pursued by the soldiers into the centre of the village, they turned and resumed firing. A schoolboy who got into the line of fire was killed. Finally the soldiers got the upper hand. They searched the houses in the town and discovered a man mortally wounded. In all likelihood this was the casualty observed by Lennon to be a “young tin hatted soldier, lying face downwards on the road, a dark ominous stain... spreading down over the soldier's khaki clad buttocks.” An incident to the south, 2 days later on 1 August, led British Intelligence to erroneously note George as being a suspect in the Youghal, Co. Cork shooting of Constable Ruddock. This attack was actually carried out by “Wild Bill” Foley, Jim Fitzgerald and Mick Shalloe. British Intelligence also had falsely reported George as a suspect in the earlier General Lucas kidnapping of 26 June on the banks of the Blackwater. Most likely he had simply been confused with Fermoy’s George Power who (with Liam Lynch and Sean Moylan) was involved in the kidnapping. Perhaps ironically, later the following year, George was to have a quite unanticipated close encounter with Lucas’s successor, Major Neville John Gordon Cameron (p. 119). Co. Cork After the ambush at Bruree, the Volunteers, finding it, in Lennon's words, "necessary to move a long ways off ... tramped very many miles, climbing the many ditches in their path... and … barbed wire fences." The East Limerick Flying Column numbered thirteen plus Lennon.The O'Hannigan led men joined forces with eleven members of a Cork unit. The combined force ambushed, on 7 August 1920, a six man R.I.C. foot patrol near Kildorrery, County Cork. All six policemen were wounded with one, Constable Ernest S. Watkins, to die of his wounds. Watkins, a former British soldier, had only recently been recruited as a Black and Tan to augment the Royal Irish Constabulary. Six revolvers and 250 rounds of ammunition were reportedly taken from the enemy. This engagement was sweet revenge for the three Crowley brothers of nearby Ballylanders whose father's home had been blown up by Tans less than two weeks 94 earlier. Tadhg O'Crowley may well have been an active participant in this engagement as Lennon listed him as a reference for this period on his pension application form. O'Crowley was a founding member of the East Limerick Flying Column, a friend of Cork's Liam Lynch and, later, a Fianna Fail member of the Dail (1927 -1957). Richard Abbott, in his book of 2000 detailing R.I.C. casualties, maintains that R.I.C. Constable Watkins was to die at Fermoy Military Hospital. Lennon's on the scene account, however, observed: ...Nurse Sullivan attended to the (enemy) wounded. He (Lennon) supported a very youthful Tan (Watkins) while the nurse slashed off the youth's pants with her surgical scissors and applied a tourniquet. But the boy had lost too much blood and he began to sink. Between sips of water of water the young Tan told him that he came from Liverpool, where he had a wife and kid. He had been unemployed for a long time and then he saw this advertisement for policemen in the newspaper. Noticing his (Lennon's) distress and seemingly wishing to console him the young Tan said, "it's all in the game chum." They held clammy hands, the boy gave him a wan smile and in a moment he was gone. Shortly after the formation of the first two columns in Limerick, the far more draconian Restoration of Order in Ireland Act (R.O.I.A.) of August 1920 was introduced with martial law in the more “lawless” counties. This resulted in a greater number of internments (e.g., Cork’s Spike Island and Ballykinlar in the North). Consequently, men with civilian employment could no longer continue with their jobs. They were incorporated, with others already on the run such as George, into small columns better suited to ambushes of British military patrols and convoys. In his 10 October 1935 (No. 11591) interview with the pension examiner, George stated “I organised the first column in Cork (Cork No. 2 Brigade) for Liam Lynch.” Appointed Commandant was Patrick Clancy with training to begin in mid August. This programme was upset, however, with the death of Clancy and Lynch’s arrest. George’s 1930’s pension application noted service with this, his third, column ( p.94). The Deise Flying Column March of 1920 had witnessed a dramatic change in the military situation with the introduction of the Black and Tans to fill the depleted R.I.C. ranks. Lacking proper uniforms, the men initially wore a hybrid uniform of R.I.C. (bottle green) and British army (khaki). Sadly, some 577 Tans were native Irish. The name originally applied to a hunting pack of beagles in County Tipperary. For the most part, the Tans were former soldiers in the Great War who saw an opportunity to improve themselves financially in a period of high unemployment. 95 Earlier on in their deployment the Tans made their presence known to the Cullinanes on the main street of Kilmacthomas. Hannah Power (nee Cullinane) noted “the first military raid at home” when George and “the boys got away.” The raiding party commenting, “the nest is hot, the birds have flown.” Further military assistance for the embattled R.I.C. was forthcoming, in July of that year, with the introduction of the Auxiliaries. These former British officers were placed under the immediate command of General Crozier. By the standards of the day, when a typical farm labourer was paid some 10 shillings a week, wages to these men were more than generous at a guinea a day (21 shillings) for the Auxies; not for the likes of them the common labourer’s pound (20 shillings). The Tans were reimbursed at 10 shillings/day. On September 9th George journeyed with Comeragh’s Pat Keating to Dublin’s Vaughan’s Hotel to meet with Mick Collins concerning Pat’s proposal to use “mud bombs” to adhere to the walls of buildings attacked by the Volunteers. George’s interest in home made explosive devices traced to his Na Fianna Eireann days when he and Barney Dalton exploded an early twentieth century I.E.D. in the front garden of an elderly lady at Dungarvan’s “Lookout.” Back in Munster he was noted by British Intelligence Officer Colonel John Basil Jarvis as being “in charge of a party” which “stole a motor car for the use of the I.R.A. near Youghal” in County Cork on 12 September. The colonel observed, that George had “made a bomb of gelignite at Dungarvan wrapped in clay for throwing purposes. It was very successful.” Perhaps this was in reference to the I.E.D. of his Fianna Eireann days. He arrived at Glenville, Co. Cork on 17 September to commence a lengthy officers training course under Ernie O’Malley of Dublin G.H.Q. The course was reportedly conducted in the Nagles just southwest of Ballyhooly. In attendance were the leading men from Cork: Tom Barry, Sean Moylan, Lynch and his Vice O/C George Power. After a hectic May to September period, the peripatetic twenty-year-old George was now ready to assume operational commandof his own unit. He had served his apprenticeship well: Na Fianna Eireann; internment in Waterford and Cork goals; the first attack on British military in Co. Cork at Fermoy’s Wesleyan Chapel; engagements at Kilmallock, Bruree, Kildorrery, Bunmahon and the theft of a vehicle in Youghal. In August he was instrumental in establishing the soon to be famous North Cork Flying Column. Having met with Mick Collins in Dublin on 9 September he helped plan the 18 September attack on the R.I.C. Barracks in Kill. Attending the training camp in Glenville he benefitted greatly from the practical advice of some of the most noteworthy guerrilla fighters. The Waterford Flying Column was, most likely, established in the early autumn of 1920. In the words of Jim (“Pender”) Prendergast (BMH ws1655): About this period … many of us were going under the notice of the police and military and it became impossible to remain at home; as a result a Flying Column was formed which comprised mostly (of) men on the run. 96 Other witness statements give conflicting dates. Jim Mansfield was of the opinion that the Active Service Unit was formed in August or September. Pakeen Whelan corroborated the latter month. John Riordan (BMH ws1355) noted “a month or so previous” to the Piltown Ambush of November 1, 1920. Based on the Bureau of Military History witness accounts of Pakeen and Pender, original Column members included: George Lennon, Leader Pat Keating Paddy (Sonny) Cullinan Jim Prendergast Pakeen Whelan George Kiely Paddy Lynch Eddie Kirby Jim Bagnall Joining a few weeks later were Mick Mansfield of Crobally, Old Parish and Nipper McCarthy of Mitchell Terrace, Dungarvan. “Big Jim” Prendergast mentioned "two brothers Barron from Kilmacthomas.” The Comeraghs: Gunfire and Civil War (Sean Murphy) also listed John Riordan, Wild Bill Foley, Paddy Joe Power and Jim Lonergan. Joining the A.S.U in November were two comrades who were on the run in County Cork: Pat O’ Reilly and Mick Shalloe of Aglish. The latter sought for the shooting of Constable Ruddock, inter alia. Other notables included Ned Power of Glen, brother of Paddy Joe and former medical student, Benny McCarthy. Corroborating what Lennon experienced during his stint in Limerick, Clare and Cork was Pakeen Whelan's witness statement: We were armed mostly with shotguns. There was one rifle, a police carbine and a couple of revolvers, so far as I can remember. Ammunition was very scarce indeed (italics added) The Column with an initial compliment of some twelve full time members, supplemented on an as needed basis by part timers, was continually on the move through the Nier Valley, the Colligan Woods and the Drum Hills. The Comeragh Mountains, in particular, were a huge I.R.A. asset for both the Deise men and the Third Tipperary Brigade. The latter’s area covered the portion of County Waterford through Rathgormack, down to Clonea Power and over towards Portlaw. The Waterford men could slip over the Comeraghs to the Nire or into the Knockmealdowns. Having experienced other Munster Columns, Lennon considered the Deise unit to be the equal of any. The A.S.U. eventually grew to some “thirty men, some quite hard chaws, the others innocent country lads.” Ultimately, “armament was by no means negligible: we had twenty captured Lee Enfields, 2 Krag Jagersons, 1 service Mauser, 1 Marlin 97 Repeater and one Winchester. In reserve were a Martini Enfield and an embossed Turkish combine somebody had brought back from the Crimea. Total supply of ammunition was 1,600 rounds, which could only be replaced by capture. We had a number of side weapons but they were ineffective in a field action.” It was not until May of 1921 that steps were taken to establish a Flying Column in east County Waterford. Including O/C Paul, this unit was to number perhaps thirteen men. Paul noted (BMH ws 877): "about eleven of the men... were from Waterford City - the others were from the surrounding countryside...." This inactive Column was to be quickly amalgamated with Lennon's active West Waterford unit. The summer of 1920, coincided with the ending of the earlier primary tactic of extensive reliance on R.I.C. barracks attacks which had given the I.R.A. crucial experience under fire. The success of these attacks had led to a greater concentration of the constabulary in heavily fortified less rural stations. Accordingly, the imperative became the replenishing of scarce weaponry and ammunition via ambushes of military convoys. The advantage of such tactics lay in the element of surprise possessed by a guerrilla force. The men could choose the time and place of the attack. There were the additional advantages of partisan units having familiarity with local geography and knowledge as to the availability of safe houses. Hence, foreign military were compelled to rely on the local constabulary, viewed by the I.R.A. as “police spies,” for information of local conditions and likely rebels. The British difficulty, as it had been for them in the Boer War and the American Revolutionary War, was their inability to identify an enemy, as seen below, that did not wear a uniform. A charge that was to be echoed by powerful nations involved in subsequent guerrilla struggles. This iconic depiction (lacking O/C Sean Moylan) of the famed Cork No. 2 Brigade guerrillas (“Men of the South”) is on display at Cork’s Crawford Municipal Gallery. Painter was Lennon family friend and Rathfarnham neighbour, Sean Keating RHA. 98 Bunmahon, Co. Waterford At some point in time, subsequent to his demobilisation from the British Army in the "early part of 1919," Paddy Paul joined the Waterford City Volunteers and was selected to superintend and direct the training of B Company. Paul's witness statement mentioned ...very little activity for the Volunteer companies at this time except their training parades. I had noticed that there chief activities and the attention of individual Volunteers were directed more in political than military lines. Perhaps the 1918 election had encouraged this, but Waterford was still a strong Irish Party centre and political opinion was even then more or less equally divided between Sinn Fein and the Irish Party... Perhaps, in fact the Irish party were a little stronger.... Paul noted that some time …about May 1920, the Battalion Commander was arrested...and I was nominated and appointed to the command of the Waterford City Battalion...I proceeded to examine the situation to see in what ways things might be livened up.... The Brigade Commandant, Liam Walsh, took Paul around to inspect battalions outside the city in East Waterford "with the idea of seeing what we could do to improve their training and to organize new companies." While in Bunmahon, Paul first came in contact with men of the West Waterford Brigade, notably George Lennon who was back again with the West Waterford unit after his sojourn in Limerick, Clare and Cork. Also consulted, from the Comeragh area, was Pat Keating. In August, just prior to the establishment of the West Waterford Column, the two Deise officers sought Paul's advice and help "in a proposal they had to burn down the Bunmahon Coastguard station.” The exact date of this incident of August of 1920 is unknown in that Lennon never mentioned the attack; nor is it noted in the Sean Murphy book. At the station the three men, per Paul’s account, after "having removed the families - children and so on... sprinkled it with petrol and set fire to it.” Keating and Lennon “wanted to make a quick getaway before any enemy party could intercept them.” They therefore “commandeered a motor lorry - a one-ton truck - from a local merchant.” As the only driver, Paul "drove right through the night into the Comerghs..."to the Keating home.” Regarding co-operation between East and West Waterford, Paul referenced "some friction between the officers of the two Brigade areas, possibly due to the fact that there was little fraternisation between them...." However, he felt that he "got on fairly well with the West Waterford officers..." and that he "got every assistance, particularly from George Lennon...and...Pat Keating.” He described Pat, the O/C of the Fourth West Waterford Battalion (Kilrossanty), as "a very good friend of mine.” 99 Kill, Co. Waterford What O/C Paul termed “a further instance of…cooperation” between the two Waterford Brigades was to occur in mid September when Keating and Lennon came to him to arrange an attack on Kill R.I.C. Barracks on the Waterford-Bunmahon Road. The description of the 18 September 1920 encounter, as described in the Murphy book section dealing with reports of Deise Brigade engagements, is only three short sentences and mentions an attacking force of "about twenty IRA...." Whatever the exact number, according to Paul, "there weren't very many of us.” Lennon having departed by this time to participate in the Cork training course of 17 September. "Keating and the others went in rear of the barracks to endeavor to get some of the slates off with explosives and, in that way, set fire to the place.” After this proved unsuccessful, an attempt was made to intimidate the police and force them to surrender by firing at the front door and windows. This prompted Verey lights being sent up to summon assistance to the beleaguered barracks. Seeing headlights from the approaching military lorries, and aware of the small amount of ammunition at their disposal the attack was called off and the column retreated back to Comeragh. The ever-present objective of securing arms and ammunition had failed. The secondary objective of compelling the evacuation of the barracks was proven successful a few days later. Brown's Pike, Co. Waterford Waterford targets for the just formed Deise Brigade (Waterford #2) Flying Column were not lacking in that there were some thirty R.I.C. barracks plus Royal Marine stations at Ardmore, Ballinacourty and Waterford. Also, the Black and Tans were stationed at Church Street, the West Kents (the Buffs) at Dungarvan Barracks and, to the east, the Devon Regiment in Waterford City. The first opportunity for the newly formed Column came on 9 October when a group of Tans, accompanied by two R.I.C. men in a Crossley Tender, emerged from Church Street at breakneck speed up to Parnell Street (Main Street) and out O'Connell Street, past the family home of O/C Whelan, to the countryside. These mad dashes had become commonplace, stirring up the dust in the road and “leaving in their wake mangled fowl and barking dogs.” Their only discernible purpose was to "show the flag" and convince the inhabitants that the Kings Writ prevailed in the Deise. News of their departure was duly conveyed to Lennon who promptly contacted, as recalled by Column Vice O/C Mick Mansfield, "about eight Volunteers" including Ned Kirby, Pat Lynch and Sonny Cullinan. 100 The men, according to Pakeen Whelan, “went hurriedly to Coolnagower, about 2 1/2 miles west of Dungarvan, where there were eight rifles dumped in the house of a man named Thomas Dreaper.” Rifles in hand, they "proceeded across country until we reached the main Dungarvan-Clonmel road at a place known as Brown's Pike, a little over two miles north west of Dungarvan" where the Master McGrath monument now divides the Cappoquin and Clonmel roads. This was viewed as a likely spot to mount an ambush upon the Crossley's return. We had run the two miles from Coolnagower and were barely in attacking positions when the tender with the R.I.C. came in sight, travelling very fast towards Dungarvan. We opened fire, Lennon firing at the driver and missing him. The R.I.C. replied to our fire.... Beyond perforating the body of the car, firing by rifles and revolvers proved ineffective. A home made "cocoa tin bomb” was reportedly dropped into the Crossley; but Mick was unable to "say with what effect.” The Tans did not stop but continued at full speed to the shelter of the Church Street barracks. Mansfield observed: Following the ambush, it was noticeable that British raiding parties subsequently comprised more than one lorry load of troops. It was rarely that only one lorry ventured out into the country. Piltown, Co. Waterford By the summer of 1920 the I.R.A. policy of attacking British administrative structures was bearing fruit. Normal mail services were rendered ineffective, necessitating the use of a light aeroplane for dispatches. The R.I.C. County Inspector reported in August that there is hostility to the police everywhere and throughout a great part of the county. I do not regard it as safe for a single police vehicle to travel. We are losing men everyday from retirement and resignations and getting practically no recruit. I see no alternative to evacuating some of the stations that we still hold. At present we run the risk of being weak everywhere and strong nowhere. Outside of Dungarvan’s heavily fortified station, located within the castle’s walls, attacks on more rural barracks continued. After the Ardmore attack in January, a force of marines moved into the village taking up position at the Coast Guard Station. A further attempt, in August, to take the barracks failed. Although expected to do so, the marines did not come to the assistance of the beleaguered main street R.I.C. garrison. However, a party of enemy soldiers did come out from Youghal, across the Blackwater in adjacent Co. Cork. Based on this experience, another operation was planned for the Ardmore area. 101 Lennon and ex British soldier John Riordan went to select the most suitable locale for the proposed attack. Selected was the Piltown Cross intersection in Kinsalebeg, on the main Youghal-Dungarvan road, some four miles northeast of Youghal, roughly half the distance to Ardmore. According to Riordan, the ground there was "the most likely spot from our point of view... to engage the enemy as he came along the road from Youghal.” The men were aware that to be hung on 1 November 1920, in Dublin's Mountjoy Prison, was young Kevin Barry. In reprisal, it was reportedly agreed to hang any captured British officer. The main body of men, under the O/C, included from the Column, the Mansfield brothers, Mick Shalloe, Jim Prendergast, John Riordan, Ned Kirby, Jim Lonergan plus other "picked men from the Brigade.” Positions were taken up at night on 1 November 1920. Due to the rough road surface an attempt to trench the road was less than satisfactory. For the Third Battalion (Ardmore/Old Parish), this was a large undertaking; the largest mounted in West Waterford to date. There were at least eleven positions manned at various outposts up to a several mile radius of the Piltown Cross intersection Volunteers, including Jim Mansfield, Pat Keating and Pakeen Whelan, undertook a feint attack at Ardmore R.I.C. Barracks and the Marine Station. Seeking assistance, the enemy sent up Verey lights. To facilitate enemy communication, "...the wires leading from Ardmore to Youghal were left untouched." Shortly after 11 P.M., enemy (2nd Hampshire Regiment) transport was reported leaving Youghal for Ardmore. Reaching the uncompleted trench, which failed to stop it, the military vehicle was fired upon and the driver killed. 102 Piltown Cross Intersection 103 Volunteers then attacked from their positions. Riordan observed that The suddenness of the attack seemed to have taken the wind out of their sails...They surrendered without a murmur. The officer of the British party... was disarmed and taken prisoner. Two R.I.C. men from Youghal were also captured and disarmed. They were apparently acting as guides for the British. After being disarmed, Constables O'Neill and Prendiville (or Prenderville) were taken a short distance up the Clashmore road and told they would be shot "unless they gave their word that they would resign from the R.I.C.” This “they promised and were thereupon released.” Prendergast stated, “as news of Kevin Barry's execution had not reached us, we decided not to proceed with the hanging of the British officer.” The I.R.A. listed two enemy killed and "about a half dozen wounded.” When all arms had been collected and the wounded soldiers attended to by the local Volunteer Company, the military lorry could not be restarted. The Volunteers procured donkeys and carts and the British were allowed to take their wounded back to Youghal. They were informed that the I.R.A. expected to be treated in a similar fashion in the event of their capture. This most chivalrous action of the Waterford Column was not to go unnoticed by the enemy. The men then withdrew towards the north and east where they went into billets in the Comeraghs. Pat Keating's poem "The Cross of Old Piltown” expressed his patriotic sentiments that night: At the cross of old Piltown at midnight, We met them with rifle and steel, The hirelings of Britain who boasted, They'd trample our flag 'neath their heel We fought as our fathers before us, We rose at the word of command To fight for the freedom of Ireland, In a cause that is holy and grand. Chorus: I give you the brave I.R.A. boys, The cream of our race and our sod Whose lives they are willing to give, boys For the sake of their land and their God The roar of the guns it was glorious, The bullets flew 'round us like hail, From the rifles of cowards and of traitors, 'Mid the ranks of the sons of the Gael, 104 And every rebel a hero, From Piltown, Old Parish, Ardmore, And down from the slopes of the Comeraghs, With Dungarvan's true sons to the fore. Constable O'Neill, true to his word, upon his return to Youghal "walked out" of the Royal Irish Constabulary. Prendiville continued on in the force and, some weeks later, while crossing the Youghal Bridge to bring a payment to the keeper on the Waterford side, was fatally wounded and two other members of the patrol were injured. Responsible for the shooting were “Wild Bill” Foley, his brother Bob, Bill Murray, Mick Healy and Bill Kiely. The bridge was later positioned, after this shooting, so that no road traffic could enter Youghal from Waterford. It reopened to traffic only after the Truce of 11 July 1921. Prendiville's death of 3 December on the Cork-Waterford border, with the earlier September killing of Sergeant Morgan in Kilmacthomas, marked a greater willingness of the I.R.A. to seek out specific police targets. No longer would they be willing to release native Irishmen after they had been warned to desist in acting as agents for the British. Subsequent to the Piltown Ambush, Dungarvan Volunteers shot and killed two constables in Cappoquin and Constable Duddy was shot dead at Scartacrooks on 3 March 1921. That same month, following his capture at the Burgery, Sergeant Hickey of Dungarvan was executed (pp. 135 ff.) as a police spy. Also killed at the Burgery was Constable Sydney Redman. Constable Denis O'Leary was ambushed while cycling to his lodgings in Carrigbeg on 9 June 1921. Early July saw the machine-gunning death, near Tallow, of Constable Francis Creedon. Of the men killed, only two were Black and Tans with prior experience as British soldiers: Armagh born Duddy had three months R.I.C. service and Redman, from Kent, had joined the force two months before his death. Walsh's Hotel, Cappoquin, Co. Waterford Due to conflicting accounts, R.I.C deaths at Cappoquin are deserving of closer scrutiny. Shot were Constable Isaac Rea on 21 November 1920 and Constable Maurice Quirk (or Quirke) on 27 November 1920. It appears that a Black and Tan member of the Cappoquin R.I.C. was in the sights of the I.R.A. for “ill treating Sinn Fein supporters.” According to a much later account of the Cappoquin Heritage group (Cappoquin: A Brief Guide to an Area’s rich Heritage): 105 Main Street, Cappoquin It is understood that this policeman had been under sentence of death for a little beforehand by the I.R.A. and that the Cappoquin men were reluctant to kill him, so three men came in a car from Dungarvan and shot him. The Cork Examiner described the first incident, on coursing day (23 November) as follows: Constable Isaac Rea, aged 19 years, a native of West Cork and only eleven months service, was shot at Cappoquin at 5:15 last evening on the public street. The constable was speaking to Miss Camelia Russell, daughter of Mr. James Russell, merchant, at her own door, and this lady was also shot. There were two other ladies in the company who fortunately escaped. Six shots were fired from a passing motor, and one bullet passed over the left shoulder blade of the constable and through the pleural cavity of the chest. He lies in precarious condition…. Miss Russell's left shinbone was shattered by a bullet.... Volunteer John Riordan's witness statement noted, with respect to a Cappoquin shooting, that, along with the Nipper McCarthy and Mick Mansfield, he went 106 ...to shoot a couple of Black and Tans who were stationed with the R.I.C. in Cappoquin. At any rate when we arrived in Cappoquin and were driving slowly through it, we spotted two R.I.C. men in the street. It was most likely they spotted us too and knew we were strangers and up to something. We opened fire on them with revolvers and they replied also with revolvers. One of the R.I.C. men dropped. We later heard he was killed in the exchange of shots. "Nipper” McCarthy then put on speed and drove us quickly out of town and towards Dungarvan where we left the car. This eyewitness statement clearly corroborates the newspaper article that shots were "fired from a passing motor.” Echoing this is Richard Abbott (Police Casualties in Ireland: 1919 - 1922) who noted that "the Constable who was twenty and single was shot and wounded from a passing car as he walked in the village of Cappoquin.” Rea was taken to the Military Hospital in Cork and died on the 28th of December. The former farmer had "ten months prior police service" which would have placed him in the R.I.C. prior to the arrival of the Tans in March 1920. It has been stated elsewhere that the coursing day shooting of Rea was carried out by Lennon, Mick Mansfield and Pat Keating. Witness statements, newspaper accounts, the Cappoquin Heritage Group publication and the Abbott book on R.I.C. casualties do not support this contention. The following week, on the 27th of November, Constable Maurice Quirk(e), a thirty four year old, thirteen-year police veteran, was shot, outside Walsh's Hotel. His date of enlistment clearly identified him as not being a Black and Tan. Mick Mansfield noted in his witness statement that ...about the month of December (sic) 1920...with George Lennon, the Column O/C, and Pat Keating of Comeragh, I went into Cappoquin one evening to shoot an obnoxious Black and Tan. We went by motor, all of us armed with revolvers. When we arrived outside the town, we left our car and came in by foot. There were a group of Tans on the street at the time when we had to pass. We did so and saw that the Tan we wanted was not among the group (italics added). It was decided to wait a while so we went into Walsh’s Hotel for tea. After tea we rose to leave the hotel and, in the doorway, blocking our entry to the street was a uniformed R.I.C man. We immediately came to the conclusion that our presence in the town had been noticed and that we were trapped. We drew our revolvers and fired, killing the R.I.C. man. Running out to the roadway, we ran into a party of Tans on whom we opened fire. They replied with revolvers and grenades. We made with all haste to where our car was located and with good luck managed to evade our pursuers and get back to Comeragh and safety. 107 As to the identity of the slain constable, Mick was uncertain but thought it was either "O'Rourke or Quirke.” Death was not to occur, however, until two days later with the Constable being buried in Cappoquin. Mick made no mention of the driver of their vehicle. In the opinion of military historian Terence O'Reilly, Nipper McCarthy "almost certainly...was the driver - this was a very rare skill in Ireland in 1920.” The account given in the publication of the Cappoquin Heritage Group confirms Mick's account regarding locale, officer's name and the manner in which the men eluded capture: ...Another Cappoquin R.I.C man, Constable Maurice Quirke, died in an attack on the street outside Walsh's Hotel, when he was hit by four bullets and the attackers escaped, running in the Barrack Street direction, probably to board a waiting motorcar (italics added). The 27 November Walsh's Hotel locale was also confirmed in a Munster Express article dated 4 December 1920: Constable Maurice Quirke was fired at and wounded by three armed men on the street outside Walshe's (sic) Hotel, Cappoquin, Co. Waterford...The Constable succumbed to his wounds Monday night. Clearly, there were obvious differences in the circumstances surrounding the two incidents. The initial Rea killing occurred at the door of Miss Camelia Russell (not at Walsh's Hotel) and involved "a passing motor car" (Cork Examiner) as confirmed by Volunteer John Riordan who noted "driving slowly through...” Cappoquin. The later Quirk(e) shooting involved men leaving their car, entering Walsh’s Hotel, exiting, firing on the enemy, and then proceeding "to where our car was parked.” This was corroborated by the Heritage Group publication which noted the Volunteers “running... probably to board a waiting car.” The hotel locale on that day was also confirmed by the Munster paper, which noted, "three armed men on the street (italics added) outside Walshe’s (sic) Hotel...." In summation, an assumption of the veracity of contemporary newspaper and Volunteer accounts leads to the conclusion that John Riordan, the Nipper and Mick Mansfield were involved in the earlier incident with Rea who was not the "policeman who had been under sentence of death.” Recognizing the Volunteers as "strangers" and realizing they were probably "up to something," he was fatally wounded by shots from the "passing motor" car, driven by the the Nipper, outside the home of Camelia Russell. It would seem logical that Mick then returned the following week to accomplish what had not been done on the 21st. - i.e., the killing of a specific Black and Tan member of 108 the R.I.C. This time he was accompanied by the two most experienced Column men - Lennon and Keating. The fatality at Walsh's Hotel most definitely was not a "drive by.” The trio’s narrow escape facilitated by driver Nipper awaitng their return well off the Main Street. In Mick's words, "as the Tan we wanted was not among the group" in front of Walsh's, a third attempt was made, some seven months later, as described by then training officer Paddy Paul: When a certain amount of training had been completed, the question of active operations was discussed. Some of the West Waterford men mentioned that there was an R.I.C. Sergeant in Cappoquin, which was nearby, that he was a particularly offensive character and was very active in spying on the Volunteer activities. Paul anticipated that once the shooting occurred, the body would be brought "out to a selected suitable ambush position where it would be laid on the road to draw British forces into the ambush position." When the Volunteers went into Cappoquin, "the R.I.C. Sergeant, for some unknown reason, did not make an appearance out of the barracks, and so the whole operation had to be abandoned.” These three attempts are not listed in the engagements of the Brigade as contained in the Murphy book. Lennon's memoir made no mention of his involvement and he did not list the encounter in his 1935 pension application. In light of his later pacifist beliefs, it may very well have been that he had no inclination to dwell on certain fatal confrontations involving his youthful commitment to physical force. Perhaps preferring, as he later reminisced, to relegate such matters “to the dustbin of history.” Aborted Ambushes, Co. Waterford For native fighters, faced by the overwhelming power of a colonial occupier, one of their trump cards is the ability to catch the enemy unawares at a chosen site likely to afford cover and a ready means of escape into a familiar and supportive environment. Guerrillas were to be described years later by Mao tse Tung as being “like fish in the sea.” Per Pakeen Whelan: "At that time - November, 1920 – the Column was about a dozen strong, with George Lennon in charge. We lay in ambush many times during November and December, 1920, but were not lucky enough to contact any enemy forces.” Moses Roach’s BMH statement described one such incident when, expecting British soldiers to raid the home of Ned Power of Glen We reached a spot at Kilminnion Bridge, which is about eight miles east of Dungarvan and on the coast road, late at night... O/C Pax Whelan, and Vice O/C George Lennon and about 15 men armed with 109 rifles. "Nipper" McCarthy was there...Andy Kirwan of Boat Strand, Bonmahon, the Column motor driver, together with Ned Power of Glen... were also there... We were all set to give the British a hot reception, but, although we waited until after 2 o'clock in the morning, the enemy didn't turn up and we got orders to disperse. What had reportedly occurred was that the British, in their search for Ned Power, had confused him with Eddie Power of Kilmacthomas. Consequently, it was to Kilmac that the soldiers had gone and, in their search, "brought the inhabitants of the village out on to the street in their night attire.” At about the same time in November, Roche, Jim “Pender” and Mick Shalloe went out to "have a go" at a military lorry expected to pass through Kilmac. Lennon and Shalloe were armed with grenades to drop into the lorry. Although they waited for more than two hours on the railway bridge under which the road ran, no lorry came along. December reportedly witnessed another failed attempt from a wood "overlooking the main road at Whitfield.” The I.R.A. engagement report attributed the failure of the ambush to materialise to "several civilians with horses and carts on the road which prevented party from firing on enemy.” Andy Kirwan in his witness statement (BMH ws 1179) mentioned another aborted engagement, sometime in February 1921, at Carrickmourn, some 2 miles west of Lemybrien. There were also numerous other such unfruitful efforts mounted by local battalions. Ardmore’s Tommy Mooney has chronicled these and other more successful battalion forays in his definitive Cry of the Curlew. Rockfield Cross, Cappagh, Co. Waterford On 31 November 1920, six members of the Column (Lennon, Shalloe, Pender, Pat Keating, Pat O’Reilly and Pakeen Whelan) "were moving across country" according to Shalloe, "when, in the distance, we spotted a lorry-load of military approaching on the main Cappoquin - Dungarvan road.” Hurriedly taking up positions, the men opened rifle fire on a British military force of approximately twenty men. Pender and Lennon threw bombs into the lorry. Severely wounded were two soldiers. Firing lasted for “upwards of half an hour" when Shalloe observed that "Lennon ordered us to retreat, as we were badly outnumbered and were fighting from a very disadvantageous position.” A 1970 article in the Capuchin Annual written under the name of James Mansfield of Old Parish (in actuality, written by Mick Mansfield's eldest son, Father Micheal Columba, as confirmed by Tony Mansfield) concluded: Looking back over 1920 it is clear that there was plenty of action in County Waterford. The R.I.C. were rendered ineffective, heavy 110 military force had to be drafted into the country, the majority of enemy barracks were destroyed, the mail service was not allowed to function, and a Flying Column and four battalions were in constant action against the enemy. Of course, 1920 did not see the end of fighting in the Decies. 1921 was to see ambushes...on crown positions, and many daring exploits including the capture of an enemy plane. Cappoquin, Co. Waterford The following account of what has been referred to as the Bealica Ambush was gleaned from the I.R.A. report of the engagement as contained on page 183 of the Murphy book. It is probably unlikely that the O/C referenced was the Column’s commanding officer. Perhaps tellingly, no mention was made of the incident in George’s pension application or elsewhere. This first ambush of 1921 was planned for Sunday the 2 nd of January at an intersection on the Cappoquin to Mt. Mellary road, about one mile northeast of Cappoquin. The purpose was to intercept and disarm a patrol of Black and Tans and R.I.C. who usually patrolled the area about Sunday mid-day. Having received a report that the police were confined to barracks "and that there was no likelihood of any patrol that day," the likely local O/C ordered the men of the Column to disperse. Four or five men who were going back by a secluded route took their guns with them. The balance of the weapons were put into a bag to avoid observation and were taken charge of by a Volunteer. The O/C took charge of two revolvers and all ammunition. Obviously, great care was given to the protection of what limited weaponry and ammunition the local unit possessed. Upon leaving their position at the vee intersection of the road, an enemy patrol was spotted. Ordered by the O/C to take cover, the men hurriedly entered an adjoining wood. Per the I.R.A. official report of the engagement: The O/C went on to the Clonmel Road and in an endeavor to save his men and himself from being captured, opened fire on two members of (the) enemy force…. This had the effect of checking their advance, but the enemy on the upper or Mellary Road succeeded in getting into the wood and rounded up two members of the unit. They also captured the guns in the bag, which was dropped by (a) Volunteer in his endeavor to get clear. The exchange of fire lasted about fifteen minutes. With the exception of the two men referred to, the unit made good their retreat. 111 Cappoquin Monument 112 Situated at the fork in the road is a monument erected in the 1960's by some of the men of the West Waterford Brigade "to commemorate the people who had fought and died locally during the Troubles..." Pickardstown, Co. Waterford The basic tactic used at Piltown in early November was used at Pickardstown, outside Tramore, on 7th January 1921 - i.e., a feint attack at Tramore would hopefully draw the military out from Waterford to be ambushed. Three carloads of experienced men of the Deise Column, including one driven by Nipper McCarthy with Mick Mansfield, Pat Keating, Pax Whelan and George Lennon travelled to the area to assist Paddy Paul’s East Waterford Brigade (Waterford No. 1). The combined force of Volunteers was a significant number perhaps approaching fifty in number. Per UCD Archives (Mulcahy Papers), as dictated to Whelan by Lennon: We had several mishaps on the road and didn't get to (the) place of ambush until near 11 P.M. I met Commdt of No. 1 (Paul) and went to a position he allotted us on Glen Road. Our position commanded 113 the Railway Bridge and road up from it. A barricade was placed on road about 30 yards from bridge. I placed an outpost of 2 shotguns and 1 rifleman down near barricade to protect our right... I gave Commdt. No. 1 Brigade two men to help in attack. The two Deise men, Pakeen Whelan and Pat Keating, joined Paul to commence a feint attack on the Tramore R.I.C. barracks. The threesome, per Pakeen ...fired with revolvers at the windows of the R.I.C. barracks. Immediately the garrison replied with rifles and grenades. Verey lights were fired off. Having accomplished our mission we returned to the main body of the men at the metal bridge. According to a contemporary observer of the tactics used that day: "It was a disaster waiting to happen. Far too complex, three groups without contact with each other...." Furthermore, the ambush site, even in daylight, could not be seen from the Glen Road. Sometime before midnight, as the British military lorries from Waterford approached the bridge, someone fired before the vehicles reached the barricade. Jeremiah Cronin of East Waterford maintained that fire came from the men under Whelan's command on the Glen Road. Mick Mansfield and Pakeen Whelan contradicted this. Mick observed, in a statement to writer Sean Murphy, that the East Waterford "crowd opened up only after one lorry had passed through so the whole thing was a fiasco.” The rest of the lorries stopped and the plan went astray as the British engaged Paddy Paul's men. The soldiers exited the lorries, opened fire, injured two and, per some accounts, killed East Waterford Volunteers Thomas O'Brien and Michael McGrath. Volunteer James Power, however, believed that McGrath and O'Brien were taken prisoner and shot. This is corroborated by writer/historian Terence O'Reilly who notes that "it seems pretty conclusive that the Devons (British Regiment) murdered O'Brien and McGrath after capturing them.” The West Waterford group "heard plenty of shooting but could see nothing.” Pax Whelan then sent up a flare, which revealed a British lorry pulled up at the metal bridge. Sean Riordan's men opened fire but they "saw no other military in the lorry.” They then held their fire for the very good reason that we saw nothing to shoot at. We were all puzzled by the turn of events, but one thing was pretty plain and it was that our planned attack had gone all wrong. We remained in position on the Glen Road for at least half an hour. The West Waterford officers, Whelan, Lennon, Mansfield and Keating, were, per Mick Mansfield’s account, "at a loss what to do.” By firing across the bridge 114 we stood a good chance of killing our own men. The night was very dark and the terrain was quite unknown to us...We decided it was advisable to retreat...westwards across country on foot, having been cut off by the British military from our cars. Fearing encirclement, the order was given to abandon the cars. Although unfamiliar with the locality and the terrain, the men were successful in avoiding the enemy and eventually reached Glen near Stradbally, some ten or twelve miles to the west, where they went into billets on the morning of 8 January. After a rest, the Column then moved northward to the more familiar terrain of Kilrossanty and Comeragh. Martial law was declared the following week in County Waterford and a round up of known Republicans took place in Stradbally on the 21st of January. In Dungarvan, Pakeen Whelan and John Riordan were arrested by soldiers from the Dungarvan based Buffs Regiment. Both men were then used as hostages with raiding parties of soldiers and Black and Tans. Subsequently taken to Belfast by boat, they were attacked by mobs of Belfast shipyard workers who threw iron bolts and rivets (“Belfast confetti”) at them. The men were interred at Ballykinlar Camp, County Down until the general release of prisoners in December 1921, some five months after the Truce of 11 July 1921. A subsequent I.R.A. enquery concluded that such a large-scale operation was badly coordinated and probably doomed from the start. Allegedly, the East Waterford O/C was unsure as to the number of West Waterford men present; he was not even sure of Pax Whelan’s presence. It was stated in a report to the I.R.A. Chief of Staff that the "ambush position was far from being a suitable one.” Moreover, Waterford No. 1 Brigade should not have undertaken such a large- scale operation for the following reasons: (a) Operation too big as men had never before fired a shot. (b) Men had neither discipline, morale nor arms for such a fight, especially night fighting. On a positive note it was stated that George Lennon, “Waterford No. 2 Vice O/C showed his qualities as a leader.” Paul later discovered that his own men were sabotaging his efforts to organise ambushes. Regardless of his leadership, anyone would have had their work cut out for them in attempting to create an active brigade in a region which, outside of Loyalist Ulster, was arguably the most hostile to the I.R.A. In Paul's own words the East Waterford Volunteers "lacked any kind of belligerent spirit.” The episode did not bode well for any future combined engagements between the two Waterford Brigades. On the contrary, it served to hasten demands for a consolidation. It was also to have a tragic consequence for two Comeragh natives (p.139) when emigrated Sean Fitzgerald, after having been erroneously informed of the Pickardstown death of his childhood friend Pat Keating, returned to join the Column. 115 It was also around this time, in late 1920 or early 1921, that the St. Mary’s Parish Priest saw fit, during Sunday mass, to excoriate the guerrilla leader, son of the widowed Nellie Shanahan Lennon (pp. 62-63). Robert's Cross, Ring, Co. Waterford As in the case of other engagements, no mention of this incident of 11 February 1921 was made by the O/C of the Active Service Unit, either in his 1935 pension application or memoir. Drawn upon for the following account were the BMH witness statements of Mick Shalloe and the Mansfield brothers plus Tommy Mooney’s exhaustive history of the Deise Brigade. No doubt the men of the Column were frustrated because of the autumn and winter experiences (1920-1921) of aborted ambushes (e.g., Kilminnion Bridge, Kilmac Village, Carrickmourn, Whitfield, inter alia); plus the somewhat less than successful outcomes at Rockfield Cross, Cappagh and the "fiasco" at Pickardstown. Acting Vice O/C of the A.S.U. Shalloe (BMH ws 1241) noted that ... the Column ...was anxious to have a crack at the British regiment known as The Buffs...but we knew from experience that it was useless entering Dungarvan and firing at the barracks. The British never ventured out on these occasions; they just stayed put. Lennon and I decided on a ruse to draw the military out (to) the country and give them a hiding. Mobilised, along with the Column, were local Volunteer companies. A message was sent to the Dungarvan barracks notifying them that revolutionary leader, and member of the Dail, Cathal Brugha (Charles Burgess) was in hiding at the Irish College in Ring. The men of the Column under Lennon and Vice O/C Shalloe, along with some men of the Ardmore/Old Parish Company, were moving into position, marching in file on either side of the road near Robert's Cross, when “to our amazement, a military lorry came tearing out from Dungarvan laden with soldiers en route to Ring College.” Shalloe stated that the men were taken by surprise not knowing the British would come on the scene so quickly after receiving the bogus message. There was nothing we could do but scramble over the adjoining hedges and take cover - a rather inglorious end to what promised to be a second Crossbarry...The soldiers went on towards Ring... The Ring men were also taken by surprise and scattered from a volley by the British. The I.R.A. report of the engagement observed that, further along the road, the Ring contingent "... took cover, replied and retreated after some time as their arms were not effective against superior enemy fire. One Volunteer was severely wounded in hand, and had to be carried, under severe fire, by his comrades to safety.” 116 While the British military engaged in a futile search for Brugha at Ring College, Lennon "disgusted with the turn of events," according to Jim Mansfield, “moved the Column to a more favourable position for an attack on the returning British convoy.” However, aware of the I.R.A. presence on the Ring road, the British elected to return to Dungarvan via Old Parish. As a result of this and similar experiences, Mick Mansfield noted a change in British tactics: From this period onwards, the British rarely went out without carrying at least one hostage in the lorry. This made the question of ambushing more difficult for us as we were naturally reluctant to open fire when civilian hostages were about. This was made evident when, one Sunday, while leaving Mass, Mansfield and the Column men opened fire on passing military lorries but "had to cease fire and run for it, otherwise the hostage would almost certainly have been killed in the exchange of shots...." Approximately a fortnight later, Southern Brigade leaders convened at Glenville, Co. Cork. Agreement was made to set up a 1 st Southern Division with Liam Lynch as O/C. Reportedly of primary concern, however, was the ever dire arms situation with plans for a possible Cork arms landing. Durrow/Ballyvoyle, Co. Waterford Due to constant intimidation of jurors and Republican attempts to replace foreign with Sinn Fein Courts, the British found it increasingly difficult to get people to serve on juries. Accordingly, on 3rd March 1921, a special Duke’s Line (Waterford, Dungarvan, Lismore Railway) train was chartered by the authorities to take jurors from Dungarvan to court duty in Waterford. The Column planned to stop the train and force the jurors off. It was anticipated that their non-arrival would be a means of "enticing the Buffs (the West Kents) again out of Dungarvan.” At that point, the Column, augmented by about a dozen men from the local battalion, would ambush the military. The train carrying the jurors was allowed to proceed about a half mile beyond Durrow Station where it was stopped at Millarstown between 7 and 8 A.M. The jurors were taken off and left standing on the railway embankment in the charge of a few I.R.A. men. The train eventually proceeded on to Waterford. Among the jurors was Charles Nugent Humble whose Clonkoskeran home was used by the British miltary. Mick Mansfield would not agree to sho0t him on the spot and successfully argued for his release. 117 Durrow Train Station An ambush site was then set up at Ballyvoyle, on the coast road about a mile south of Durrow. The men were not very long in position when another train, containing passengers and British soldiers, came in sight from the Dungarvan direction. Fire was exchanged as the train continued on, entered the tunnel and out of range. Michael Cummins noted (BMH ws 1282): George Lennon then held a conference as what was best to do in the circumstances, whether we would hold on and wait for the military we expected to come out along the coast road from Dungarvan or whether we would follow up the train we had just attacked and hope it would pull up at Durrow, when we might come into contact with the military who would, possibly, detrain at Durrow. The latter course was decided upon with two groups proceeding towards Durrow - one group along the ground west of the railway and the other, including Lennon, Mansfield and Keating, east of the line. Reaching the Durrow area the men learned that the train had not stopped as hoped but had continued on to Waterford. The military for which the ambush had been set on the coast road at Ballyvoyle had, in fact, passed through the vacated ambush position and arrived in the Durrow – Millars- town area to release the jurymen. These troops, both Shalloe and Mansfield agreed, had returned to Dungarvan by the same route. Michael Cummins recollected, however, that 118 these men did not return to Dungarvan but were used to reinforce the detrained soldiers. About midday the Column split into small groups to look for food. A group with Mick Shalloe encountered a “large force of military at the railway station.” The Mansfield/Keating group while "having some grub" heard the firing going on in the direction of Durrow. Running on to the roadway they "commandeered" a jennet and dray for the short ride to Durrow Station where they too came under fire. The enemy force enjoyed a numerical advantage, in Shalloe's "conservative estimate,” of "at least fifteen to one." The battle went on intermittently well into the afternoon until the British forces were forced to take up a position in the Co-operative adjoining the railway station. Further enemy reinforcements arrived at about 4 P.M. on a train from the Waterford side of the station. According to the I.R.A. report of the engagement: A sortie was then attempted by the enemy with heavy covering fire, which was again met with well-directed replies from our forces. This again compelled the enemy to return to the cover of the Railway Station and the adjoining Co-operative ... where they got their machine guns into action. Cummins continued: The question...arose as to whether the Co-operative store could be rushed and taken by assault. The enemy was securely entrenched there and it would seem difficult to dislodge them, or force surrender, when we hadn't as much as one grenade to throw at them. In addition, the terrain over which we would have to advance for a close quarter attack was altogether unsuitable. It was flat ground offering little cover. George Lennon decided to pull out and break off the engagement. It was a sore blow to us, as we knew the soldiers hadn't much stomach for continuing the fight, but we also knew that our lack of ammunition would undoubtedly tell heavily against us in the final assault. On the orders of our O.C. we, therefore, retired westwards towards the Comeragh Mountains where we obtained some badly needed food and rest.... Mick Shalloe observed that the men pressed the O/C ...to have a last go at the British...he was adamant in his decision. Having regard to all the circumstances, I think his judgment on that occasion was sound, so we lived to fight another day. 119 That other day wasn't too far distant, although that we could not foresee this at the time, nor were we to know that we were soon to lose two of our best and truest comrades in action. The "other day" referred to the traumatic events to occur at the Burgery Ambushes two weeks hence. Regarding the Durrow engagement, local press accounts reported four British casualties and two I.R.A. wounded. Cummins mentioned Andy Kirwan of Bunmahon as being not seriously wounded in the leg. The I.R.A report of the engagement listed no casualties and that the "enemy had two killed and a number wounded.” Kilmacthomas, Co. Waterford The next day, 4 March, Lennon was summoned to meet with Liam Lynch in Cork. Before departing he had received word of a “boat train” ultimately bound for Rosslare. Accordingly, approximately twelve men, including the Mansfield brothers, the Nipper and Ned Kirby, hastened, on 4 March, in Jim Mansfield's words, to take "up firing positions in the vicinity” of the Duke’s Line railway in Kilmac and “put the signals against the train as it approached the station.” When the train pulled up, the men rushed the platform and ordered the Tommies out. Searching for weapons, the I.R.A. found all the men to be unarmed. Lined up on the platform, the captured soldiers were marched up and down the Kilmac train platform as Jim Mansfield, acting Column O/C, played, according to one unconfirmed account, a marching tune on his fiddle. Kirby enquired: "Who wants to die for England," eliciting the response, "Not me Paddy!" Three of the military, upon producing evidence that they were homeward bound to visit sick relatives in England, were put back on the train. The rest were formed up and marched out of the station and up the street of the village reportedly to the delight of nationalist minded Kilmac residents. The I.R.A. billeted them in the homes of Unionist sympathisers. The following day the military from Waterford came out to collect them. This chivalrous treatment of captured British soldiers was in accord with similar treatment afforded the Hampshire Regiment at Piltown Cross. Unfortunately, similar handling of Captain Thomas of the Buffs Regiment (pp. 134, 146-147) was to have tragic consequences in the waning days of the struggle (pp. 161-162). 120 Ballyhooly/Cappagh: Train Station Escapes It was in early 1921 that organisers were sent out of Dublin, on a large scale, to what G.H.Q. uncharitably viewed as "backward regions.” Most notable among them were Ernie O’Malley and George Plunkett, brother of Easter Week martyr and poet Joseph Mary Plunkett. In the summer of 1920 O’Malley had overseen the men with George in Bunratty, Co. Clare when they nearly poisoned themselves from gelignite fumes. Plunkett, from past visits, was noted as a friend by Pax Whelan. The arrival of staff officers, however at times, made for acute tensions with local men and, in some cases, proved counter-productive. Arriving in the Deise, in very early March, was G.H.Q. staff officer Plunkett who insisted upon his identity not being revealed. He was quite explicit that his nom de guerre was to be "Captain Murphy.” No longer were the men to be "on active service" but rather "on command.” The “Captain's” reliance on a military text from the Great War found no appeal among the men of the Column. In the words of the O/C, "it was hard to relate its content to our little guerrilla war.” Moving from the Kilrossanty area the Column of some thirty-one men passed to the north of Crohaun arriving at Kilbrien. From there they proceeded southward "in a series of mad rushes and finally arrived at the foot of the Drum Hills with everybody in a very bad state of humour" due to the insistence of Captain Murphy that the "commandos" follow "a correct order of march.” The “urgent message” for George to meet with Commandant Lynch in Glenville was received while billeted at Ballymulalla on 4 March. George, based upon past contacts, had a great deal of respect for Lynch as a leader of men. It was only a week previous (27 February 1921) that he had attended a convention of Southern Brigade Officers. Just prior to the establishment of the Deise Column he had participated in a Lynch training course (17 September 1920 ff.) in the Nagles. Moreover, George’s first combat experience had occurred with Lynch in the successful September 1919 attack on British forces at Fermoy’s Wesleyan Church. To visit with "The Real Chief" however, ...posed quite a problem as it might take days to travel such long distance cross country, the roads being out of the question owing to their continuous patrol by the police and the military. Lynch, which was typical of him, did not mention such a minor detail but merely gave the address of a contact in the village. After mulling over the matter with the others it was agreed that I might take the risk of going by train after adopting a suitable disguise. In a pony and trap he proceeded to Cappagh train station on the Duke’s Line: 121 My dress was an expensive tweed overcoat, a deerstalker hat and my boots were nicely polished. In addition I carried a copy of the letter to the faculty of Cork University in my pocket that would explain my identity in case I was picked up. He took his first class seat with the other carriages occupied by newly arrived soldiers from England in full field equipment. Disembarking at Ballyhooly,Co. Cork he bluffed his way through a convoy of four Crossley Tenders "full of Tans on the prowl.” Lynch was one of the few men I ever met whose authority while under command I accepted without question. He was also my friend or I liked to think so. How can he be like a military man but have the appearance of a responsible superior of a great religious order? He was by nature most abstemious and he never raised his voice, which was gentle. If he ever smiled, I have no recollection of the occasion. Like many people of settled conviction he had his blind spots. Liam Lynch Historian Peter Hart described Lynch as "the archetypal evangelical republican…. possessed by a sense of mission and revolutionary ardour.” To his comrade Liam Deasy he ...was to the very end an idealist with the highest principles as his guide and it was not in his nature to surrender or compromise. He ultimately gave his life for those principles. 122 At the meeting Lynch "came quietly into the farm parlour smelling strongly of a disinfectant ointment we used for scabies, an unpleasant itch we all suffered from due probably to infrequent changes of underwear.” After a discussion of military matters, Lynch "not being the kind of person to waste time in idle conversation...dismissed me and became immediately immersed in his notebooks." Lennon was then placed in the hands of a young lad of sixteen who scouted the road ahead and saw him back on the train for the return journey. On the southeast bound train when it came into the Fermoy Station, Lennon ... thought that he was taking leave of his senses. A tremendous commotion was going on along the platform. An officer smartly opened the door of his compartment (1st class) and came briskly to attention. A number of English-looking ladies were waving regimental colours (and) the three buglers to their front blew a tattoo salute. Then the Brigadier General and his two staff officers stepped most importantly in and took their seats. The General looked like a character out of Punch. He had a walrus mustache, a beefy look and he glared at everything in his immediate vicinity. In actuality the “Brigadier General” noted by George was Major Neville Cameron. George imagined the Major’s reaction had he known the identity of his fellow traveller: Damnable inefficiency, putting me into a carriage with a dangerous Shinner- fellow might have shot me, might have murdered the three of us! The reason for the overwhelming military presence at Fermoy and on the train was quite clear: The Brigadier's predecessor, one General Lucas, had been taken prisoner and carried off to an unknown destination. Generals are not expendable and they were taking no chances with this one. The train pulled out filled with soldiers and a plane was flying around overhead. Matters further degenerated when, at the Tallow Station, Constable Neery, who knew him from childhood, and two other R.I.C. men got into the next compartment... Then he realised that he had made a vow not to be taken alive. Nurse Kent (Katie Cullinan) had given him a slim tube of morphine tablets as the idea of wounds and torture always filled him with terror- but he was not going to have recourse to them this time...Still he could not allow himself to be taken, he would have to make a dash for it 123 His one chance was to get off at Cappagh and make a dash for it. The next station beyond that was his own town where every constable knew him and he would be dragged off. At any rate he was unarmed and he would not be tortured... Coming to Cappagh station he pulled all his mental and physical resources together. One of the officers most politely helped him with the door and quaking inwardly he stepped out. By some miracle the platform appeared to be deserted. Cappagh Train Station Exiting his compartment Lennon caught the eye of the Constable who "appeared astounded for a bare instant and quickly averted his eyes.” A feeling of gratitude nearly overwhelmed the young rebel: Oh good and darling man ... May the heavens bless you. Neery’s motivation may have been somewhat less than benign in that he was no doubt aware of the untimely deaths of other police spies who had informed. To have done so in the case of the O/C of the local A.S.U. would have been quite damning. Safely back in Ballymulalla, Lennon found Captain Murphy to have been in a stew during his absence. The local battalion commandant had been complaining for quite a long time about a bridge (Tarr's Bridge) in his area much used by the military and which he was anxious to have destroyed. Having 124 agreed to the necessity of destroying this particular bridge, we all retired to bed. CHAPTER XI TRAUMA AT THE BURGERY (1921) Accounts In a 1966 lecture, Pax’s son, schoolmaster and Republican activist Donal O’Faolain (involved in the 1973 smuggling of arms on the “Claudia” off the Waterford coast), noted the difficulty in getting members of Oglaigh na hEireann in the Deise area of County Waterford to talk of the War of Independence period: Situated as they were at the time, it was difficult for them to keep records of any description, as they were subject to raids and searches, and, as a result, they did not commit much to paper. Some other areas seemed to have been fortunate in having amongst its Volunteer personnel someone of a literary turn, who was able to write up the various things that happened and put them down on record. We were not so lucky. (1) Even in later years, those relatively few men who had been on active service with the Deise Flying Column were generally not ones to dwell on the events of 1919-1923. Fortunately, in the early 1980’s, Sean and Sile Murphy took statements, from a number of the aging men of the West Waterford I.R.A. (The Comeraghs, Refuge of Rebels). Notably and perhaps understandably absent were the writings of the man who commanded these men. This was to be rectified by the 2003 release of an enlarged version of the Murphy work (The Comeraghs: Gunfire and Civil War: The Story of the Deise Brigade IRA 1914-24). Included, at that time, were the writings of George Lennon, hailed by East Waterford Commandant Paddy Paul as “number one” in terms of I.R.A. “activities” in the County. (2) In this treatment of the events and aftermath of the night and morning of 18 –19 March 1921, I have relied on the following source materials: Trauma in Time: An Irish Itinerary (unpublished, 1970’s) by George Lennon Down by the Glen Side (unpublished, 1962) by George Lennon Bureau of Military History: Witness Statements of Mick Mansfield, Jack O'Mara, James Prendergast, Mick Shalloe and Paddy Paul Death certificate of Sergeant Hickey Survivors (1980) by Uinseann MacEoin. “The Keatings of Comeragh” (unpublished) by Lena Keating 125 1921 newspaper accounts: The Waterford News and Munster Express The Comeraghs: Gunfire and Civil War (2003) by Sean and Sile Murphy Illustrated History of Dungarvan (1924) by Edmond Keohan The Waterford News, “The Burgery Ambush” (September 5, 1924), by “an officer who took part in the combat” (George Plunkett) Personal correspondences: Tom Mooney of Ardmore, Fr. O’Mahony of St. Mary’s, and Margo Lordan Kehoe, the daughter of Sergeant Hickey’s fiancée Deserving of further investigation are the following documents: British Military Report Royal Irish Constabulary Report George Plunkett’s Report to Dublin G.H.Q. Of Waterford families involved in the physical force Republican movement and the events of mid March 1921, none were more active than the Mansfields of Old Parish and the Keatings of Comeragh. Mick Mansfield’s witness statement is readily available. Missing, of course, are the statements of slain brothers Pat (d.1921) and Tom Keating (d.1923). I was, therefore, most fortunate to obtain, from the late Maureen Kent of Kilmacthomas (daughter of nurse Katie Cullinan Kent, aka “Mother Kent”), a copy of the remembrances of Lena Keating Walsh. Her family’s tribulations and friendships with the most active of the Column men, including my father, gave her a unique perspective from which to record her observations. Particularly moving is her account of the trauma of finding a final resting place for brother Pat at what is today the Republican Plot in Kilrossanty. Lennon never spoke of the events of that night and morning even when his son prompted him by mentioning the bullet scarred gate at the ambush site, which had so impressed him in 1950 and 1954 when he and his mother visited the Mansfields at their Burgery home. As noted in Lennon’s Dungarvan Leader obituary: When the engagement was over and backs were being slapped, George would quietly slip away, for he had no time for such frivolities. There were other jobs to be done. (3) Lacking, for whatever reason, is a Bureau of Military History witness statement from George. He had, in his own words, relegated the matter of "our tuppence ha'penny” revolution to "the dustbin of history;” describing what little had been written of the period as largely "lies." As to the identification of these, perhaps unwitting, writers of what he perceived to be mistruths, one can only speculate. (4) 126 In the early 1960's he completed a play entitled Down by the Glen Side, which dealt with issues, raised when a captured enemy combatant is to be shot in reprisal. The later memoir, Trauma in Time, dealt with many of the ambushes in Waterford as well as earlier engagements in Limerick and Cork. The trauma in the title refers to the effect on the trajectory of his life of his revolutionary experiences; including, in addition to the Burgery events of March 1921, his numerous “hair breadth escapes;” most traumatically at Grawn (pp.149 ff.) and the Civil War shelling of his Ballybricken redoubt (pp. 180 ff). With respect to the ambush at the Burgery, he noted simply that "we destroyed the two enemy vehicles and took some prisoners whom we released, all but one.” He did, however, include in the memoir a brief one-act play entitled “I and Thou” from the title of Martin Buber’s 1923 book of the same name which denotes a relationship when two or more people are “totally immersed in their situation embracing each other in some total un-self-conscious way.” Involved in such relationships is the concept of spirituality. A search for a spiritual inner peace was to occupy George for the remainder of his life. The "thou" in the title being the "all but one": an executed Dungarvan childhood police acquaintance to whom a coup de grace to the temple was administered by the 20 year old Column leader. In keeping with his unwillingness to draw attention to himself, his brief account lists the participants as a partisan officer, a subordinate partisan officer, a constabulary sergeant, a priest, and a firing squad. (5) These individuals, clearly, were Lennon (partisan officer), Pat Keating or Mick Mans- field (subordinate officer), Michael Joseph Hickey (constabulary sergeant), and Father Tom Power (priest) of Kilgobnet. A reference to "Stackpoole" is to Dublin G.H.Q. Staff Captain George Plunkett. Although I did not have access to Plunkett’s report to Dublin G.H.Q., it would be in agreement with the most detailed description available of the encounter at that time. This may be found in an unsigned letter to The Waterford News, some two and one half years after the ambush. The editor simply noted that it was “written by an officer who took part in the ambush.” Those most familiar with the Burgery events and the character of its participants are in agreement that this officer was clearly George Plunkett. (6) Background With the approach of St. Patrick's Day 1921, Brigade Commandant Whelan and Column O/C Lennon could look back on a very active, and generally successful, period of revolutionary activity in the Deise; limited, however, by a lack of adequate arms and ammunition. Moreover, guerrilla insurgency, involving men "on the run," away from their homes, is inherently stressful, both emotionally and physically. These young men were, for the most part, idealistic and Roman Catholic educated; in 127 some cases, schooled by the generally nationalistic County Waterford founded Irish Christian Brothers. The possible spiritual price of their actions was not an irrelevancy. The human costs must have weighed heavily. Deaths to March of 1921 included Limerick/Cork engagements for George at Kilmallock, Bruree, Kildorrery and Fermoy. Waterford fatalities occurred at Piltown, Cappoquin, Pickardstown, and Durrow. The list included native Irishmen and English born Tans/soldiers. Of immediate and practical daily concern was the overriding necessity of securing weaponry and ammunition. This was forcefully demonstrated earlier that month at the Durrow train station and Co-op when the Volunteers were forced to prematurely withdraw from the engagement when ammunition ran low. A guerrilla force, by definition, cannot depend on a central storehouse, but must rely upon its acumen to supply itself with foodstuffs, clothing and military equipment. Primary reliance for the I.R.A. was placed upon the generally supportive native populace and, for military supplies, seizures were forcibly made from the enemy. This constant need to re-supply was to have dire consequence at the Burgery. Native Irishmen were to have their lives tragically intersect. For the Flying Column O/C, the stress of the likelihood of execution if captured with a weapon was to impact his later physical and mental well being. The arguably unnecessary deaths of men under his command were to cause him to ultimately question his philosophical and political underpinnings while remaining sympathetic to nationalist aspirations directed against fascist or foreign foes. R.I.C. There are no police heroes of the Irish Revolution - at least none as defined by songs, statues, memorials, or collective memory. At best, a few have acquired the sort of posthumous notoriety that comes with Michael Collins having ordered your death. This anonymity has been...harmful to our understanding of what happened between 1916 and 1923.... (7) The Royal Irish Constabulary had been placed in an untenable position; on the one hand, attempting to provide a necessary police function and, on the other, acting as the military representative of a 750-year foreign presence. In the words of writer and revolutionary Ernie O'Malley: The R.I.C. had ceased to be a police force; they pointed out houses, localities and short cuts to the Tans and soldiers; they identified wanted men from arrested suspects and they guided punitive expeditions. Some of the older R.I.C. were nearing their retiring pensionable age. If they retired before their pension they would lose it. In divided mind they remained on. Police had to give a month's 128 notice before they resigned; a few who had left the force had been killed or beaten up by Tans. (8) For reasons of security and discipline, police policy dictated that constables be stationed in barracks away from their home counties. Nonetheless, the R.I.C. was not generally resented as an alien body, except during periodic outbreaks of political or agrarian tension. Like their countrymen, the majority of the R.I.C., excepting the highest ranks of the force, were arguably, with varying degrees of enthusiasm, nationalists (albeit largely constitutional). It, however, became an organisation under intense pressure from the physical force movement, which identified the policeman, at least in the initial phase of the struggle, as its principal enemy during the guerrilla war. (9) Dungarvan R.I.C. 129 Even in the modern Ireland of the "Celtic Tiger”, to use certain terms reveals an implicit bias. In some quarters, the neutral sounding "Anglo- Irish War" has come in to favour. Yet Irishmen fought and died as members of the Royal Irish Constabulary. The British initially relied chiefly upon the armed native police force to quell the “criminal” I.R.A. Lacking sufficient native recruits, the R.I.C. was augmented, in March of 1920, by the Black and Tans, not all of whom were British. Shortly thereafter, a group of former British military officers, known as Auxiliaries, were introduced under a separate command. The struggle beginning in January of 1919, in addition to being an early twentieth century colonial guerrilla war, arguably had, at British insistence, elements of a civil war ( i.e., native Irish Volunteers vs. native R.I.C.) This internecine nature of the conflict and the later Free State vs. I.R.A. “Irregulars” struggle (1922-1923) were responsible for many of the divisions to be found in Irish society for the rest of the twentieth century. For some, in Dungarvan and elsewhere, it remains a palpable presence. (10) In early twentieth century Ireland, police constables, quite naturally, formed friendships with their countrymen in the communities they patrolled. Limerick born (18 March 1885) Constable Michael Joseph Hickey was engaged to Dungarvan girl Nellie Kelly. Early on in his posting at the local barracks he had befriended, as had Constable Neery, George Lennon, a local youth. By some accounts, Hickey was “very popular” and, with an impending marriage, no doubt entertained thoughts on this, the day of his 36th birthday, of raising a family in his adopted community. (11) The newly promoted Sergeant Hickey, the son of a R.I.C. father, was a fifteen-year veteran of the police force. The role of a sergeant was an important one involving substantial prestige and authority. He was in charge of the constables and the barracks on a day-to-day basis and the symbol ("Royal" since 1867) of the government in his district. According to Sean Moylan, who was Lennon's counterpart with the North Cork Flying Column (1920 -1921) and O/C Cork No. 2 Brigade (April 1921), men of the R.I.C. ...were of the people, were inter-married with the people, and were generally men of exemplary lives and of a high level of intelligence. They did their oftimes unpleasant duty without rancor and oftimes with a maximum of tact; therefore, they had friends everywhere who sought the avoidance of trouble for them. (12) However, this was not always possible. For example, in August of 1920 Hickey and a number of other constables had been disarmed while accompanying a mail delivery at 130 the railway station in Dungarvan. According to Mick Mansfield, “the Sergeant showed a reluctance to surrender and only did so on being threatened to be shot.” Subsequently, he was “warned on a number of occasions to refrain from certain activities and he failed to do so.”(13) No doubt he was aware of his precarious position. He had to have known of the deaths in the area of other R.I.C. Constables; most notably Maurice Prendiville who had reneged on his promise to quit the force subsequent to the Piltown ambush. Other R.I.C. deaths in Waterford were at Kilmacthomas (Sergeant Morgan), Cappoquin (Constables Rea and Quirk) and Scartacrooks (Constable Duddy). The two Cappoquin shootings in November of 1921 had involved at least four Deise men - Lennon, Keating, Mansfield and driver McCarthy – who were with the Column at the Burgery. (14) As to Hickey's nationalist beliefs, one can only speculate. The reported presence of a green, white and orange tricolour, sewn to the inside of his tunic, was indicative of, at least, constitutional nationalist sympathies. (15) Regarding a conflicted R.I.C., Sean Moylan observed: Even if they understood and sympathised with the motives of the I.R.A. it would have been most difficult for them to realise that any success would attend the efforts of the handful of men putting their puny strength against the might of Empire. It was expecting too much of them to expect that they would resign.... (16) Lennon later intimated that Hickey may very well have been torn when in his play he wrote of a fictional, albeit married, “Sergeant Dunne, of the Constabulary” who initially refused (unlike Hickey) to guide a British force and declared: I must look after my family. What do you think I am wearing this uniform for? I am wearing it only because it gives...a living, not for any love of it! (17) A newcomer to the area was Constable Sydney Redman, a thirty five year old single man from Kent, England. He only had two months police service, having been a motor driver and a British soldier. His motivation for crossing to "John Bull's Other Island" as a Black and Tan was, in all probability, the same as that of many English ex service men who saw an opportunity to better their lives economically. For some, there was the added incentive of putting “in their place” the minority Irish Volunteers who had actively opposed Irish support for Great Britain in the 1914 – 1918 war. Volunteers 131 Irish Volunteer, athlete and poet Pat Keating of Comeragh, according to younger sister Lena, "had a simple and homely manner that endeared him to all ... and was a great favourite wherever he went.” George Lennon related an incident in which he and Pat were walking along a road somewhere in West Waterford. George said to Pat, “Where will we stay tonight?” and Pat pointed to a light in a house upon a hill and said, “We will go there.” They arrived at the house and when they went in the family were saying the rosary. George and Pat knelt down and Pat said the next decade. The people in the house were in no way frightened and made them more than welcome, chatting about farming and other matters of interest. This was just one example of Pat’s friendly approach. (18) He was a lover of all things Irish. He was a member of the Gaelic Athletic Association and represented the County Waterford team. According to Pax Whelan: I never knew a more diligent footballer...I saw him star for Kilrossanty on many occasions... a forward of outstanding merit, rarely beaten for a ball in the air and with a great aptitude for exploiting the open spaces. He was one of the most prominent players in the Kilrossanty team that won the 1919 Waterford senior football title defeating Ballymacaw in the final. (19) 132 Pat Keating He was also a member of Connra na Gaeilge and a full time organiser and Secretary for Sinn Fein. Like his O/C, he was, as a founding member of the Column, wanted “dead or alive” with a four hundred pound award for his capture, per the R.I.C. publication Hue and Cry a.k.a. The Police Gazette. (20) He felt a personal responsibility for all aspects of the lives of the men of the Column and worried about reprisals against his family as a result of his fight for Irish freedom. Pat attended to the men's spiritual needs by arranging with Father Sheehy of Kilrossanty "to regularly hear their confessions at John Power's farmhouse in Coumahon and especially before going into battle.”(21) 133 His humanity also extended to his employers at the Durrow Co-op. As a wanted man, he knew that if the authorities were to learn of his employment, reprisals would have followed and "the store would have been burned to the ground.” He, accordingly, resigned from his position. (22) The Keatings of Comeragh were totally involved in the struggle. Pat's father, Michael (1857-1931) and uncle John did dispatch work. Sisters Margaret and Marcella took charge of the laundry for many of the men in the Column. Mother Margaret mended their socks and "looked after the repair of their shoes, taking them to Tom McGrath in Kilmacthomas” who "carried out all the repairs free of charge saying that it was his contribution to the cause.” Brother Willie participated in the Durrow train ambush and another brother, Tom, was to die in 1923 as leader of one of the three Waterford Columns organised during the Civil War. Some have also mentioned a reputed attraction between younger sister Lena and the young Column leader. (23) Pat was imbued with a revolutionary idealism, which was reflected, in his poetry. With thoughts of emigrated Comeragh friends, including John (Sean) Fitzgerald, he penned the following in his poem Comeragh's Rugged Hills: It's long years since I bade farewell For it is my sad fate Our land oppressed by tyrant laws I had to emigrate... When on my pillow I recline On a foreign land to rest The thoughts of my dear native home Still throbs within my heart When silence overcomes me My dreams they seem to fill Of my dear native happy home Nigh Comeragh's rugged hills (24) Less well known than other men with longer active service was Sean Fitzgerald. Lena Keating remembered that "in his youth he was a very quiet unassuming fellow who was never one to seek the limelight.” Like close childhood friend Pat, he joined the Volunteers but, due to scarcity of work, he was forced to emigrate. Being a good letter writer he kept in touch with his Deise friends. He was aware of how the fight was progressing and "longed to return to give a helping hand.” Informed of Pat's reputed death at the Pickardstown ambush, his response was prophetic: I was saddened to hear of Pat Keating's death and I'm sorry I was not alongside him. (25) 134 Relieved to hear, upon returning home, that the rumour was false, he joined Pat with the Flying Column and took a very active part in the prolonged early March engagement at Durrow Station and the adjoining Co-op. Other individual Volunteers of note among the men that night were Mick and Jim Mansfield, Nipper McCarthy, Paddy Joe Power, Jim Prendergast, Ned Kirby, Mick Shalloe,“Kelly” Donovan, Fox Greany, and returned U.S. Army soldier Jack O’Mara. In overall command was G.H.Q officer George Plunkett along with Pax Whelan, and George Lennon. If anyone could be said to have an Irish Republican pedigree it was Plunkett, a son of George Nobel Plunkett, the Papal Count. He had been in Waterford a lot; coming “first in 1917 to help re-organise Sinn Fein.” (26) With his brother Joseph he had fought with distinction during Easter Week and, with another brother, had been sentenced to death. The home of his parents had been ransacked and they had been locked up in different prisons awaiting deportation. Plunkett was reckoned by Lennon to be a "thoroughly conscientious man.” His humanity was in evidence during Easter Week, 1916 when he dashed out of the Dublin G.P.O. to go to the assistance of a wounded British officer. A stickler for detail, he was the "personification of military efficiency.” In the words of the Brigade O/C, he “was very punctilious, always insisting that every rank in the company be filled, on paper anyway.” He did not countenance sloppy habits. As a believer in military protocol, he was not one to enquire as to the nature of Lennon’s just completed trip to confer with Commander Liam Lynch at Ballyhooly, County Cork. It was not unusual, however, for there to be suspicion between Dublin G.H.Q. officers and rural units. Lennon remarked upon a wearing tension between the two of us and there were times when we circled politely around each other while seething inwardly. (27) Plunkett' professional appraisal of the Deise Brigade was less than laudatory. He viewed it to be "in a really poor state of organisation" and the Flying Column, "in its present condition...not fit to go into action for a long time to come." (28) Pax Whelan, second in command that night, was a man with deep O Faolain roots in the Deise. Born to native Irish speakers in 1893, his wife to be, Cait Fraher, attended Padraig Pearse’s St. Ita’s. Her brother, Maurice, was the first boarder at St. Enda’s at the Oakley Road, Ranelagh locale. Part of the “element of opposition to Parliamentarianism around Dungarvan,” Pax was an early member, in the autumn of 1913, of the Volunteers and a member of the secret oath bound Irish Republican Brotherhood. He was well acquainted with members of the Dublin G.H.Q. Staff and other leaders throughout the country. Included in this group were Rory O’Connor, Liam Mellows, Gearoid O’Sullivan, Harry Boland, Liam Lynch and Cathal Brugha. He noted 135 “particular friend” George Plunkett and “a strong friendship” with Mick Collins. He, like George, had been active since Easter Week and the two were subsequently, in early 1918, jailed in Waterford for “taking a rifle from a soldier.”(29) George Lennon, third in command that night, was the youngest Flying Column leader in the War of Independence and, most likely, one of the youngest to serve as a Brigade Vice O/C. Dungarvan born, the youthful member of the IRB was proud of his Ulster Crolly ancestors of a “military caste” who had been aligned with Owen Roe of the Catholic Confederates and later with Niall O'Neill at the Battle of the Boyne. Also of significance, in light of his later philosophical and religious outlook, were the more numerous family members of a “priestly caste;" including Dr William Crolly, nineteenth century Archbishop Primate of the Irish Roman Catholic Church. Ambush Seeking to keep active what Plunkett perceived to be an "unfit” A.S.U., the Column O/C acceded to a request by “the O/C, Dungarvan Company that the Column should afford protection for a party of local I.R.A. men engaged in demolishing Tarr’s Bridge,” also known as Old Pike Bridge. It was felt by doing so it would serve to disrupt communications between the military post at Cloncoskoran and Dungarvan as the bridge “was in constant use by troops coming east from Fermoy or Cappoquin.” Perhaps more importantly, “its demolition would force the enemy to use by-roads, thus leaving them open to constant ambushing.” (30) The Column duly left Ballymulalla, just north of the Drum Hills, and proceeded to Carriglea, Ballymacmaque and then moved east on the Cappoquin Road to Ballycoe House to rendezvous with the local demolition squad from Abbeyside. The local company was to "provide twelve pick and crowbar men and eight shotgun men for its protecting party. In case of unforeseen trouble, the curate's (Father Tom Power of Kilgobnet) house, two miles back was to be a rendezvous.” (31) While “the demolition operation may not appear to have warranted cover from the Column,” Mick Shalloe noted “that those engaged would be open to attack from (1) a British garrison stationed half a mile away to the north-east at Cloncookerine (sic) in the house of Charles Humble Nugent, a pronounced loyalist, (2) the military in Dungarvan... and (3) the Marines in Ballinacourty coastguard station, three miles to the east.”(32) Earlier that day, the 18th of March, members of the Column had gone to Dungarvan “to have a crack at a military patrol if it was out.” Meeting a group of some “twelve to fifteen strong,” shots were exchanged and the men, as had previously been arranged, left to take “positions on the Ballycoe road, adjacent to Tarr’s Bridge.” (33) 136 The Volunteers found the bridge to be a tougher proposition than we had bargained for and we had no explosives. The working party failed to make any appreciable dent in the solid structure, which must have been over a hundred years old and very solidly built. The headlights of a night raiding party were now observed coming towards us from the direction of the town.... (34) These vehicles were headed east at about 8 P.M.; reportedly to Clonea on the Ballyvoyle road to make an arrest of John Murphy. Mick Mansfield noted “two lorry loads of military accompanied by a private car.” Other accounts only mention two vehicles – a car and a Crossley Tender. In the motorcar, to identify the Murphy residence, was Sergeant Hickey. (35) The Volunteers informed Plunkett that the vehicles could return to Dungarvan by one of two routes once they passed Tarr's Bridge. It was the custom, in such circumstances, for R.I.C./British forces not to return by the same route. After a conference among the officers (Plunkett, Whelan, Lennon and Mick Mansfield): It was decided to attack the British on their return to Dungarvan and to divide the column into two groups. One, under Plunkett, was 137 to cover the Ballycoe road, which leaves the main Waterford road at Tarr’s Bridge. (36) In this group, near Mrs. Dunlea’s at the crossroads, were Mick Mansfield, Shalloe, O’Mara, Keating “and 8 or 9 others of the Column.” Included also was the demolition party, with tools and no arms. The balance of the men, some 10 in number under Lennon, took up positions at the Burgery on the main Waterford -Dungarvan road. (37) Meanwhile, having taken Murphy into custody, the motorcar, followed by the tender containing the soldiers guarding the prisoner, set out for Dungarvan via Cloncoskoran. Crossley Tender Jim Prendergast recalled the attack on the second vehicle: We were armed with rifles and I had, in addition, one Mills grenade. About 11:30 on the night 18th March 1921, the first British lorry came along... Lennon, Kirby and Paddy Joe Power opened up on it with rifles and I threw the grenade, which failed to explode. The military drove on for about three hundred yards in the direction of Dungarvan and then stopped. The soldiers then got out and came back (on) the road towards us. We...opened rifle fire on them. (38) In position, for about an hour, were the men on the seemingly more likely return route on the Cappoquin (Ballycoe) road when they heard a bomb explosion and rifle fire coming from the direction of the Burgery. We knew then that Lennon’s party was in contact with the British. We struck across country towards the Burgery. (39) 138 In the lead Ford car, in addition to Hickey, was at least one soldier, Lieutenant Griffiths, and, in command of the force, Captain Thomas, O/C of the Buffs Regiment stationed in Dungarvan, Hearing the shots directed at the lorry by Lennon et. al., the motor car pulled up at the Burgery and Thomas instructed the Lieutenant to proceed to Dungarvan for reinforcements while his group returned to assist the men in the ambushed military lorry near Mr. Fives' public house. The Mansfield party from Ballycoe “came under heavy fire from the enemy” as they crossed the fields “ to get out on to the road at the Burgery”. Before reaching the Dungarvan-Waterford road they “met Lennon and some of his lads.” Others in this reconstituted group included Plunkett, Shalloe, Prendergast, O’Mara, Fitzgerald and Keating. Hearing the noise of men walking on the road, they were ordered to “halt.” A man with an English accent replied that he was Captain Thomas. (40) Ignoring the request to surrender, the enemy sought to retreat back to the car in the Dungarvan direction. The Volunteers gave chase with “Captain Thomas...captured and taken prisoner by Plunkett and Lennon”. (41) According to Shalloe: Thomas was searched and any documents on him taken. I was strongly in favour of shooting this fellow whom I knew to be a bitter opponent of ours, but Plunkett wouldn’t hear of it. He, Plunkett, extracted a promise from Captain Thomas that, if released, no reprisals would be carried out by the troops under his command. Thomas, too glad to escape the fate he deserved, gave the understanding. (42) Also captured were Hickey and at least one private from the Buffs regiment. Ambush participant O’Mara believed there to have been two captured privates of the Buffs; while Prendergast believed there to have been five. All witness accounts are in agreement, however, that Thomas did not escape. In the words of Brigade O/C Whelan: “We let them all go, except the policeman.” O’Mara’s witness statement notes bringing the captured enemy “to a nearby cottage” where “they were ordered to remain...until daylight, while Sergeant Hickey was taken away by us.” (43) With the captured Hickey in tow, the men moved off in the direction of Dungarvan along the Burgery road. Finding a box of grenades on the front seat of the abandoned motorcar, Pat Keating used one to destroy the vehicle. Meanwhile, Mansfield “and 5 or 6 of the boys”, when they got out on the Burgery road, had “moved after Lennon, Plunkett, O’Meara” (sic) and the others. They only had “gone a short distance down the road” when they “came under fire from British military who had got off the road and were in behind a hedge.” Eventually, the enemy ceased firing 139 “and made their escape in the darkness.” In this group was the prisoner Murphy who was taken to the barracks and, ultimately, Spike Island, County Cork. (44) “Scattered all over the place” were the unarmed Abbeyside, Dungarvan Company, who had been involved in the demolition work. Rounded up by Mansfield, they were ordered “to disperse to their homes.”(45) In the darkness “intermittent firing was going on” and it was difficult “to pick out friends from foe as the British Tommies had left their lorries on being attacked and were running helter-skelter through the fields.” (46) ...Shooting was going on all over the district. The British were running here and there like cornered rats, shouting and yelling in terror, while our lads “flaked” into them for all they were worth. (47) In the words of the Column O/C: Impromptu night engagements are likely to have unforeseen results and this one proved to be no exception. In the general melee that followed most of our lads panicked and scattered. The main body of the military lost contact with their officers and retreated in the opposite direction. The night action has been indecisive on all sides. Both the partisans and the enemy soldiers ...got mixed up in the night's darkness and have scattered in all directions. (48) The men returned to Ballycoe with “a few rifles, some ammunition, a quantity of Mills bombs and a couple of revolvers...captured from the British.” There, Plunkett directed Nipper McCarthy, Kelly Donovan and Fox Greany to return and burn the Crossley Tender, which had been abandoned by the retreating British. (49) The lorry burnt, the men, including Plunkett, Lennon, Keating, O’Mara and others re- assembled to the northwest at the agreed upon rendezvous at Father Power’s Kilgobnet Presbytery. Arriving at that locale at “about 2 or 3 A.M.” were the men under Mick Mansfield. The remainder of the Column, it was subsequently learned, “had moved further to the west into the hilly country in the neighbourhood of Bohadoon.” (50) Execution What followed next was a scene that has occurred numerous times when Irish rebels were faced with the question of what to do with an informer. Irish Republican history 140 and literature are replete with references to this scourge of failed rebellions. Frank O’Connor described an eerily similar situation to that of Sergeant Hickey in his acclaimed 1931 anti war short story “Guests of the Nation." As pre 1916 Dungarvan Fianna Eireann scouts, George Lennon and Barney Dalton had seen their I.E.D activities effectively ended by a young informant. Volunteer O’Mara stated that after the capture of the sergeant, a party of ten or twelve men held “a council of war to decide the fate of sergeant Hickey. The time was now very early on the morning of March 19, 1921. (51) A court martial ensued and “because of his activities in assisting the British to hunt down I.R.A. men he was sentenced to be shot...” Damningly, Mansfield noted that Hickey “had, apparently, been acting as a spotter for the British raiding party the previous night.” (52) As to specific locale, an account written in 1924 noted simply that "Sergeant Hickey was taken away by others up the boreen... and was never afterwards seen alive." (53) Lennon’s memoir noted “a sharp turn in the by road.” (54) Even more specific was the Deise Brigade engagement report, which pinpointed the shooting of an R.I.C. man at a point in a field at the “full stop” after CAS. Over Kilgobnet. 10. E. (55) An ordnance survey map reveals such a “full stop” intersection at Carrowncashlane or Castlequarter. This area is immediately east of Kilgobnet, adjacent to the castle (CAS). Save for what was written in the George’s memoir, there is, to the best of my research, no other account of what actually transpired at the court martial or the firing squad execution. The larger question of the moral dilemma involved in the ultimate fate of a captured enemy was dealt with in the 1962 play Down by the Glen Side (56) The Trauma in Time memoir noted that the "partisan officer" (Lennon) anxiously waited, outside the agreed upon assembly (Kilgobnet Presbytery). When the men of his squad arrive with the prisoner (Hickey) a “glance of recognition” was exchanged between the two and the partisan officer, perhaps hopefully, stated: "it would be hard for us to release him?" This was a quite understandable response in that Lennon had known the constable since childhood days. Moreover, it had only been days earlier, at the Cappagh train station, that he had narrowly avoided capture. An escape made possible by another childhood R.I.C. acquaintance (Constable Neery) who chose to hurriedly look the other way as the rebel leader made his escape under the nose of high ranking British military officers. (57) A "subordinate officer" replied to the possibility of releasing the prisoner in the following words: 141 Of course not, it would be the end of us all and our homes. (58) In light of Pat Keating's oft-expressed concern regarding possible reprisals, it may very well have been Pat who so forcefully stated the need to execute the just turned thirty six year old sergeant. Nonetheless, life was not to be taken lightly as had been evidenced some two weeks earlier, at the Durrow train ambush, when Mick Mansfield had persuasively argued for the release of British sympathiser Charles Nugent Humble, a civilian. But Hickey was not a civilian or a member of the British military. He was viewed as an Irish traitor by the I.R.A. and as a likely informant who could bring down arrest upon the men and reprisals directed at their families and others who were sympathetic to them. The experience after the Piltown ambush, when freed Constable Prendiville failed to abide by his pledge to leave the R.I.C., made it less likely that such an opportunity would be accorded the Dungarvan constable. Earlier shootings of R.I.C. men had demonstrated the willingness of the I.R.A. to move beyond securing promises. That Hickey was aware of his fate if captured was suggested in Lennon's play, in which "Constable Sergeant Dunne" responded to a British officer: If they take you, they will treat you like an officer and a gentleman, but if they capture me they will shoot me like a dog - like the police spy I am! (59) Lennon described his appearance: The police sergeant is a powerfully built man but he seems to have shrunk into his bottle green uniform. He looks by no means ill natured but his face now has a sallow, yellow tinged and his lips are white. He has a look of the deepest sadness, if not despair. (60) Called upon by his friend, the young Father Power opened his door "with a frightened look" and came “out into the forbidding morning wearing a stole and carrying a prayer book." Instructed to give the sergeant a "full glass of whiskey," he re-entered the house and returned with the spirits. (61) Lennon then, “not unkindly”, said: Drink this. The police sergeant takes the glass unsteadily and gets the liquid down in a number of gulps. Then the priest takes him gently by the arm and leads him to his doorstep where they both sit down. The priest places his hand affectionately on the sergeant’s arm and hears his confession. When they have finished the others 142 wait uneasily for the moments are pregnant. The officer makes a sign and the priest takes the prisoner’s arm to assist him up. As they pass the officer, the prisoner looks appealingly at him but the officer averts his eyes. They all force themselves into motion. The clergyman is holding the prisoner’s arm and he is speaking words of consolation into his ear. They walk back to the boreen with the partisan officer bringing up the rear. He is very disturbed but he conceals his unhappiness. A sharp turn in the by road. A gateway leading into a field. The partisan officer goes ahead, opens the rusty gate and they all file in. The officer leads the prisoner out into the field and affixes a label on to the front of his tunic. Written on the label are the words police spy.. (62) Pleadingly, the prisoner stated: “George, I knew you as a child, you used to play with the head constable's children in the barracks... You are the one person in the world that can save me." Lennon replied: "I would give anything, anything in the world to save you, but I cannot...." (63) A "glance of understanding and deep affection passes between them” (See Martin Buber’s I and Thou). The sergeant “squared his shoulders” as a bandage is tied over his eyes. The officer steps back, drops his arm and calls “fire.” The morning silence of the glen is shattered. The dead man sways on his feet an instant, slowly inclines and falls rigidly on his left side, his head amongst the ferns. (64) Drawing his Luger, Lennon approached the prostrate man, looked down "at the erst- while enemy who is now an enemy no more" and fired into the man's temple. The priest (Fr. Power) claps his hands before his face and runs back towards his house, his shoulders shaking with sobs. (65) At sometime around 6 A.M. (19 March) the Column O/C made “a sign to his men and they go quickly off,” while “the police sergeant lies peacefully amongst the withered ferns.” (66) 143 Front: Tommy Boyle, George Lennon, Michael Foley Rear: John Power, Fr. Tom Power, Dr. Joe Walsh Sequel On the morning of the 19th, Plunkett, aware of earlier withdrawals due to want of ammunition, recommended a return to the ambush site to secure material possibly left from the night action. As it was now getting light, “all of the officers were very much against this proposal.” It was argued that the British would be out in strength and that it was simply asking for trouble to approach the Burgery ambush position again. Notwithstanding the representations made to him, “Plunkett was determined to go ahead with the idea.” (67) Plunkett set off from Kilgobnet with a party of men which, based on the individual witness statements, included Pax Whelan, George Lennon, Pat Keating, Mick Mansfield, Nipper McCarthy, Sean Fitzgerald, Jim Mansfield, Mick Shalloe, Kelly Donovan and Jack O'Mara. As the men crossed an open field, about 8 A.M. towards the Burgery road, a small group, including Whelan and O’Mara, were “placed in position behind a ditch along by this field.” Another group of men, with Plunkett in charge, advanced. 144 It soon became obvious that the enemy had seen our men advancing, because when our boys were about midway in the field, heavy rifle fire was opened on them by troops lining the ditch on the Burgery road. (68) Fitzgerald was shot and Keating, per Plunkett, “only concerned for his good friend” (69), went to his assistance. As stated in the poem which begins “down from the Comeragh hills he came”: At dawn in the morning Fitzgerald fell Never to stand on his feet again Brave Pat went out to bring him back But a British bullet found its mark (70) Reportedly, per one later account, Keating “dashed back under cover but returned a second time to get Fitzgerald. He was shot again.” While the witness statements were silent with respect to the matter, such heroism would certainly have been in character for the rebel poet. Had not Fitzgerald expressed regret that he had not been “alongside” Pat at Durrow prompting him to return to Comeragh?(71) Having run out of ammunition, Plunkett secured some from the prostrate Keating and “just as he got a round into the breech and the bolt home,” he saw movement “at the side of the gate-post.” Aiming carefully, “perhaps a bit high in the rush – and fired.” The Black and Tan Redman “dropped.” (72) 145 Burgery Gate Firing continued for ten minutes or so, when our lads began to retreat as their position was most dangerous. They eventually got back to where we were stationed. Plunkett then called for Volunteers to bring back Pat Keating, but Jim Mansfield objected and said it was suicide to attempt to rescue Keating. We pulled out then, but Plunkett and another man, whose name I cannot recall, stayed behind to see what could be done for Keating. (73) George later “confess(ed) that I did not conduct myself with any great show of bravery.” As to Plunkett, he “behaved with amazing coolness and courage.” He “took over” and, under heavy fire, “crawled over to where Pat Keating lay and carried him on his back to the cover of a fence.” His conduct was reminiscent of his heroism at the Dublin G.P.O. during Easter Week, 1916. Plunkett, at this point, “had no option but to carry out a…retreat…returning to Kilgobnet....” The retreating men “held their fire all this time so as not to betray our position.”(74) The injured Pat, while fully conscious, was carried away by Plunkett and another man of the Column. Arriving at the home of an elderly man named Maurice Morrissey, Birdie Hanley of Gliddane was contacted and came immediately with horse and cart to the Morrissey home. The body of Sean Fitzgerald lay where he had been shot. His body to be taken, in an ass and cart by the British military, to the town square where it was exhibited before being taken to the barracks. The body of Redman was removed at sometime between 9 and 10 A.M. of the same day, the 19th of March. 146 Pat Keating and Sean Fitzgerald Burgery Memorial In retrospect, many years later, Lennon maintained that it was not a mistake to go back "as we badly needed what munitions might have been left behind by the military when they fled." The error was his, he felt, for not having reconnoitered prior to returning. (75) 147 Retreating "sadly across the grey fields" and "unable to face the fact that Pat Keating was dead", Lennon fell behind the main body of Column men. He "was weary, unspeakably unhappy and quite dispirited." He was approached by Plunkett, who slipped his arms into his as they and the Column moved off to the hilly country around Kilbrien, just north of Bohadoon. (76) Lennon wrote that soon afterwards, Plunkett left us to return to G.H.Q. with his report. As he was fixing his bicycle clips he said coldly that he was recommending that I take responsibility for all activities in the county. As we were still a bit stiff with each other we did not offer to shake hands. He rode away and soon disappeared around a bend in the road. (77) Regarding the discovery of the slain sergeant, it was written by Keohane in 1924, that “for two days British military forces scoured the countryside to find him, and it was Mr. Beresford on whose land the body lay that (sic) discovered it lying in the glen” at Castle- quarter. (78). If correct, this would have been Monday the 21st. It was noted in an earlier newspaper account that ...the body of Sergeant Hickey R.I.C. has been found. On Saturday evening (the 19th) acting on information received, a lorry of military proceeded to a district called Castlequarter, some two miles from the scene of the ambush and there in a bog they found the dead body of the missing sergeant. On his breast was a card bearing the word “Executed”. His body was riddled with bullets, no less than 14 bullet wounds being counted, some through the back and others through the chest. (79) The bullets “through the back” observation was later retracted when Dr. John Hackett (“The Beeches,” Dungarvan) examined the body finding “two bullet wounds in his chest and one in his head…Death was instantaneous.” The fact that only two bullets were found in the torso may have necessitated the final coup de grace to the temple by the Column leader. Perhaps the “instantaneous” death observation may be attributed to a concern for local sensibilities. On the other hand, Lennon noted upon being shot by the firing squad, that “the dead man” swayed on his feet and fell rigidly “amongst the ferns.” Also in dispute: the date the body was located (the 19 th or the 21st) and the “Executed” notation on the card. The latter contradicted Lennon who noted the far more likely police spy inscription. 148 Confusion may also exist as to the exact location of the execution and where the body was found. Keohan’s 1924 book and 1921 newspaper accounts mention Beresford land at Castlequarte while I.R.A. eyewitnesses mention a Kilgobnet field. This is readily explained in that Castlequarter is a townland located astride the Dungarvan – Kilgobnet border and is shown on contemporary maps as Carrowncashlane - the “quarter (catharun) of the castle (caislean).” The Castlequarter/Carrowncashlane area includes the area immediately east of Kilgobnet, between Ballyknock Upper and Ballyknock Lower. In this area is the “point in a field at the full stop after CAS.” The CAS in the I.R.A. engagement report referring, in all probability, to the ruined adjacent castle to the north. Apparent incontrovertible corroboration is that 231 acres of Carrowncashlane land were, at the time, per a listing of County Waterford landowners, in the possession of the Beresfords (80) containing “an botharin dorcha” - the dark boreen (road). Burials The authorities took Hickey’s remains to the Dungarvan R.I.C. Barracks where the body of Sean Fitzgerald lay. Hickey was duly conveyed, on Tuesday the 22nd, to the new section of the cemetery at St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Dungarvan. No civilian, except for his brother from Limerick, accompanied the cortege of soldiers and R.I.C. men. Among the latter was his policeman father. An order that all shops be closed during the funeral was observed. Grave diggers initially refused to perform their task. It was only at the instigation of "one of the Catholic Curates" that the grave was dug. The body was interred at St. Mary's thanks to the generosity and concern of Hickey's fiancée, Nellie Kelly. To this day, his remains lie unmonumented in the Kelly-Lordan-Kehoe family plot (p.155). Nor is his presence noted on the church office's schematic drawing of the burial sites. Knowledge of the exact locale of his grave remains known but to a few. According to Margo Lordan Kehoe, the daughter of Nellie Kelly, memories of such troubled times "still linger on in little pockets in Ireland in families...." (81) Also not noted on the burial schematic, anecdotal and newspaper accounts to the contrary, are the whereabouts of the remains of the parents (George and Nellie Shanahan Lennon) and grand parents (James and Mary Anne Crolly Lennon) of the Flying Column Leader. The parish priest maintains that "no records of burials were kept.” (82) Reportedly, Hickey's fiancée never "ever forgave in connection with (his) death.” 149 Ironically, her eventual husband, Michael Lordan, a former R.I.C. constable, became, in later years, a "great friend” of Mick Mansfield. (83) Having been "removed... with great caution" by the military from in front of the bullet scarred gate, the body of Black and Tan Redman was subsequently returned to Kent, England for burial. (84) Although the family of slain Volunteer Sean Fitzgerald made application for his remains, they were not given up until after the Hickey funeral. Regulations, not always adhered to, limited to forty the number of mourners. Later, when the coffin was removed from the church, soldiers with bayonets were posted to keep the crowds back. On the way to Kilrossanty on Wednesday: The remains were carried on the shoulders of young men from the town, who bore it all the way to the church. They were followed by members of Cumann na mBan, who carried several wreaths of natural flowers. No military or police took part in the funeral. On reaching the church there was an immense gathering of persons. The regulation that only forty persons would be allowed to follow the remains of Fitzgerald was not rigidly enforced. (85) In light of the “wanted dead or alive” status of Pat Keating, the path taken by the mortally wounded Volunteer involved a rather indirect route to his ultimate May repository in, what is today, the Republican plot in Kilrossanty. Shortly after he had been conveyed to the Morrissey home, Keating had asked if he could be taken to Whyte’s of Monarud. Assisted by Mike Heafy, Birdie Hanley put Pat into a horse and cart Covering him with hay. If they were stopped, the story was they were going to feed cattle. Pat directed them the whole way even describing the house as being newly plastered on the roadside. (86) Attended by Lennon family physician Dr. Hackett of Dungarvan, “the Whytes were most kind to him and did everything they could to make him comfortable.” Always most solicitous of others, Pat ... spoke about his father and mother and of how heartbroken they would be at the news of his death. He spoke of the bravery of the men of the Column and of the great battle that morning and finally to tell Mary Cullinan that he was thinking of her. ...Pat knew that he was dying, he asked the Whytes not to let the Black and Tans get his body...If Pat’s body was found in the house, severe repercussions would have followed for the Whyte family. 150 (87) Sean Moylan, North Cork Commandant, echoed the likelihood of such reprisals: The capture of a wanted man in any house meant imprisonment or worse for all the male members of the household. It meant the destruction of home and property, the unbridled licence of un- disciplined gangsterdom. (88) “Owing to the extent of his wounds and loss of blood, nothing could be done for him.” Father Power administered last rites. Death came “at five o’clock that same evening”. In a letter to Anastasia Keating Mooney, Jim Mansfield noted Pat’s last words: “goodbye we’ll meet in heaven.” Per his wishes, his body was moved to a field across the road. For the Keating family to find the body in the corner of a field was a heart breaking experience.... Then there was the panic of not knowing what to do with the body before the Tans arrived and took it away as they surely would, knowing of the reward for his capture dead or alive. (89) The body was laid on a cart for the journey to Kilrossanty School and, for “safety reasons,” it was decided to bury the body that night. His blood stained uniform was removed and the body was placed in a coffin by Dr. Joe Walsh and nurse Katie Cullinan of Kilmacthomas. On Saturday night the 19th of March, the doctor took the remains in his car to Newtown cemetery where a grave had been dug in the Cullinan plot. However, by Monday, news of the death and burial had reached Kilmac and it was decided to have the body removed from Newtown and re-interred in a ploughed field on John Power’s farm in Coumahon. This was a quiet place and the grave would not be noticeable in a freshly ploughed field.... The body was taken out of the coffin and Katie Cullinan put on a habit, which had been specially made by the sisters in the Convent of Mercy, Kilmacthomas. The body was then taken to Coumahon and buried that same night. (90) In the words of the poem: When Patrick fell he was taken back To the hills and valleys he loved so well (91) Aftermath Prior to the firing squad death of Hickey, there appear to have been few reprisals 151 for I.R.A. ambushes - with the notable exception of the Hampshires running amok in Youghal after the November 1920 Piltown Cross engagement. This may very well have been attributable to the general chivalry displayed by Lennon’s Column. Writer O’Reilly noted that the execution of Hickey arguably resulted in the breaking of an unspoken agreement that Crown forces in Dungarvan would abstain from reprisals. Ballycoe House Reprisals were undertaken near the initial I.R.A staging position, some one half mile from the ambush, at Dunlea's of Ballycoe. The widow Dunlea and her daughters were evicted and the soldiers then set about destroying the house and its contents. On the walls of the partially demolished home was written: Hickey and Redmond (sic) Up the Buffs Remember God save the King Virtually destroyed, near the ambush site, was a thatched cottage belonging to Mrs. Morrissey. A similar fate was afforded Miss English's house at Abbeyside. (92) Not unlike Constable Prendiville, the released Captain Thomas was, in the words of Mick Shalloe, to prove “his untrustworthiness by burning and looting shops and houses in Dungarvan the following night.” In tandem with the Tans the British military broke up furniture of the Maloneys of Bridge Street, Boyles of O'Connell Street and Fuges of Mary Street. In cases where levies had been imposed, owners escaped reprisals by 152 paying the fines. April the 12th witnessed the Tans running amok by torching Fahey's of Abbeyside and the Strand Hotel. (93) The ambush at the Burgery was not to go unnoticed at Dublin G.H.Q. where the release of Captain Thomas was not viewed kindly. Pax Whelan reportedly was threatened with a court martial for "allowing" Captain Thomas to go free after being captured. You bloody fool, Collins said to me afterwards in Dublin. You should not have let them go. You are a disgrace to the movement. Don’t blame me, I said. It was the decision of George Plunkett. (94) Whelan observed that “everyone knew George was very humane.” This was in reference to Plunkett’s chivalrous conduct at the G.P.O., the heroism he displayed upon returning to the ambush site and his release of Thomas based on a reported no reprisals pledge. Cork O/C Sean Moylan referenced the unwritten policy: No British prisoner falling into the hands of the I.R.A. anywhere was ill-treated. Irishmen with arms in their hands captured by the British were always executed. The British soldiers so captured had always been freed. (95) Dublin G.H.Q took no further action against Whelan. Sadly, the release of Thomas was to have deadly repercussions at Kilgobnet (pp. 161-162), days prior to the 11 July 1921 Truce. Leaving a sour taste, no doubt was when, on the 28 April 1921, “Captain Donald Victor Thomas, the Buffs” was awarded the Order of the British Empire (O.B.E.) “in recognition of gallant conduct in the performance of military duties.” The gallantry most likely occurred at Durrow (March 3) or on the frontline during the Great War. Reportedly, at that time, it was possible for officers to nominate themselves for the award. Due to downsizing, he was compulsorily retired, in early 1922, from the British Army. Leaving, it has been reported, without paying his officers mess bill. He was also pursued by Merry’s of Dungarvan for a drinks bill of five pounds. Emigrated to South Africa, he died there, circa 1930. (96) In mid May, Jack O’Mara, left his rifle and revolver with the Column before he set off for a change of clothes at his Knockboy home. He …did not know that there was...a raiding party of troops from Dungarvan...hidden in a graveyard opposite my house. As I entered my home I was immediately taken prisoner...The house was searched most carefully and a Volunteer membership card of mine discovered. I was taken in to Dungarvan barracks, where I was 153 kept for two days, during which time I was closely examined as to my Volunteer activities. Taken to the military barracks in Waterford, he was “examined” by an officer who was notorious for his ill treatment of Republican prisoners. This man hurled abuse at me for being, as he said, concerned in the murder of a decent man, Sergeant Hickey of Dungarvan. This blackguard, Yeo, then proceeded to beat me savagely with a stick on the head, face, neck, back and arms. Following the beating, I was thrown into a cell, where I had to lie on the floor on my stomach, it being impossible for me to lie on my back because of the beating I had received. He was informed that he was to be held at Ballybricken gaol in anticipation of the arrival of a military witness who would testify as to his presence at the time when Hickey was captured and taken away to be executed. Before the witness turned up, the Truce of 11 July 1921 was signed. Some five months later at Christmas, 1921, O’Mara was released. (97) Killrosanty Burial Two months after the Burgery Ambush, on the 18th of May, the body of Pat Keating was dis-interred, at the request of the family, for burial in Kilrossanty. Lena Keating remembered: My father, Willie, Thomas and Michael, accompanied by members of the Old I.R.A., Mick Mansfield, George Lennon, Ned and Paddy Joe Power and local Volunteers took up the remains which they carried across the Mahon river, through Crough Wood and on to the Crough road where Fr. Sheehy C.C., Marcella, Bridget, Margaret, my mother, Willie’s wife Mary, Tom Cunningham and myself were waiting. (98) The mourners reached Kilrossanty where the grave had been already prepared in a new plot. Fr. Sheehy blessed the coffin and led the prayers for the dead. The grave was then covered over with gravel so that it could not be distinguished from the surrounding gravel paths. Finally, a volley of shots was fired over Pat Keating’s last resting place by members of the Old I.R.A. ...The family went back home to Comeragh that night a little happier that Pat was safely back home”(99) The family had fulfilled the stated wish of Pat’s childhood friend, Sean Fitzgerald, to be 154 "alongside” him. The two Comeragh rebels were now, in the words of Pat’s poem, joined forever at “the village Church close by...Comeragh’s rugged hills.” (100) Kilrossanty Republican Plot The two month effort to maintain secrecy regarding the location of Pat's remains must have reminded Lennon of the Kilmallock death of Liam Scully (pp. 86-87) who similarly had secretly been buried at midnight. (101) Grawn Ambush As described by Mick Mansfield, the burial, however, did not signal the end of this long ordeal: Immediately after the interment, we got word that one of our men belonging to the Kilmacthomas Coy. had been shot in the village. George Lennon, Paddy Joe Power and I decided to go to Kilmacthomas to investigate the occurrence. We travelled in a pony trap with two Cumann na mBan girls named Cullinane (sisters) from Kilmacthomas. Lennon, Power and myself carried rifles. (102) Aware of a British presence in the area, four unarmed scouts on bicycles were sent ahead. Unknown to the main party, the scouts had run into the enemy and been 155 captured. The Mansfield party approached to within two miles of Kilmacthomas near Faha Bridge (Grawn) and drove right into a column of British soldiers, about 200 strong, who were advancing in file along the road from Kilmacthomas...The military surrounded the trap with bayonets fixed and, realising our predicament, we made a break for it. (103) George’s application for a wound pension (27 August 1937) made it clear that he was well aware of the price on his head and his wanted status as published in Hue and Cry. He recalled: “I was captured with a number of others…by a round up party of the Devon Regiment. Realizing that I would be executed as soon as my identity was revealed I…succeeded in fighting my way through the military.” He recalled “lying at the bottom of a ditch some time after but do not remember how I came to the farm house some miles away where I arrived in a dazed and shaken condition.” Mansfield, followed by Lennon, jumped out of the trap and over a fence. Initially taking George for a pursuer, Mansfield only narrowly avoided shooting his friend. George sustained being “head battered with rifle butts” as he made his escape. Mick then “clubbed a soldier with ... (his) rifle butt and made off in the darkness into a boggy field” where he was soon up to his waist in bog-water. At that point The soldiers seemed to be panic stricken and commenced firing wildly in the darkness. Lennon and I waded through the bog until we reached the railway line about 200 yards inland from the road. Meanwhile, the soldiers tried following us through the bog, having failed, they doubled around and up to the railway line hoping to cut us off. However we succeeded in escaping them in the darkness. (104) Power was not so lucky as he “got stuck in the bog on the far side and was captured.” A prior neck wound, sustained at Ballylynch when “he was brutally beaten up,”was reopened. He developed a fever, which “strangely enough saved his life” as, being in possession of a weapon under R.O.I.A, he had been sentenced to death. Execution was reportedly avoided by being placed in a British military hospital to recuperate. Mary Cullinane was caught in the pony and trap with a rifle hidden under her coat and arrested along with her sister Katie, Ned Power, Willie Keating with his wife and Tom Cunningham. Mary was sentenced to six months imprisonment and the others were released after being held for approximately a week. (105). With the Truce less than two months in the future, this was the last of George’s War of 156 Independence “hair breadth escapes.” Little did he realise that his next escapes would be from native Irish soldiers of the newly constituted Free State Army. (pp. 181-183). Seeds of Discord In that Paddy Joe and others were being held in Paddy Paul’s East Brigade area, Lennon in late May summoned Paul to Cutteen House, at the base of the Comeraghs, to ask him to organise a rescue attempt. Paul promised to do what he could but noted that “until I had examined the possibilities I could not say how we would operate.” Once he had established “a means of communication with the prisoners inside,” the East Waterford men were duly informed of the times allotted to the prisoners for exercise. Based on this information, a plan was formulated to throw a rope over the prison wall at a designated time. But “something had gone wrong on the inside” and after “having waited a reasonable time,” the men on the outside “had to go away as...their activities in daylight would be observed....” (106) Paul, many years later, referred to “this incident as another example of co-operation between the two Waterford Brigades....” Tellingly, he further commented: “Even though it was unsuccessful, it showed that we were willing to co-operate as far as we could.” (107) Due in part, to the perception that Brigade #1 (East Waterford) “hasn’t done much...,” the two Waterford Brigades were combined, as part of the First Southern Division, after the Truce of 11 July 1921. Lismore Battalion was handed over to Cork #2 Brigade. Retained were three West Waterford Battalions (Dungarvan, Comeragh and Ardmore) plus three redesignated East Waterford Battalions (Waterford City, Tramore and Dunmore East). A 7th Battalion was organized in the Nire Valley under Jack O’Mara. The combined Brigade had a definite West Waterford leadership bias with O/C Whelan, Vice O/C Lennon and Adjutant Phil O’Donnell. Paul was appointed Co. Waterford Deputy I.R.A. Liaison Officer under Lennon. (108) Earlier, in June, in accordance with Plunkett’s recommendation, (109) Lennon’s Flying Column had been augmented by some dozen East Waterford men, including “training officer” Paul. In conjunction with other factors, the reorganisation, with its demotion of East Water- ford officers, was to have repercussions when, as noted by Lennon: Early in 1922, after the elapse of 750 years, it was our proud privilege to enter the city with native troops and take it back for the Irish nation. (110) 157 **************************************** 1. Domnail O'Faolain, "The Struggle For Freedom In West Waterford" (Dungarvan Lecture, 1966). 2. Letter from Paddy Paul to Florrie O’Donoghue (circa 1953). 3. Brian Coulter, "George Lennon: A Quiet Warrior," Dungarvan Leader (5 April 1991). 4. Author’s conversation with George Lennon ( circa 1985). 5. George Lennon, Trauma in Time: An Irish Itinerary (unpublished, 1970’s), p.44. 6. The Waterford News, “The Burgery Ambush” (September 5, 1924). 7. Richard Abbott, Police Casualties in Ireland 1919 – 1922, (Dublin: Mercier Press, 2000), Foreword by Peter Hart, p. 9. 8. Ernie O’Malley, On Another Man’s Wound, (Dublin: Anvil Books, 1936), p. 162. 9. Ibid. Sean Moylan, Sean Moylan in His Own Words, (Aubane: Aubane Historical Society, 2004). Michael Hopkinson, The Irish War of Independence (Montreal: McGill – Queens University Press, 2002). 10. Personal correspondence of Ivan Lennon (2007). 11. Ibid. Lennon, op.cit., pp. 43, 46. 12. Moylan, op. cit. p.28. 13. Mick Mansfield Witness Statement 1188 (Rathmines: Cathal Brugha Barracks, 14 June, 1955), p.11. O’Faolain, op. cit. 14. Mansfield, op. cit. p.15. 15. Personal Correspondence of Ivan Lennon with Margo Lordan Kehoe (2007). 16. Moylan, op. cit ., p. 31. 17. George Lennon, Down by the Glen Side (unpublished, 1962), p. 50. 18. Lena Keating, “The Keatings of Comeragh” (unpublished). 19. Pax Whelan, “Pat Keating, Comeragh: A Tribute (unpublished). 20. Keating, op. cit. 21. Ibid. 22. Ibid. 23. Ibid. Lennon, Trauma in Time, pp. 67 – 68. Lennon, Down by the Glen Side, p. 27. 24. Keating, op. cit., p. 6. 25. Ibid. 26. Uinseann MacEoin, Survivors (Dublin: Argenta Publications, 1980), p. 137. 27. Ibid., p. 138. Lennon, Trauma in Time, pp. 34 ff. 28. Ibid., p. 34. 29. MacEoin, op. cit., pp. 135 - 137. 30. Lennon, Trauma in Time, p.43. 31. Ibid. 32. Michael Shalloe Witness Statement 1241 (Rathmines: Cathal Brugha Barracks, 31 August 1955), p. 12. 33. Ibid,. pp. 12 – 13. 34. Lennon, Trauma in Time, p. 44. 35. Edmond Keohan, Illustrated History of Dungarvan (Waterford: Waterford News Limited, 1924), p. 32. 158 Shalloe, op. cit., p. 13. Mansfield, op. cit., p.22. James Prendergast Witness Statement 1655 (Rathmines: Cathal Brugha Barracks, 24 July 1957), p. 11. Jack O’Mara Witness Statement 1305 (Rathmines: Cathal Brugha Barracks, 6 December 1955), p. 22. 36. Mansfield, op. cit., pp. 22 – 23. 37. Ibid. 38. Prendergast, op. cit., p. 11. 39. Mansfield, op. cit., p. 23. 40. Ibid. 41. Ibid. 42. Shalloe, op. cit., p. 14. 43. MacEoin, op. cit., p.138. O’Mara, op. cit., p.5. Mansfield, op. cit., p. 24. Prendergast, op. cit., p. 11. 44. Mansfield, op. cit., p. 23. 45. Ibid., p. 24. 46. Ibid. 47. Shalloe, op. cit., p.14. 48. Lennon, Trauma in Time, p. 44. 49. Mansfield, op. cit., p. 25. 50. Ibid. p. 24. O’Mara, op. cit., p. 6. 51. O’Mara, op, cit., p. 6. 52. Mansfield, op. cit., p. 24. 53. Edmond Keohan, op. cit., p. 34. 54. Lennon, Trauma in Time, p. 46. 55. Sean and Sile Murphy, The Comeraghs, Gunfire and Civil War (Kilmacthomas: Comeragh Publications, 2003), p. 188. 56. Lennon, Down by the Glen Side, p. 49. 57. Lennon, Trauma in Time, pp. 43, 45. 58. Ibid. 59. Lennon, Down by the Glen Side, p. 49. 60. Lennon, Trauma in Time, p. 45. 61. Ibid. 62. Ibid., pp. 45 - 46. 63. Ibid. 64. Ibid. 65. Ibid. 66. Ibid. 67. Mansfield, op. cit., p.25. 68. O’Mara, op. cit., pp. 6 - 7. 69. The Waterford News, “The Burgery Ambush” (September 5, 1924). 70. Michael Walsh. “The Poet of the Comeraghs”. 71. Murphy, op. cit.,p.82. 159 Keohan, op. cit., pp. 34 – 35. 72. The Waterford News , op. cit. 73. O’Mara, op. cit., p. 7. 74. Lennon, Trauma in Time., pp. 46 – 47. Shalloe, op. cit., p. 17. Prendergast, op. cit., p. 12 Mansfield, op. cit., p. 25. 75. Lennon, Trauma in Time, p. 46. 76. Ibid., p.47. 77. Ibid. 78. Keohan, op. cit., p. 37. 79. The Waterford News, “Dungarvan Ambush” (Thursday, March 24, 1921). 80. Property Owners of County Waterford, www.cmcrp.net/Waterford/Landowner1.html (circa 1870). 81. Munster Express, “Another Day of Tension in Dungarvan” (Saturday, March 26, 1921). Personal correspondence of Ivan Lennon with Margo Lordan Kehoe(2007). 82. Personal correspondence with Fr. Nicholas O’Mahony (24 April 2005). 83. Personal correspondence of Ivan Lennon with Margo Lordan Kehoe (2007). 84. Murphy, op. cit., p. 189. 85. Munster Express, op. cit. 86. Keating, op. cit. 87. Ibid. 88. Moylan, op. cit., p. 83. 89. Keating, op. cit. 90. Ibid. 91. Walsh. op. cit. 92. Murphy, op. cit., pp. 91 - 92. 93. Ibid. Shalloe, op. cit., p.14. 94. MacEoin, op. cit., p. 138. 95. Moylan, op. cit., p. 136. 96. The London Gazette, “Central Chancery of the Orders of Knighthood” (Tuesday, the 31st of May, 1921). 97. O’Mara, op. cit., pp. 8 – 9. 98. Keating, op. cit. 99. Ibid. 100. Ibid. 101. Lennon, Trauma in Time, p. 23. 102. Mansfield, op. cit., p. 26. 103. Ibid. 104. Ibid., pp. 26 - 27. Murphy, op. cit., p. 103. 105. Mansfield, op. cit., p. 27. Murphy, op. cit., p. 103. 106. Paddy Paul Witness Statement 877 (Rathmines: Cathal Brugha 160 Barracks, 13 July 1953), pp. 30 – 31. 107. Ibid., p. 32. 108. Murphy, op. cit., pp. 105 – 106. O’Malley, op. cit., p. 212. 109. Lennon, Trauma in Time., p. 47. 110. Ibid., pp. 50 – 53. Murphy, op. cit., p. 106. St. Mary’s Unmonumented Hickey Gravesite 161 CHAPTER XII FINAL MONTHS (1921) Ballyvoyle/Ballylynch, Co. Waterford A measure of recognition for the Deise Flying Column was to occur when Harry Boland, Dail special envoy to the United States, speaking to the American Association for the Recognition of the Irish Republic (A.A.R.I.R.), referred to this engagement as being indicative of the effectiveness of the guerrilla campaign. On the morning of the 29th of April, returning from a meeting the day before with Paddy Paul, Lennon and Mickey Morrissey learned that a troop train would be travelling at 11 A. M. from Waterford towards Dungarvan and Fermoy. Joining up with Michael Cummins, they took up positions on high ground overlooking the railway line at Ballyvoyle. As the train approached from the northeast it was seen that it contained British troops in the carriages. The train was fired upon with automatic pistols but did not stop. Anticipating the return of the train sometime around 4:30 P.M., a proper ambush was planned at the Ballylynch level crossing, some three miles to the north, beyond Durrow. On their way, the men were joined by brothers Ned Power and Paddy Joe (Glen, Stradbally), brothers Michael and Thomas Walsh, Jack Harris also from Stradbally and Billy Gough, all armed with rifles and shotguns. Michael Cummins elaborated in his 1950’s statement: On reaching Ballynch level crossing, George Lennon split the party in two on the east and west sides of the railway line. He placed myself and Billy Gough about 150 yards on the level crossing on the 162 north side of the railway. We closed the gates at the level crossing and tied on a red flag to stop any train coming along and lay concealed in ambush. Cummins recollected that, unknown to the I.R.A., the Buffs had come out from Dungarvan after having heard of the earlier attempt on the train at Ballyvoyle. Crossing country they boarded a train at Durrow and were proceeding northeast towards Waterford. Therefore, the train that was about to be attacked was arriving "early in the afternoon" and not at the anticipated time of 4:30 P.M. Before the train had actually reached the level crossing gates some of our lads fired on soldiers who were on the coal box at the engine. One of the Tommies was wounded, his rifle dropping from his grasp. The train came to a halt at the gates and fire was opened by our lads on the far side of the train to where I was. Most of the soldiers got out of the carriages and took cover under them on the side of the train nearest to me. The ensuing conflict lasted for about an hour at which point the I.R.A. was forced to withdraw, as at Durrow and elsewhere, for want of ammunition. Not having heard the whistle blast given by the O/C as the signal to retreat, Cummins remained at his position for another five minutes before he “had a feeling that our lads had pulled out as the shooting had stopped.” Making cross-country to nearby Lemybrien, he eventually met up with the men near Kilrossanty at the foot of the Comeraghs. The I.R.A. Engagement Report noted that "at least two of the enemy were killed and six seriously wounded.” For the I.R.A., Paddy Joe Power suffered the neck wound, which was to re-open, less than three weeks later, when his party was ambushed returning from the Keating burial ceremony at Kilrossanty. Another attack on the Buffs in the area of the Duke’s Line between Durrow and Ballyvoyle was scheduled for Sunday the 5th of June when an ambush of a cycling column was planned at Kilminnion, near Durrow. Hearing that the Buffs, instead, were taking the coast road to Ballyvoyle and Dungarvan, the I.R.A., under Tom Keating, Pat's brother, hurriedly made their way to Ballyvoyle. As they were taking up their positions, they were spotted and John Cummins of Balllyvoyle was fatally shot on the railway embankment. He was the last Deise Volunteer to die in the War of Independence. An ensuing gun battle lasted about one half hour and two Volunteers were injured including John Mansfield of Kilmacthomas who suffered a facial injury. The I.R.A. Engagement Report report noted nine enemy wounded. 163 Brigade Reorganisation, Co. Waterford The Deise Brigade (Waterford No. 2) was far more active than its eastern counterpart (Waterford No. 1) in terms of the number of engagements with R.I.C., Black and Tan and British military forces. On a practical level, the western part of the county had the suitable terrain, the leadership, the manpower and was willing to take the initiative in securing arms. The “fiasco," in Mick Mansfield's word, of the combined East Waterford-West Waterford ambush at Pickardstown on 3 January 1921 served to fuel criticism of East Waterford O/C Paul. There was an innate suspicion of returned British soldiers such as he and Cork’s Tom Barry. Further criticism alluded to a rumour that Paul had voted for Willie Redmond, the Irish Parliamentary Party candidate in the 1918 Waterford by-election. Paul denied this, noting in his BMH witness statement that when he was in the British Army his parents “indicated their sympathy for the Sinn Fein movement which they supported to the end. Later they instructed me how to register my vote in the 1918 election for the Sinn Fein candidate, Dr. White.” For his part, Paul claimed that he had never wanted the job and that All I did was to try and make an inactive Brigade become active and eliminate those who tried to impede or hold up operations. There was also a certain amount of jealousy to overcome. What Lennon viewed as "the unsatisfactory state of affairs in Waterford No. 1 Brigade" was reflected at Dublin G.H.Q., which attributed the reason for the inactivity to a lack of leadership. Also, according to the journal of the I.R.A., An t-Oglach, there were too many Volunteer "slackers" who "share in the reflected glory of achievements elsewhere, while themselves neglecting to do their own share of work." This point of view was shared by the officers of the newly organised First Southern Division (Cork, Kerry, Waterford and West Limerick). Attempts were reportedly made by Sean Hyde and others to sort out the matter. The 28 April 1921 meeting, likely at Cutteen House, between Lennon and Paul had dealt with possible further cooperation between the two Waterford Brigades. Earlier, Lennon and Pat Keating had consulted with the East Waterford O/C regarding joint operations at Bunmahon Coastguard Station (August 1920) and the Kill R.I.C. Barracks attack (18 September 1920). Liam Lynch, called a 7 May 1921 meeting in Glenville, west of Fermoy. The final appointment of officers and staff of the newly formed First Southern Division were made at this time. Each Brigade representative outlined his own situation with all emphasizing the lack of arms and the need to capture ammunition supplies from the enemy. Failing this, Paul noted that "we had no hope of continuing operations.” 164 The late May meeting at Cutteen House with Paul, in addition to discussing the Ballybricken Prison rescue of prisoners seized 19 May at Grawn, initiated steps to establish a Flying Column in East Waterford. Paul hoped to have a few little fights in which the Column would become seasoned...Both because of the smallness of our numbers and the unsuitability of the terrain in the East Waterford Brigade area, I felt it would be unsuitable to carry out any operations on our own at first and therefore I made contact with George Lennon.... I proposed that we should join forces with the West Waterford Column and that together we might pull off something worthwhile. Paddy Paul Reportedly, at this time there was also a mutiny in which Paul was briefly deposed. Richard Malcahy (I.R.A. Chief of Staff) and Liam Lynch then sacked Jim Power and Micheal Bishop while reinstating Paul. In the words of writer historian Terence O'Reilly: In fairness to Paul...nothing happened in East Waterford before he took over and very little happened after he left to join the column. On the 5th of June 1921, Lynch, as Commandant, First Southern Division, came out from Fermoy to Currabaha, near Kilmacthomas. At a meeting with the West Waterford officers, arrangements were made to meet the East Waterford leaders at Ballylaneen. Darkness fell while the officers awaited the East Waterford Officers. Brigade O/C Whelan and Lynch took watches. Never had such high-ranking officers done sentry duty, according to writer Sean Murphy. Arriving the next day, the East Waterford men were "grilled and questioned.” The decision, announced some time later, was that Waterford #1 was to be incorporated into one Waterford Brigade under Commandant Pax Whelan. The amalgamation would quickly increase the manpower of the West Waterford Flying Column to more than forty men at the time of the July Truce. August was the most likely anticipated date for full Brigade implementation. 165 Per George Plunkett's recommendation, made subsequent to the mid March Burgery engagement, “operational command” of the men on active service, subject to Divisional Commandant Lynch and Brigade O/C Whelan, was to be in the hands of George Lennon, Brigade Vice O/C. The highest officers of the reconstituted Brigade reflected a Dungarvan bias with Whelan, Lennon and Adjutant Phil O'Donnell. Whelan had the unenviable task of removing and demoting some of the officers in the new seven-battalion Brigade. Paddy Paul was relegated to the position of "training officer." The former East Waterford Adjutant was appointed "Intelligence Officer” and the East Waterford "Quartermaster” moved over to the same position in the combined Brigade. The operational area of the original two Brigades was modified with the single Water- ford Brigade. Paul noted that "part of what had been the West Waterford area, Lismore- Ballymore (sic) Upper District” (likely Ballyduff Upper, just north of Lismore) went in with one of the Cork areas, and “part of County Waterford also went into the South Tipperary area." While amalgamation of the Deise Flying Column with what there was of an operational column in East Waterford effectively took place before the early July engagement at Cappagh train station, Paul noted that Brigade "reorganisation...in fact, took effect after the Truce." Another point I would like to make clear...is the temporary nature of the amalgamation.... It has been stated since... that at the time of the Truce there was only one Column in existence in Waterford. This statement is based upon the fact that the two Columns were acting as one in the training camp I have referred to, and thus was not intended to be a permanent arrangement but only for the purpose of training and giving some confidence to the men. He optimistically anticipated that "as soon as arms were available... each would act on its own within its own area." Cappagh Station, Co. Waterford The newly reorganised Column, while stationed at Comeragh in late June, received, via Cappoquin intelligence officer Thomas Lincoln, information that a Waterford bound train from Fermoy would be conveying British forces. It was decided to ambush the train at Cappagh station, situated some six miles northwest of Dungarvan on the main Dungarvan - Cappoquin road. This was same Duke’s Line train station from which George had eluded capture in March thanks to the “beneficence” of R.I.C. Constable Neery (pp.119-120). Per Mick Mansfield: The night previous, I was engaged laying mines on the roads in the neighbourhood of Cappagh. I remember we were at this work all 166 night; the purpose being to prevent British reinforcements coming up from Fermoy or Dungarvan while the ambush was proceeding. All the men on the Column together with some men from the local company were engaged. There were upwards of thirty men or perhaps more. This included scouts and those on outpost duty a distance from the ambush position. The men travelled to Cappagh around 6:30 on the morning of the 4th of July 1921. The attackers were "divided into two groups in position on high ground on both sides of the station and within about 50 to 80 yards of the railway line." Paddy Paul noted, that while getting into position to remove the rails, a pilot train, travelling ahead of the troop train to ensure that the tracks were intact, made an appearance. Paul maintained that it crashed through the gates at the level crossing although the I.R.A. Engagement Report stated that "the pilot engine was allowed through...." No mention was made of a first train by either Mick Shalloe or Mansfield. In any event, the signals were put against the troop train and the crossing gates closed. The Mansfield and Shalloe accounts were in agreement that, at the appointed time, the train pulled into Cappagh, stopped, and was attacked by heavy rifle and shotgun fire. Firing continued for some ten to perhaps fifteen minutes at which point the train crashed the gates and moved off in the direction of Waterford. Paul, however, disputed this, stating that while fire was exchanged, "the train did not stop." This was to prove to be the final ambush in West Waterford prior to the Truce of 11 July 1921. Kilgobnet, Co. Waterford Optimism prevailed among the men on active service during an exceptionally pleasant May, June and July of 1921. While the "arms situation was by no means good," Lennon felt there were encouraging signs "that at last this was going to be rectified." In fact, Dublin's Robert Briscoe (later Lord Mayor) had visited Kilmacthomas on the 9th of June with regard to the landing of arms along the coast. Hopefully, premature withdrawals from engagements for lack of arms and ammunition, as had been the case at Ardmore, Durrow and Ballylynch, would prove to be a thing of the past. The Column, augmented by the twelve riflemen from East Waterford, turned northward to their retreat on the south slope of the Knockmealdowns in the Ballinamult area. In that area a column of perhaps one hundred British soldiers was observed by Paddy Paul to be “moving toward our area in battle order” with what looked to be an eighteen- pound field gun. Being more than double the number of the I.R.A. Column and possessing superior armament, an engagement was out of the question. To have attacked their rear was also “out of consideration” in that “other garrisons of military, police and Black and Tans were moving along the surrounding roads, acting as flank guards and scouts....” Lennon noted “we had just missed them coming through the Lickey position where we 167 would have had a decided advantage” but to engage them now, would have been foolhardy in light of the “open country” nature of the terrain. His “well disciplined force of forty two men,” in Lennon’s view, was not unlike Indians on the trail of covered wagons... As we had no sleep for two days running we let our enemies go and moved for rest to a place … at the foot of the Knockmealdown Mountains, Plans were drawn up for the Column to directly engage a bicycle contingent of the West Kent Buffs near Cappagh. Visiting Lennon in the Colligan Wood area, Jim Kirwan was questioned as to the trenching of the area roads to impede the British military and Tans. Kirwan explain that they indeed were trenched but, at Kilgobnet, one had been partially filled in to allow for passage of a funeral cortege. Lennon ordered Kirwan to retrench, not knowing that British forces, under the command of Captain Thomas, earlier released by Plunkett at the Burgery, had buried explosives at the site. Accordingly, Kirwan directed Jack Power of Ballymacmague to execute the order. Gathering a party of local civilians, he set out to do the job. As the Brigade staff was moving over to Cappagh, they heard, at dawn, a large explosion from the Colligan side. Going to investigate they encountered the grim aftermath of the booby trap mine. Three men had been killed outright, three died shortly afterwards and three were badly injured. 168 Kilgobnet Memorial Two days later on 11 July 1921, "a dispatch carrier came running across the fields waving a paper. Quite unexpectedly a Truce had been declared." There would be no ambush of the Buffs The Truce The Column was likely billeted in the Ballynamult/Sleady Castle area (some miles north of Pat and Gertie Ormond’s present day Kilcannon House B and B) when the news of the Truce was received. Lennon’s memoir specifically noted “a place called Collagortuide (the place of the yellow fields) at the foot of the Knockmealdown Mountains.” Waiting for a car to pick him up on 12 July at Sleady he noted being “overcome with sadness” unable to “shake off a dread premonition” in that “everything had seemed to be going exceptionally well recently.” The news came "came like a bolt from the blue" to men who were resentful of the fact that Dublin G.H.Q. had failed to consult with them. Moreover, it was the American born 169 de Valera, a "marginal figure during much of the war,” who had led the negotiating team to London in July and it was Dev’s advocacy of the May 1921 Customs House attack that resulted in the decimation of the Dublin Brigade leading some in Dublin G.H.Q. to conclude that the guerrilla struggle, suffering from a lack of firepower, was not sustainable. Others such as Cathal Brugha believing, as was later confirmed by French and American experience in Indo-China, that a guerrilla force can be ultimately successful in winning the war without winning the battles Many skeptical Republicans were all too aware of England's duplicity with the 1691 Treaty of Limerick, the passing of the 1800 Act of Union and the most recent “perfidy” of a Home Rule Bill which had passed both Houses of Parliament and been placed in the statute book. In Munster, a meeting of the Irish Republican Brotherhood was held in Cork. It was attended by the three highest-ranking Deise Brigade Officers: Whelan, Lennon and Mansfield. In Mick Mansfield's words "they were convinced there was a sellout.” Lennon commented: “was it by deliberation or through incompetence that our G.H.Q. had failed to arm the Volunteers?” According to Liam Deasy, in Cork the news of the Truce was received in silence. There was no enthusiasm. The feeling seemed to be that this was the end of an epoch and that things would never be the same again...My personal feeling was one of disappointment and I must admit I foresaw defeat and trouble ahead. In Waterford, Lennon observed: How good it was that the sun shone (it had been a wonderful summer), that peace reigned and that the people were working happily in the fields -- yet, something indefinable had gone away forever. He wondered, "if accepting a premature truce was not a grave error." With no let up in hostilities our political leaders could have negotiated from a position of strength. Bargaining from a position of weakness they would have to accept the best terms they could get. At no other time in our unhappy history had things seemed to be going so well. The people were all with us as we were with our people and we had the enemy apparently on the run. I was moving about with a well-disciplined force of forty-two men. Our enemies had retreated into the towns and they were now only 170 venturing out in large mobile columns complete with mounted officers and a field kitchen... British intelligence ... was convinced that all the hills were crawling with insurgents. Regardless of the wisdom of the Truce, it benefitted the general populace who were able to return to a normal life as much as possible. The I.R.A., however, could not let its guard down in the event of a breakdown of the peace. To keep the men on the ready, the men were brought into training camps including locales at Aglish, Kilmacthomas and an officers' camp at Comeragh. Former British soldier Paddy Paul, as the training officer for Whelan's Waterford Brigade, conducted a course for the men at Graiguerush near the Comeragh Mountains. Also under Paul's command was a force at Ballinacourty. Sonny Cullinan of Abbeyside was serving on guard duty one night when he heard Paul approaching. He called for him to identify himself and to raise his hands above his head. Paul ignored the request and Cullinan fired a shot over the former O/C's head. Furious, Paul charged him, Tom Mooney of Ardmore and Sean Riordan with attempted murder. Reportedly, Riordan was so angry "he would have killed Paul," who, in Cullinan's estimation, for a small man was "too big in himself." Cullinan, Mooney, and Riordan were sent to Fermoy “to wait the outcome of the charge....” Through the intercession of Pax Whelan, the matter was resolved. This incident, in combination with the ill feeling created by the merging of the two Waterford Brigades with its demoting of East Waterford officers, plus the Redmondite presence in Waterford City with its numerous “separation women,” did not auger well for comity in post Truce County Waterford. With an inactive Column in camps, George was appointed County Waterford I.R.A. Liaison Officer billeted at Dungarvan’s Devonshire Arms Hotel. He bore responsibility for the ensuing occupation of abandoned R.I.C., Tan and British barracks. For the first time he was to receive reimbursement for expenses incurred. Serving as his deputy was deposed East Waterford O/C Paddy Paul with whom he maintained a cordial relationship. CHAPTER XIII END OF THE ROAD (12 July 1921-1923) What Frank O'Connor referred to, as that “perfect summer” of 1921 was a wonderful time to be a young I.R.A. man. As historian Peter Hart observed: You were saluted and cheered in the streets, work could be put to one side, dances were held in your honour, and your word held 171 apparently undisputed sway in your part of the world...A few dedicated men had indeed changed history. In west County Waterford, the men came down from their billet in the Sleady Castle area. Mick Shalloe noted a relaxing of discipline when the Volunteers "were allowed into the town and to dances and such like, without much restraint." Their former minority physical force position no longer viewed as “political heresy,” the men found “victory has a thousand fathers…” as accolades and complimentary drinks ensued. It was at this time that “other Irishmen sought to bask in the "reflected glory" of the few. Having been “conspicuous by their absence in the struggle, they now found it expedient to belatedly join in support of the revolutionary movement” as "Post Truce Republicans,” derisively dismissed by many as "Trucileers." There were clouds on the horizon during the period from 12 July 1921 to the acceptance of the Treaty on 7 January 1922. Revolutionary firebrand and elected Dail member from County Waterford, Cathal Brugha, echoing Lennon’s sentiments, argued vehemently against the Truce and against sending a delegation to London observing that "you don't go into your enemy's house looking for a fair settlement." If talks were to be held at all, he maintained, they should be at a neutral site, such as Paris, which would indicate the sovereign status of the Irish Government, under the Dail, to the rest of the world. Brugha refused to go to London as a "plenipotentiary.” Sent to London were Mick Collins, Arthur Griffith, George Gavan Duffy, Robert Barton and Eamon Duggan. Notably absent was Eamon de Valera, labeled the “cute hoor” by Collins. Instructions were given to the delegates that any decisions on a treaty had to be referred to Dublin for ratification. Lloyd George and Winston Churchill reportedly told the delegates to sign the treaty or be responsible for "immediate and terrible war." Faced with the ultimatum, the treaty was signed, without recourse to Dublin, on 6 December 1921. Collins observed that he had just signed his death warrant. For a month the national political stage was dominated, both in and out of the Dail, by a spirited debate over the Anglo- Irish Treaty. Surprisingly, scant discussion was accorded the matter of the 1920 established Northern statelet composed of six of the nine Ulster Counties. Cheekpoint/Ballinagoul: Arms Landings In light of the constant complaint of Active Service Units regarding the lack of arms, a Dublin meeting had been held in July of 1920 with attendees including Liam Lynch, Pax Whelan, Liam Deasy, Mick Collins, Dick Mulcahy, Rory O'Connor and Cathal Brugha. Negotiations were undertaken to purchase a shipload of arms on the Continent and a landing site was to be selected on the West Cork coast. A December meeting was held at Barry's Hotel, Dublin to arrange for the importation. Subsequent to the Liam Lynch called meeting at Glenville on 7 May 1921, Florrie O'Donoghue, in a letter to Paddy Paul, mentioned Pax Whelan attending an earlier Meeting “at G.H.Q. which concerned the changing of the landing place in West Cork to 172 Helvick." Pax cited the G. H.Q. meeting, attended by Cathal Brugha, Mick Collins, Rory O'Connor, Sean MacMahon, Liam Lynch, Liam Mellows and others, at ... a house on the quays about February 1921.... I pointed out to Liam Lynch that any landings around the west coast were always failures. Once you round Lands End, if you make a straight line across, you strike Waterford. You have a good chance of avoiding the naval patrols, which do not enter close to the Waterford coast. Also in favour of a Deise landing was the fact that Waterford had yet to attract an overwhelming British military or Auxiliary response. Robert Briscoe and Sean MacBride made arrangements in Bremerhaven for a shipment of arms on the Anita to land off Helvick Head early in the summer of 1921. MacBride duly brought instructions about meeting the vessel, under the command of Charles ("Nomad") McGuinness, to Pax Whelan. These plans were negated for obscure reasons perhaps due to sabotage by British intelligence or, others maintain, by Collins having become preoccupied with the possibility of a truce. Whatever the reason, the Anita was confiscated by the Allied Reparations Commission. Captain McGuinness was arrested and let off with a small fine of 2000 marks or about ten pounds. McGuinness then acquired, in his own words, "the sturdy tug Frieda, a larger craft than the Anita, and much better suited to the rigours of the North Sea and the English Channel." He stated a cargo of "1,500 rifles, 2,000 Lugar Parabellums, and 1,700,000 rounds of ammunition." McGuinness noted a Helvick, Ring arrival of Saturday the 12th while Pax said that the "Frieda arrived here off Helvick on November 11, 1921. There was a fog at Helvick, so she moved … up the Suir…." In Pax's words,"at Cheekpoint...we unloaded most of the cargo.” He made no mention of returning to Helvick, to unload the balance of the cargo. Jim Mansfield in his BMH statement noted simply "the vessel did not put in at Helvick." His brother Mick corroborated this stating "guns were landed at Cheekpoint, Co Waterford, and were brought by us to dumps in the Comeragh Mountains." Confirming the above Volunteer statements is the death bed declaration, certified to its veracity by author Nicholas Whittle, of Dr. White, the losing 1918 Sinn Fein candidate against Willie Redmond. The Doctor stated that McGuinness had contacted him in "that shortage of food and water had compelled him to run for Waterford Harbour.... off the Island in the Suir." After rushing off "to attend the last mass of the day," White returned to his home where he awakened the sleeping McGuinness and the two then "glided down the river in the darkness..." and, upon reaching "the Island ... a few moments later... were hauled aboard the Freida” (sic) where the night's work for us began in earnest...and the entire cargo (italics added) was gradually carried off until the Freida (sic) was left with an 173 empty hold. As I watched the last lorry climb up the hill with its precious load, destined for the Comeragh hideouts, I was a satisfied and happy man. George Lennon simply stated in his pension application that he was involved in "gun running operations terminating at Cheekpoint." No mention was made of McGuinness. Later, correspondences between Lennon and McGuinness (pp.193-194) are to be found in the "Una Troy Collection" at the National Library in Dublin. The peripatetic McGuinness, at the time of the letters (1931-1932), had transported himself to the Port of Leningrad where as an “Inspector” he was involved with "introducing, where necessary, foreign and modern methods to speed up dispatch." In Survivors, O/C Whelan mentioned that, after the off loading, the Frieda needed repairs, which were done on the spot. Per Pax, the boat then moved to Boatstrand just west of Annestown on the East Waterford coast. McGuinness, in his autobiography, however, noted another locale further to the west when he ...steamed down the river (Suir) and round the coast to the little village of Bunmahon. There was a small stone pier extending seaward from the shore, and under the lee of this we made the restless Frieda fast. McGuinness then set out, in a commandeered motorcar, to sell the craft to a Captain Collins from Cork. This occasioned, in Pax's words, a bit of a hullaballoo because they were both missing for a few days and his wife wondered where he had got to. This was not surprising, because McGuinness was a hard man for the drink, and once he came ashore he usually buried himself in some tavern. Arriving in Cork, McGuinness commented that he painted a beautiful picture of the Frieda. Her speed, sea worthiness, rugged strength, even her attractive appearance were laid on the canvas of my imagination in generous daubs. This nautical treasure I would sacrifice for a mere thousand pounds. (I had paid five hundred for her a month previous!). The “ancient mariner" Collins from Cork agreed to accompany him to Dungarvan "to inspect and purchase the vessel." At this point in time, there is the slim chance that the Frieda was brought in to Ballinagoul, Ring Harbour to off load any possible remaining armaments. However, the witness statements of the participants filed at the Bureau of Military History 174 contradict this. A plaque, installed in 2006 at Ballinagoul Harbour, erroneously notes the November offloading of the cargo at that locale. There is the possibility that it was moored there days after Cheekpoint simply to be inspected by the prospective owner; resulting in the false report of an arms landing At the Devonshire Arms Hotel in Dungarvan, Paddy Paul "was called on to witness the signatures of Collins and McGuinness to a deed of sale...." Also present were Liam Mellows and Robert Briscoe when McGuinness, never loath to toot his own horn, received a cheque for one thousand pounds and without a regret washed my hands of the Frieda. And so ended happily an incident which might have proved extremely awkward for the Irish envoys negotiating with Lloyd George in Downing Street.... It was then that I conceived the idea of inaugurating an Irish mercantile marine to render us independent of foreign shipping. Liam Mellowes (sic) gave me, for my own personal use, the thousand pounds I had received for the Frieda. I therefore paid the sum over as deposit in the purchase of the S.S. City of Dortmund, the vessel I selected as pioneer of the Irish Merchant Navy. Pax commented that the deal with the Frieda "worked so well that MacBride and McGuinness immediately decided they would go back again, buy another boat and bring it over...;" It was renamed the Hannah, reportedly in honour of the mother of the Mansfield brothers of nearby Old Parish. McGuinness reported "after the voyage of the Frieda, I got in touch with my German agent for the shipment of a second cargo of munitions. The purchase was not difficult." The ship was loaded with ballast of barrels of cement plus five hundred pistols, two 175 hundred rifles and some one million rounds of ammunition. The owner, according to the customs docket, was one "P. Whelan" of Dungarvan. McGuinness remarked that "all went well and we brought her into Ballinagoul (Ring) on 2nd April 1922." Representing the 1st Southern Division, I.R.A. to receive the cargo was Dick Barrett (executed by the Free State on 8 December 1922). This was the largest military shipment ever to reach the I.R.A. The arms were transferred to a squadron of small vans bearing Derry and Tyrone licence plates. Pax lamented Had we been preparing for a civil war we would have held them here. Not a gun remained with us.... While our future enemy was being armed to the teeth by the British, we were divesting ourselves of hard-needed weapons. Such a movement of arms was part of a larger strategy supported by Michael Collins, Frank Aiken and other Northern I.R.A. leaders. It was felt that a civil war in the south could be forestalled by mobilising the I.R.A. against the fledgling Northern Ireland State. Reportedly, a full-scale campaign in the North was planned for 19 May 1922. Accordingly, a series of attacks were carried out in mid and west Ulster. For reasons that remain unclear, Aiken's division centred in Armagh, Louth and Down, took no action. However, on the night of 17 June 1922, his division allegedly was involved in a reprisal killing in which six Protestants were killed in Altnaveigh. Dunkitt, Co. Kilkenny: Arms Seizure Under the terms of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, Black and Tans, R.I.C. and the British military were to evacuate all posts held by them. In late February, or the first days of March of 1922, word reached Dungarvan, likely from a friendly Tan, that a Waterford City convoy was proceeding to Gormanstown, County Meath for disbandment. A meeting was held in the Dungarvan Town Hall on St. Augustine Street and plans were 176 discussed to hold up the convoy just north of the River Suir in County Kilkenny. According to Moses Roche the men were given details of what was to be done and told that on no account were shots to be fired, as it was expected that the job could be carried out without incident, according to what the friendly Black and Tan told us. Besides the Truce was on and no shooting was the order of the day. Informed by Lennon that Liam Lynch, O/C First Southern Division, was willing to take by force "any arms they could get hold of." Training Officer Paul, perhaps typically, sounded a cautionary note regarding the difficulties surrounding such an undertaking. First of all it would be a breach of the Truce and, if the R.I.C. resisted and someone got killed or wounded, there was liable to be a very awkward situation created.... Another point was that, as the British military were still in occupation of Waterford City, the operation would have to be conducted well away from there. Although an “unofficial” undertaking, the possibility of seizing a large cache of weaponry was considered to be an opportunity "not to be missed." Transportation was a problem until Nipper McCarthy mentioned the existence of a van parked at the back of a Dungarvan hotel where the driver was staying. Upon seizure of the vehicle, Michael Cummins noted that George Lennon gathered, "about ten of us" and proceeded northeastward to the appointed place at Dunkitt where a barricade was erected, some two to three miles from Waterford on the main Waterford- Kilkenny road. The convoy from Waterford City stopped at the barricade and, encouraged by a Tan who yelled "stop boys, they are too many for us," they readily surrendered. In all likelihood, this was the same Tan who had reportedly tipped off the Volunteers. The Black and Tans and R.I.C. were then taken across Fiddown Bridge to Portlaw. Paul observed: As the Tans were inclined to be friendly at this stage… we were quite friendly with them... and they did not want any trouble either. We stood them several glasses of whiskey before we sent them off in the (commandeered) truck. According to Roche, at the previously seized Portlaw Barracks,"all the enemy cars were manned by our own drivers and driven up to Comeragh in the mountains where the captured stuff was carefully hidden." Seized was a Lancia armoured car, three "Crossley Tenders with cases of ammunition, rifles, machine guns, revolvers and grenades." The Treaty/Barracks Seized 177 In early January 1922 George met, at Vaughan’s Hotel, Dublin (29 Parnell Square West), Liam Lynch and Kerryman Charlie Daly (pp. 80, 186), the former O/C Wing No. 10 at Cork Male Prison where the two were incarcerated in April-May 1919. Along with a third man, noted simply as “Fitz,” they were present at the Mansion House when the Dail voted, 64 to 57 on 7 January, to accept the Treaty. In his memoir George remarked: “the four of us are silent and depressed;” a sentiment shared by most of the members of the Deise Column. In the first months of 1922 R.I.C. and British military installations throughout the country were being taken over by both the Free State Government under Mick Collins and the I.R.A. anti-Treatyites. In County Waterford, this responsibility fell to George Lennon as I.R.A. Liaison Officer. His assistant, Paddy Paul, had the responsibility of "the training of what we called maintenance parties, to be fit and capable of taking over the various installations, barracks and the like from the British...." Tans Leaving Dungarvan In early January of 1922, the first Waterford barracks to be taken over was at Portlaw. Moses Roche and a party of men from the 2nd battalion area accomplished this. Jim Prendergast, accompanied by an I.R.A. contingent, took over the Ballinacourty Coast Guard station. With respect to the Cappoquin Barracks, there was a particularly contentious relationship between the Dungarvan I.R.A. and the R.I.C./Tan garrison. As previously discussed in Chapter X, Dungarvan men were sent, in November 1920 and June 1921, to deal with the matter of a Tan whom the local Volunteers were seemingly reluctant to confront. Killed in November were Constables Rea and Quirk(e). Joseph Duddy, a Tan from Armagh stationed in Cappoquin, was killed at nearby Scartacrooks on 3 March 178 1921 Therefore, when Volunteers under Paddy Lynch and George Lennon took over the Cappoquin facility, they proceeded most warily for fear that the barracks may have been booby trapped in reprisal for the deaths of the three men. By early March, both the Black and Tans and British military were no longer in the Dungarvan area and the local barracks was occupied solely by the sixty-five men of the R.I.C. under the command of Great War veteran Captain Sheehan. On the 4th of March the policemen walked through the town to take the Waterford train. A few hours later, the men of the Deise Brigade, under Mick Mansfield, entered the Dungarvan Castle Barracks and, for the first time in history, flew the Irish tricolour over the ancient fortress. Mick Mansfield (left front)/I.R.A. at Dungarvan Barracks To the east of the Deise, in the city of Waterford, the Devonshire Regiment (the Devons) marched down to the quay and boarded a ship opposite Reginald's Tower. The significance of this historic event, per a Munster Express retrospective many years later, "was lost on the ordinary citizen. There were no crowds, no flag-waving - everything proceeded in a normal manner." The vehicles just seized at the nearby Dunkitt ambush were used to convey the I.R.A. into the city. Also possessed was a “Buick touring car” driven by the “young and small in 179 stature” Nipper McCarthy. George noted being seated “in the back of the car, with my driver and my batman in front. I must have looked like a twenty-one year old brass-hat and if at this tender age I had a mild case of swelled head who would blame me.” The Military Barracks was handed over on 9 March. Lennon was to note the historic significance of this act in that “after the elapse of 750 years it was our proud privilege to enter the city with native troops and take it back for the Irish nation.” With 82 men in “our maintenance party” he "became a kind of military governor, without the benefit of any civil advice or instruction." This was corroborated by Eoin Neeson (Civil War in Ireland) who took the position that when the I.R.A."took up the threads of military administration they completely overlooked those of civil administration and it was this, which led to their downfall. If they had wooed public support instead of flaunting it, the outcome of the war might have been affected.” Waterford Barracks: George Lennon (rear), Moses Roche, Jim “Pender” and Paddy Power How successful they would have being in wooing public support was problematic in light of the reality of the political situation in Waterford. Hostility towards the I.R.A. was reminiscent of the earlier animosity directed at Sinn Fein in the two elections of 1918 in which Willie Redmond, the Irish Parliamentary Party candidate, was elected. In May, former East Waterford O/C Paddy Paul was sent down from Dublin to take command of the Waterford area in the name of the Free State. Arriving alone, he was promptly arrested. In protest, he went on hunger strike and, after ten days of hunger 180 strike and three of thirst, was moved to the county infirmary for medical attention. Two supporters of the Treaty from Cumann na mBan, with the approval of Monsignor Kearney, Dean of Waterford, were provided with complete nun's outfits. Donning the habits they visited the infirmary and made their way to Paul's room. The door was locked and Paul exchanged clothing with one of the women. With the other "nun" as a companion he made his escape, reportedly blessing the guard at the door, to a waiting car, which took him to New Ross and, ultimately, the pro-Treaty stronghold of Kilkenny. The Murphys stated in their 2003 book that "the influence of the Redmondites was so strong that the I.R.A. had great difficulty in policing the streets.” Sonny Cullinan observed that “the locals hated us” and when the men went to play football in Walsh Park, “the old women would hiss and boo us.” No doubt included in this group were the “Ballybricken crowd” and family with ties to the British military, including recipients of military payments (“separation women”). Lennon reported a "number of trying incidents" for which guerrilla fighters are ill equipped to deal. For the I.R.A., attempting a police function, in the face of a non- receptive populace, was proving as futile, as had been the Irish Constabulary’s earlier un-popular attempts to act as a military surrogate for the British. Situations, as described by Lennon, also involved I.R.A. “Irregulars” themselves: Towards the end of our occupation...our own side... presented the manager of the Bank of Ireland with a demand that nearly gave the poor man a heart attack. On another (occasion) they stripped the ships in the port of their wireless sets...It was almost a relief when the pro-Treaty forces attacked us. In the words of the Murphys: Waterford City and East Waterford were held in name only by the I.R.A. But the Comeraghs and West Waterford were solidly behind them. The black clouds of division were gathering.... Mick Collins in Dungarvan While George was attending the 26 March 1922 Liam Lynch led Volunteers meeting at the Mansion House in Dublin, there arrived on that day in County Waterford the head of the Provisional Government, the “Big Fella,” Michael Collins. Eamon de Valera, dismissed by Collins as “the cute hoor” had addressed an earlier Dungarvan meeting and ominously predicted that the January Dail acceptance of the Anglo-Irish Treaty would produce bloody strife. 181 Mick Collins En route from Waterford, Collins encountered delays resulting from obstacles placed in the road. Arriving an hour late, he ate lunch at the Devonshire Arms. According to Edmond Keohan's account, there was anxiety in the community as to the opposition he would encounter. It was unknown as to what the reaction would be from Mick Mansfield’s men at Dungarvan Castle. A large lorry drove into the square to be used as a platform from which to address the crowd. Accompanying Collins on the platform were four journalists, a lady, Urban Council Chairman Michael Brennock, Fr. “Gleeson” (likely Gleason of Aglish), Fr. Flavin, Fr. J. Rea, from Abbeyside, and local historian Keohan. As Brennock began his introductory remarks, the lorry was commandeered by three young men and taken out Bridge Street towards Abbeyside. The vehicle was stopped when a gun was held to the head of the driver by one of Collins's bodyguards. The driver then jumped out and ran back to town. A shot was reportedly fired at him at which point tricolour flags, which decorated the lorry, were taken by members of the local I.R.A. Collins and his party then walked back to the square where he addressed the crowd from the balcony of the Devonshire Arms Hotel. 182 Collins found himself heckled from the crowd by anti-Treatyites. Not one to suffer fools gladly, he gave as good as he got. He questioned the hecklers as to where they were when the Tans initiated reprisals after the ambush at the Burgery. Fr. Rea asked the crowd how many of them were actually at that engagement. His position in apparent contrast to the earlier hostility of the Dungarvan parish priest whose remarks resulted in Ellen Shanahan Lennon walking out of Sunday Mass. Someone called out at the crowd "post Treaty Republicans!" The Collins departure for Waterford was later delayed when it was found that persons unknown had disabled his motorcar. Pax Whelan had known Mick Collins for many years and when they later met in Dublin, Whelan remarked that "he was as friendly as ever, although he knew I was on the other side." Referring to the Dungarvan incident, Collins commented to Pax: You have a right pack of blackguards in Dungarvan. They wanted to run me and my lorry over the quay. The “Unmentionable” Civil War The huge task of taking over the administration of the country was on the shoulders of Michael Collins as Chairman of the Irish Free State Provisional Government. A key question was control of the I.R.A. The I.R.A., at the insistence of Cathal Brugha, had taken the oath to the Republic and not to any government. After the affirmative 7 January Dail vote on the Treaty, a demand was made, on the 12th, for an army convention to discuss the Treaty and the allegiance of the I.R.A. The meeting was eventually held on 26 March 1922 at the Mansion House, Dublin. The meeting attended only by dissidents (Liam Mellows, Cathal Brugha Liam Lynch, Pax Whelan, George Lennon, Sean Moylan, etc), elected Lynch as the chief of staff of the anti-Treaty I.R.A. who were labeled in press accounts as "Irregulars." Ill at the time, George apparently did not appear for the iconic photo taken of the men on the steps of the Mansion House. Clashes with the army of the Free State, clad in new green uniforms, occurred as both groups attempted to take over facilities abandoned by the R.I.C., Tans and the British. Included in this army were men derisively categorised as “Post Truce Republicans.” The Irregulars refused to recognise the Dail. This, in effect, meant that the I.R.A. constituted an illegal army within the Irish Free State. In an action reminiscent of Easter Week 1916, Rory O'Connor, a leader of the anti-Treaty forces, led the 13 April 1922 occupation of the Four Courts and other Dublin buildings. Included in the Four Courts 183 garrison were many of those men most active in the struggle of 1919-1921, including Ernie O'Malley, Sean O'Hegarty, Tom Hales, Florrie O'Donoghue, Sean Moylan and Peadar O'Donnell. In the Dail election of 16 June, announced on the 24th, only 36 Sinn Fein Republican were elected out of 128 seats. Pro-Treaty candidates won 58. DeValera resigned and his Republican supporters, in the tradition of abstention, boycotted the Dail. Four Courts, Dublin The 22 June 1922 assassination by the I.R.A., in London, of Sir Henry Wilson, military advisor to the Six Counties government in the North, led to a British demand to end the Republican occupation of the buildings in Dublin. Not unlike the threat of "immediate and terrible war" during the Treaty negotiations, Winston Churchill threatened Collins unless the men were removed. An ultimatum was sent to O'Connor to surrender. Getting no response, Collins reluctantly ordered the morning attack of 28 June from across the Liffey. A measure of relative peace, which had begun to unravel in January with the vote to accept the Treaty, now came to an abrupt end with the bombardment and resulting destruction of historical materials in the adjacent Public Records Office (PRO). What George Lennon referred to as the "unmentionable” Irish Civil War had begun. Attack on Waterford City 184 At the onset of hostilities in Dublin, Liam Lynch met with his senior officers at the Clarence Hotel in Dublin. A proclamation was duly issued to stand fast in the defence of the Republic and to resist by force the Provisional Government's attack on the Four Courts. Sixteen members of the Army Executive including Commandant Pax Whelan signed it. After the meeting, immediate preparations were made by the members of the executive to return to their respective Brigade areas. On 11 July national army troops opened fire on Republicans holding the ordnance barracks in Limerick. In Waterford, citing an "authoritative source,” a pro Free State Dublin newspaper reported that the "rule of the gun" prevailed: Irregulars are in possession of the military and police barracks, drawn principally from Dungarvan, Clonmel and Carrick-on-Suir. Consequent upon frequent depredations the people have become completely hostile. Goods and provisions are being seized wholesale, motors commandeered and the hotels regularly called upon to provide meals for fifty or sixty men. No money is paid for anything – sometimes an IOU is given. The newspapers are burned at the railway station and the news supply is maintained by a civilian announcing Irregular successes and crushing defeats of national troops. Desertion is frequent and every precaution is taken to stop it. As assistant in command to Major General John T. Prout, Paddy Paul submitted plans to recapture his native city from which he had fled his Republican captors in May. The Free State Army was moved from Kilkenny southward to Kilmacow where some four hundred soldiers, according to Paul, "were all brought into a field and given absolution" in preparation for the assault on the city. By this time, in mid July, the principal military posts, except for the west and most of Munster, were in the hands of the pro-Treaty forces. Discussing the period, Eoin Neeson remarked that the Republicans were not equipped for a conventional war. Lack of heavy equipment hampered the anti-Treatyites and should have made them all the more reluctant to fight pitched battles along fixed lines, which was a type of fighting in which they had no training; moreover it lost them the initiative and forced them on the defensive. But they manned the "line" of the "Munster Republic" and waited. Neeson continued: In Waterford, just before it was attacked, hotels, boarding houses, and barracks were seized and occupied and stores commandeered. The approaches to the city were enfiladed, mined and blocked. City 185 transport, telecommunications and the ships in the harbour came under military control. Ballybricken jail, in the heart of the Redmondite district, was heavily defended…The northern approaches To the city were mined and barricaded and defence posts established In “strategic” positions while the defenders waited attack Redmond Bridge, Waterford Paul had hoped to move swiftly on the city and get across the River Suir before the cantilever bridge was raised. Failing in this endeavor, the army set up their forces atop Mt. Misery (Mercy) with an eighteen-pound gun of the same type that had attacked the Four Courts. Seized by the anti-Treaty forces were the G.P.O on the quays, the Infantry and Cavalry Barracks, the County Club, the Adelphi Hotel, Reginald's Tower, the Granville Hotel, the Munster Express newspaper offices and Ferrell's Corn Stores. A detachment of fifteen men, led by George Lennon and Jim Power took possession of the jail at Ballybricken, which commanded the quays and the Redmond Bridge. At 6:30 P.M. on the evening of Tuesday the 18th of July a small group of Free State soldiers were seen on the skyline of Mt. Misery. Machine gun fire was directed at them from the jail directed by former Royal Scots non-commissioned officer Power. A man described by Lennon as “most competent and quite indispensable” not wanting “to be too far from my right elbow.” George Lennon's unit being the source of the first shots of the battle for Waterford. Ironically this was the site of Lennon’s first incarceration as a seventeen year old (p.73) in early 1918. Firing continued until 10 P.M when darkness began to fall and halted the engagement. Former comrades in arms Lennon and Paul were apparently unaware that they were actually firing at each other. At daybreak on the 19th, sniping at pro - Treaty targets across the river re-commenced, 186 including bursts of fire from the jail. At 10:40 A.M. the first shells were fired into the city from atop Mt. Misery. The initial barrage lasted until after midday. Once the artillery barrage ceased, small arms fire intensified. The most dangerous position for the anti- Treatyites being the post office, which was the main target of the Staters from their position across the Suir. Tea time saw renewed artillery firing concentrating on the two military barracks. Once abandoned, the Infantry Barracks was looted by crowds of desperately poor civilians. By late evening the Cavalry Barracks was afire and a huge explosion, around midnight, ripped through the Infantry Barracks, injuring four looters, one fatally. By the morning of Thursday the 20th, pro-Treaty forces had taken the buildings on the east end of the quay without firing a shot and the abandoned military barracks were still ablaze. A great pall of smoke, visible for many miles, hung over the city. Anti-Treaty units still held the post office, some sniping positions along the quay. George Lennon's group held Ballybricken jail. To the dismay of the I.R.A. there was no sign of the planned supportive counter attack from Clonmel. Local priests afforded general absolution. Paul viewed the object of the army as being to break the guerrillas morale. Regarding the Irregulars: They had no experience of shellfire and the effects of high explosives on men who had never known them can be imagined. Once their morale was gone, our objective was nearly gained. Throughout the day pro-Treaty forces consolidated their gains and captured the post office with some of the occupiers escaping to the Granville for a brief respite before it fell to an assault. The result of the shelling of the post office is revealed in the photo. The morning of Friday the 21st saw the only remaining anti-Treaty positions at the Ballybricken jail, a few nearby houses and sniper posts near the quay. Shellfire from the eighteen pounder was accordingly directed at the jail redoubt. 187 Retreat from Waterford According to the Munster Express it was a striking tribute to the heroism of those engaged in the defence of the jail that notwithstanding that the building was struck at least five times on Wednesday with accurately directed shells, the garrison did not vacate their position until Friday afternoon when the holding of the post became an utter impossibility. The machine gunner in the jail was the first to open fire on Tuesday evening and kept up incessantly during the siege and was the last of the strongholds to cease-fire on Friday afternoon. Informed by Power that the Staters were getting closer, George noted that his men crossed the road outside ... peppered by rifle fire, but ...soon got to the comparative safety of Barrack Street. Some irresponsible person or persons had set fire to the fine barracks during our absence. John, the chef, was waiting outside the main gate weepily surveying the remains of our former home. He called out to us plaintively The galley is burned, the galley is burned. The men from the outposts had already arrived so we fell them in and marched away, almost casually, followed happily by the barrack dogs who were delighted to be with the company again. 188 Everybody felt disgusted. Obviously affected by the “accurately directed shells,” George observed years later (2 February 1944) in a letter to the Army Pensions Board: “Two days afterwards I had a complete nervous breakdown and was laid up for six months. I have had a series of nervous breakdowns ever since.” Lennon’s unit had barely departed from the jail when a large crowd of men, women and children rushed in and looted the building. Ironically, the civilian looting of the jail was sought to have done more material damage (5000 pounds) than the eleven shells from the eighteen pounder had caused during the entire battle. The anti-Treatyites retreated to new positions outside of the city. The Dunhill men returned to their own village while Lennon and his men marched to the Kilmeadan area. Others made their way to Butlerstown and various other locales. Former R.I.C. Barracks in Tramore, Dunmore East and Portlaw were set on fire and abandoned. Calton Younger, in his study of the Civil War, observed: It seemed that the Republican policy...was to get into the country so that they could employ the old familiar guerrilla tactics which had succeeded so well against the Tans.... There was among many Re- publicans a lack, not of conviction or courage, but of heart in the fight...They did not want to take life if they could avoid it, and neither did most of the Provisional Government troops. It was his contention that "flights of bullets hurtled through the air harmlessly as migrating birds. The air above Ireland criss-crossed with busy bullets with no particular object in view." With respect to the view that the low number of casualties incurred in the battle of Waterford was attributable to a reluctance of both sides to fight each other, military historian Terence O'Reilly concluded: It was doubtful that the combatants on either side would subscribe to such a view, particularly not the 18 pounder crew nor the garrisons of the jail or post office. The low casualty figure was far more likely due to thick walls and the artillery piece's armoured shield. In defence of the anti -Treaty occupiers of the city, Eoin Neeson's appraisal was that "the Cork and Tipperary men failed to effectively support the Waterford forces." On 24 July the "Republican Intelligence Officer" reported: 189 A Cork Column under P. Murray was delayed deliberately in Dungarvan, on their way to Waterford. When they reached the suburbs...they were not allowed to advance into the city, in spite of the fact that the fight was raging at the time.... All ...of the Waterford Bde. consider they have been let down by the O/C and as a result great unrest exists among them. Pax Whelan complained that the requested machine guns and ammunition had not arrived and that "the first Column from Cork came up as we were just evacuating, but they didn't want to fight.” The Cork Columns retreated westward when they observed the Waterford men evacuating the city. Reaching Mt. Congreve near Kilmeadan, the quartermaster found sufficient provisions "to feed eight men for three days, but no more." Lennon noted "the good" Doctor Walsh (p. 203) to be "something of a demoralising influence” as he kept pacing the floor, cursing the Civil War and whoever was responsible for it. As reports came in from runners with regard to "the front" they "were immediately chased out." Lennon noted a solace of sorts was afforded by the wine cellar's ample stock of "mostly vintage brandy and, in a session that lasted three days and three nights, we drank it out completely." One night of the stay I was shaken awake to consult with a pale, delicate looking man who said his name was Erskine Childers, in charge of publicity; he wanted an interesting account of "the siege" for a Republican paper he was printing in the field. Less than four months later, English born Childers, Republican propagandist, noted author and Howth gun runner with his wife Molly, was executed by the government for possession of a firearm, ironically given to him by Michael Collins. After leaving Mt. Congreve, the men, some fifteen in all, walked in the direction of Kilmacthomas. 190 Mt Congreve After discarding their “uniforms” on the way, they walked wearily through Kilmac and on up to Comeragh where the group took a well deserved rest. At Barnankile (Barnakill), Kilrossanty the men were surrounded by the Staters but managed to escape to Dungarvan where, according to Sonny Cullinan, they "could not stay as the Staters were on our tails." On or about 1 August 1922, the twenty two year old Lennon resigned as Vice O/C in a letter to Liam Deasy, O/C First Southern Division. He cited a “difference of opinion with H.Q. of First Southern Division.” Specifically, in his later (10 October 1935) interview with the Irish Pension Examiner, he maintained that “…it was a question of tactics. I wanted to confine the fighting to the towns.” As an experienced guerrilla leader he had come to the conclusion that his partisan force could not be successful "swimming in the sea" of a populace, which apparently had enough of violence and disruption. O/C Deasy appeared to be of like mind when, years later, he referenced the "taking (of) people as hostages because of the acts of their sons or brothers." The “difficulties in discriminating between an active person and a non-combatant" ran the risk "of deve- loping a war between families rather than armies.” Tellingly, Deasy noted that the 191 decrease in I.R.A. strength was not confined to the rank and file but also among senior officers in our best brigades. In the south of Ireland where I had an intimate and personal knowledge of those who were taking part in the anti- Treaty side there was no enthusiasm for this war. At most we could only say we were protesting in arms. The tragedy was that our protest did not end with the fall of the Four Courts. In a correspondence with Deasy, Pax Whelan requested that the Southern Division O/C come to the area as quickly as possible because of the "serious situation" in the brigade. Two most important officers have sent in their resignations and I cannot see my way to carry on. Bring capable man or two to take charge...Reasons for resignations: won't take part in civil war. Dated 1 August in a dispatch to Adjutant General, G.H.Q. Fermoy: ...Organisation in the Brigade is in a very poor state.... The Div. Engineer (M. Mansfield) is the only officer capable of filling the post of Brigade Vice Commdt.... None of the officers I met in Waterford would be capable of filling the post and I would suggest that Mansfield should be appointed to temporarily fill the post for at least a few weeks.... Legion of the Rear Guard In early August 1922, with the resignation of Lennon and others on active service, the I.R.A. garrison at the former R.I.C. Barracks in Dungarvan Castle consisted of the Deise Brigade augmented by Cork No. 1 Brigade men who had retreated from Waterford City. Relations between men from the two counties appear to have been less than cordial. Having little regard for the local populace, the Cork men were reportedly involved in looting and the seizure of goods. This eroded support for the I.R.A., turning some in favour of the Free State. Learning that their own area in Cork was being threatened they retreated westward. Mick Mansfield, accordingly, "cut their railway line and blew up the railway bridge when the Corkmen had crossed over to their own territory.” With the approach of the National Army, the I.R.A. made preparations to evacuate the Dungarvan Barracks. Rendering Dungarvan less accessible from the east was the destruction of the Ballyvoyle viaduct by Mick Mansfield. On the evening of 8 August, smoke and flames rose from the barracks and "the place was a mass of ruins by the morning." Also burned was the Coast Guard station at Ballinacourty. Commanded by Paddy Paul, troops of the Free State Army entered the town in mid August. The 192 Chairman and members of the U.D.C in an address of welcome extended to the “gallant” Paul “a hearty Cead Mile Failte...and we pray that the God of our destinies may protect you and those who serve you until Ireland enters upon freedom.” Dungarvan Barracks An August meeting of the anti-Treaty forces at Modeligo led to the formation of three Columns of around fifteen men each. Pax recalled: There was Jack O'Mara's Column around the Nire Valley, a very good crowd. There was Tom Keating's Column on the east side of the Comeraghs.... Finally, there was Paddy Curran's Column. On the 10th of October 1922 a joint pastoral letter from the bishops was read at all masses in the country, including St. Mary's, Dungarvan. The letter remarked that the struggle for total independence was “morally only a system of murder and assassination.” The I.R.A. was accused of being the ruination of the country. Excommunication was ordered for all who continued to fight. Popular support waned. The Mansfields Old Parish home was continually raided by government troops and when their father died, Mick found 193 it ...necessary for me to go to my home, heavily armed, with an armed escort of men of the column to see his remains. I wish to record the fact that my father's body would not be allowed into the Church by the Parish Priest, neither would mass be said for the repose of his soul, simply because he was my father. Pax Whelan was captured in early December and remanded to Dublin's Mountjoy Gaol where he noted: The atmosphere then was more somber one than in the early days of the Civil War. The Free Staters had been executing people since mid November. They intended winning the struggle. There was going to be no pussy footing. Although I must say we did not expect the reprisals they embarked upon. Sure Hitler must have learned something from them. The Staters in Waterford shot Patrick O’Reilly and Michael Fitzgerald of Youghal on 25 January 1923. They were allegedly charged with responsibility for a mine explosion that killed several boys during the War of Independence. John Walsh of Kilmacthomas, a member of the Keating Column, was captured and remanded to gaol in Kilkenny. He was beaten and shot for refusing to reveal his name. He died on 14 March 1923. Also on that date, Charlie Daly, George’s friend and fellow inmate at Cork Male Prison, who had accompanied George and Liam Lynch to the Dail’s acceptance of the Treaty at the Mansion House (7 January 1922), was executed by the Free State Government along with three others collectively known as the “Drumboe Martyrs.” On the tenth of April, accompanied by Jack O'Mara, I.R.A. Chief of Staff Liam Lynch was shot on the northern slope of the Knockmealdowns in South Tipperary. Before he died he expressed his wish to be buried at Kilcrumper alongside his friend from the Fermoy attack, Michael Fitzgerald of Cork. The next day Waterford Flying Column Leader Tom Keating (brother of Pat) was fatally shot. Mick Mansfield later recalled the circumstances: Although he was so seriously wounded, Keating was dragged around in a horse and dray all the day by the Free State soldiers without receiving any medical attention whatsoever. Later that same day the Free State military were congratulated by a priest in Cappoquin on getting one of the "irregulars." Poor Keating received no spiritual attention from the priest in question and he died that evening. Lena Keating, sister of Pat and Tom remembered what happened next: 194 The following evening the body of Thomas Keating was taken to the Parish Church in Dungarvan. A guard of honour was mounted by the newly formed civic guards who regarded him as a soldier. The priests in Dungarvan were very hostile to the I.R.A. who opposed the Treaty and would allow only one mass to be offered for Thomas in the Church. This decision by the priests was very hurtful to my parents and all of us in the family, feeling we did not deserve this type of treatment at a time of great sorrow. It was however, accepted by us as one more cross from the hands of God. The funeral took place the next day to (sic) Kilrossanty with burial in the Republican Plot. The Keatings ordeal was not over: Shortly after Thomas's death, it was our turn to hold the Station in the house in Comeragh; but, when the stations were announced, the Priest said, "the Station for Comeragh will be held in the Church". Marcella (sister) told the Parish Priest that it was our turn to hold the Station and he informed her that he could not hold the Station in a house used for harbouring rebels. We were very disappointed at this decision especially my parents who expected a little more sympathy and consideration after the ordeals they had been through. Not unlike the reaction of George’s mother to priestly excoriation (pp. 62-63), Lena’s mother continued steadfast in her faith and still sent the breakfast to the Priest, as was the custom where people were unable, through age or illness, to hold the Stations in their homes. She said she would do her duty even though she was deeply hurt by this decision. Seeking to deplete the ranks of the insurgents, the government offered incentives. Mike Shalloe was reportedly offered a high position in the Free State Army and Paddy Cashin, who had been a national teacher, was offered his school back plus one hundred pounds. Mick Mansfield said he "was promised the post held by Major General Prout of the Free State Army in Kilkenny.” Morale, Pax observed: Was good up to the end, but the trouble was that the people were afraid or had been turned against them. They had no clothes, they had nothing; they were outcasts. The Columns, nonetheless, slogged on with engagements against government forces at Twomilebridge, Grange, Villierstown, Halfway House, Ballmacarberry Mullinahoorka and elsewhere. Their numbers, however, were reduced "from wounds received in action and from the hardships of tough fighting in the winter." For Shalloe: 195 We kept going as best we could until the order to cease fire.... We dumped our arms, as instructed, but were still harried here and there by Free State troops who were determined to capture us at all costs. About six of us kept together, being repeatedly fired on (although we were unarmed) by the 'Staters until, at last we decided that there was nothing for us but quit our native land. From Helvick, Mick Shalloe wrote, "about five of us put to sea in a small boat not much caring where we were going or what was to happen." Near Dungarvan they were picked up by the 140 foot Lady Belle which conveyed them to England. Making their way to Liverpool, passage was secured on the Cunarder Antonia, which left for Quebec on 10 November 1923. Listed on the ship's manifest were Michael McCarthy (Youghal), Michael Mansfield (Ballymacart), Patrick Smith (Abbeyside), Richard Mooney (Old Parish), John Boyle (Dungarvan) and James Mansfield (Ballymacart). James Fraher also noted leaving for England "in company with other men of the Waterford Brigade." Shalloe, Mansfield, Cashin, Mooney and Boyle secured jobs in the winter of 1924 as loggers in the unaccustomed biting cold of Quebec. Related by Mick’s son Tony is perhaps an apocryphal tale of the emigrated men resorting to earlier Civil War patterns when, seeking operational military funds, they had robbed financial institutions. A successful Quebec bank robbery reportedly occurred and, having buried the bulk of the loot in a nearby field, the men went off to a local pub to celebrate with a portion of their haul. Unfortunately, a snow storm intervened and they were subsequently unable to locate their cache. The men ultimately entered the U.S.A. illegally where they met up with in the New York City area among others, George Lennon, James Butler, Augustine ("Kelly") Donovan, John Whelan and John Stack. Having served in the U.S. Army, Jack O'Mara was able to enter the States legally. In the Free State, Pax Whelan was released from goal “about April 1924.” His disillusionment and treatment were not dissimilar from that of his Vice O/C’s experience upon entering Waterford City some two years earlier. Life was a struggle when I came home. You were trying to get A job to pay a load of old debts, to get going again. Everybody was boycotting you. At least the people who could give you- and I am a plumber as you know- were boycotting you. Many of the lads who had done the fighting were getting out. They were frozen out, were being forced to go. It was suggested to me by a clergyman that I should emigrate. No, I said, I will stay here and see this thing out.... The few people I could get work from here were the Protestants; they did not mind my politics. A fitting epilogue was penned by Liam Deasy (O/C First Southern Division): 196 It had become clearly evident to me that we were not prepared for this war... we were driven underground and the most distressing feature of all was the ever-increasing knowledge that we had lost the support of the people...the real backbone of the struggle… I could not help feeling that for the most part we were being tolerated because of who we were…because of our success in earlier times. CHAPTER XIV EMIGRATION (1926-1936) The years after George Lennon's abandonment of the Republican struggle in the Deise 197 reveal something of his character and how he was shaped by the revolutionary period from his days as a young member of Na Fianna Eireann to the events of 1916-1922. Having left school Easter Week 1916, one month shy of his sixteenth birthday, to devote himself to the independence movement, he lacked the educational background to pursue a profession. The closing of the gas works precluded a career as a third generation participant in that enterprise. Assuming the circa 1922-1923 emigration of older brother James, George, with year younger sister Eileen, would have borne responsibility for the two dependent younger siblings (John, born 1908 and Sarah Frances, born 1910). After the siege of Waterford, suffering from “neurasthenia” or what is today referenced as PTSD, he sought care under Dr.White of Cappoquin in the seaside town of Ardmore where he remained for two months from August to October 1922. Seeking “a complete change” he “went over to England and remained there about three months” (October – December 1922), presumably with brother James. Returning to Ireland he stayed a week with Dr. White. Sufficiently recovered by February 1923 he got a “temporary job” with the Waterford County Council, likely with the help of Republican friend Tommy Boyle. The following winter of 1923-24 saw him under the care of Dr. Moloney, who, four years earlier after the Fermoy ambush, had tended the injured Liam Lynch. Somewhat atypically, in light of his unassertive nature, he etched at this time, “G. Lennon” into the “Tea Flag” cliff just up from the Ardmore Round Tower. Chiseled below his name was “R Keating,” the brother of Anastasia Keating (Mooney) and uncle to local historian Tommy Mooney. In the summer of 1923 he wrote a short poem, immediately prior to her westward emigration, in Anastasia’s “memory book.” The sentiments he expressed might be viewed as the beginnings of an evolution away from physical force Republicanism towards pacifism which he eventually embraced in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Be kind to little animals Wherever they may be And give the stranded jelly fish A push into the sea 198 Tea Flag Inscription Anastasia Keating Mooney’s “memory book” 199 7 November 1924 saw the death of the widowed Ellen Shanahan Lennon of liver cancer at Richmond Hospital, Dublin. Transported to Dungarvan she was buried alongside her husband at their parish church. The following November of 1925, listing the family’s #3 Western Terrace address, he noted in his initial disablement application that he was “unable to get continuous employment” resulting in being “only able to earn a precarious livelihood.” However “living out doors as much as I could,” his “health seemed to improve …up to 1927.” With George’s “private resources…now exhausted,” remaining monies may have included some of their father’s belatedly probated estate from 1924 of seven thousand pounds (credibly divided amongst the five offspring) as well as the 100 pounds obtained in 1926 from the sale of the family’s interest in the town park. George's younger siblings preceded him in emigrating westward. Sisters Eileen (“domestic”), Sarah Frances (domestic”) with brother John Michael (“mechanic/fitter”) left from Cobh on the Cunard Liner Samaria, arriving in New York City on May 10, 1926. Their destination was listed as Newark, New Jersey. The ship's manifest noted George Lennon of the “Gas House, Dungarvan” (surprisingly not the family home on Western Terrace) as the nearest living relative. Cunard Liner Ascania The newly built 14000 ton Cunarder Ascania with a top speed of 15 knots departed Southampton on 20 January 1927 bound for Cobh, Irish Free State. Boarding with American visa #5611 was George Lennon, a 26 year old “accountant.” Listed was an arrival date of 1 February 1927. In that processing at Ellis Island had basically ceased in 1924, the Ascania proceeded directly to the Hudson River docking facilities. A millennium after their family’s presence was identified in Gaelic Ulster, the 200 Dungarvan Lennons joined their Shanahan uncles in the New York-New Jersey area. New York City Upon his arrival, on 1 February 1927, George joined his brother and two sisters at 78 North 15 Street in East Orange, New Jersey for the years 1927 to 1928. He secured employment at the Prudential Insurance Company in Newark, commencing 14 February. Leaving Prudential on 15 December 1928, he took a position as “night auditor” at Man- hattan’s Pennsylvania Hotel beginning 4 January 1929. How did I exist through those seven Depression years? Being fairly capable and having a genius for survival I clung to the job. Twelve hours a day, sometimes seven days a week. I was being ground in the white satanic mills of America. In the rare moments of blessed relief from office slavery I lay in Central Park, read Marx and became an ardent communist. In New York he joined the American League Against War and Fascism, which reputedly was a Soviet Comintern affiliated organisation formed in 1933 by the CPUSA and pacifists united by their concern as Fascism spread in Europe. As expressed in the ALAWF manifesto of 1933: The Four Power Pact is already exposed as nothing but a new maneuver as position in the coming war between the imperialist rivals, and an attempt to establish a united imperialist front against the Soviet Union. For the ALAWF, Japanese militarism and European Fascism “greatly increased the danger of a war of intervention against the Soviets”. For them, Fascism sets the people of one country against the people of another, and exploits the internal racial and national groups within each country in order to prevent them from uniting in joint action to solve their common problems. Discouraged by the Hitler - Stalin Pact of 1939, the League dissolved with communist elements then becoming influential in the establishment of the American Peace Mobilization (APM) organisation. During the winter of 1931 –1932, George was in contact with Cheekpoint gunrunner Charles “Nomad” McGuinness who was in Leningrad serving, in his words, as “Inspector of the Port of Leningrad.” McGuinness was “thoroughly enthused with the Socialist 201 system of Russia” and echoed Lennon’s anti-clericalism noting that the “people have got wise to the tyrannical racket” and that freedom for the “Irish slave” does not lie “in the hands of a bourgeois republic with the Roman gent pulling the strings.” He noted an earlier visit to George in New York City where he had apparently met brother John and sisters Eileen and Frances. He mentioned the possibility of a visit to the U.S.S.R by John and extended to George “a hearty welcome and a flop” should he “come over this way this year or next year.” The United States Census taken in April of 1930 listed the four Lennon siblings living in Manhattan at apartment number 324 at 410 West 75 th St. George’s occupation was noted as hotel cashier; John, a clerk at a “gas store;” Sarah Frances, a waitress. No employment was listed for Eileen who was shortly to marry George H. Sherwood. A later residence, prior to 1936, was listed ast 518 Will Street, New York City. Whether or not his brother and sister(s) resided with him at this locale is unknown. George Gerard Lennon obtained his American citizenship on April 22, 1934 in U.S District Court, New York. In that his birth certificate made no mention of the middle name Gerard it was likely appended at his Christening. The passport listed a Manhattan address of 14 West 74th Street. The Irish Review With brother in law George H. Sherwood, George became involved with a very short- lived "magazine of Irish expression" by the name of The Irish Review. Unfortunately, only three issues were published in April, May and July of that Depression year 1934. The April and May issues retained in the author’s possession were forwarded, in December 2016, to Fordham University where magazine founder Joseph Campbell had established, in 1928, a school of Irish Studies. Like the short lived school, the magazine was ahead of its time. It was not until 1985 that the periodical Irish-America sought to re-establish an Irish ethnic identity through the same medium in the United States. Sherwood was managing editor and Lennon was business manager. Campbell (1879- 1944) was referred to, in Whittle's book on Waterford (The Gentle County), as "the gentle Northern poet" (“My Lagan Love”). Like George, he had been involved for Sinn Fein, in the Waterford general election of 1918. Campbell may have consulted on the matter of issuing a literary magazine with Ernie O'Malley on the occasion of O'Malley's 1933 visit. Author Richard English (Ernie O'Malley: IRA Intellectual) wrote that both men shared many similar tastes and influences in their reading, were both committed Republicans…were both obsessed by Ireland during their American exile, and also shared similar hobbies.... O' Malley tended to be direct and to say what he thought of people regardless of their sensitivities. English observed that 202 O'Malley's demanding attitude led him to dismiss Campbell for being insufficiently lean and hungry: "I went to see Joe Campbell once. It was a shock. Fat, gross, and cushioned, living I thought on an Irish background; sentimental in retrospective and untrue to what might have been himself.... Campbell described himself as "Ulster born ...though of unplanted (i.e., native) stock..." In the spirit of Wolfe Tone and the United Irishmen, he stated, in the magazine's first issue: The Irish Review knows no party lines... Party spirit has been the bane of our race from the dawn of history... to make the Orangeman of Ulster see the point of view of the Republican of Munster, and vice versa...Why not make an approach towards friendship and lay plans for the eventual bridging of the Boyne?... Ireland divided is Ireland on the ground. Of interest is the genesis of the name of the publication, which involved the brother of George Plunkett (commanding G.H.Q. officer at the March 1921 Burgery ambush). Slain martyr, poet and signer of the 1916 Proclamation, Joseph Mary Plunkett, was editor of an earlier Irish Review, published in Ireland. The board of advisory editors of the American magazine included such note worthies as Padraig Colum, Daniel Corkery of University College, Cork, L.S. Gogan of the National Museum, Dublin, T.B. Rutmose-Brown of Trinity College and painter Power-O'Malley. Included in the April and June issues were articles by future Taoiseach Sean Lemass, a Corkery short story, "John" Keating's iconic portrayal of the Lennon established North Cork Flying Column ("Men of the South") and portraits ("Five Types From The Gaeltacht") by Michael Augustine Power-O'Malley (1877 - 1946). In addition to Lennon, the magazine's content evidenced a connection to the Deise in that painter Keating's wife, May, was the sister of Deise Flying Column Doctor Joe Walsh of Bunmahon and Power-O'Malley was born Michael Augustine Power in Dungarvan. Peter Murray, Curator of the Crawford Municipal Gallery in Cork, on the occasion of an O'Malley exhibit in 2002-2003 at Iona College, New Rochelle, New York, observed: In many ways Power O'Malley is one of the forgotten artists of Ireland in the twentieth century...The capacity of Ireland to so easily forget those who have emigrated is perhaps unsurprising in a country that saw millions emigrate to the United States in the nineteenth century, only to witness a similar, if less desperate, mass exodus in the twentieth. 203 To some, paintings of O'Malley are evocative of Paul Henry, Charles Lamb and even Monet ( e.g., River Liffey, Dublin). Murray further commented: Having...sustained an image of Irish life and landscape essentially based on nineteenth century European Academic Realist principles, Power O'Malley failed to appreciate that this style of painting, while finding a ready and appreciative audience amongst the general public and amongst Irish-Americans, was considered outdated amongst art connoisseurs of New York. The Gooseherd by Power O'Malley Likely indicative of tight economic times, the second edition (May) of the magazine contained an article by managing editor Sherwood (“The Irish Wolfhound”) and another entitled "An Irish Volunteer Army" by "George Crolly." In light of the unassuming nature of George, the subject matter, and the family connection with that name, "George Crolly" was clearly George Lennon writing under a nom de plume. Upon returning to Ireland he later penned a similar article, under his own name, in Ireland To-Day (January, 1938) entitled "National Defence.” The pen name drawn from his Ulster forebearers: the Anglo Norman Baron of Ulster, the noted poet (b.1780) and the Reverend writer (b.1813) at Maynooth. Also bearing the name was George’s father, George Crolly Lennon, the son of Mary Anne Crolly Lennon. 204 Military Service Pension Preceded by the other West Waterford men, George found a community of Irish expatriate anti-Treatyites on the Upper West Side of New York. From his address of 14 West 74 th Street, the "West Waterford Old I.R.A. Men's Association" laboured to secure military pension benefits under the Military Service Pensions Act of 1934. Prior Free State Army Pensions Acts of 1923, 1927 and 1932 had not made provision for the I.R.A. "Irregulars” due to their anti-Treaty stance. Listed on the letterhead of the organisation were James Fraher, President Patrick Cashin, Vice Pres. George Lennon, Secretary John Whelan, Treasurer Committee members were: James Butler Augustine (Kelly) Donovan Richard Mooney John Stack It was necessary for each potential applicant to complete an "Application To The Minister For Defence For A Service Certificate." This was a lengthy 16 page document which broke the revolutionary period down to ten periods: Week commencing 23 April 1916 1 April, 1916 to 22 April /30 April 1916 to 31 March 1917 1 April 1917 to 31 March 1918 1 April 1918 to 31 March 1919 1 April 1919 to 31 March 1920 1 April 1920 to 31 March 1921 1 April 1921 to 11 July 1921 (Truce) 12 July 1921 to 30 June 1922 1 July 1922 to 31 March 1923 (Civil War) 1 April 1923 to 30 September 1923 The Free State Civil Service did not view the issuance of pensions lightly. Onus rested on the applicant who went before a three-member board of assessors, one of whom was a practicing barrister or serving judge. These original pension documents provide a detailed listing of the revolutionary activities of men of the Old I.R.A. For each period, the applicant was required to provide "Particulars of any military operations or engagements or services rendered." Also required was a listing of "references who can testify as to your statements." 205 In addition to West Waterford O/C Pax Whelan, Lennon listed many of the most active and notable Oglaigh na hEireann: Sean Finn (O/C West Limerick Brigade), Donnchadh O’Hannigan (O/C East Limerick Flying Column), Taghd Crowley (East Limerick Column), Cork's Liam Lynch (eventual I.R.A. Chief of Staff) and Liam Deasy (O/C First Southern Division). Other rebel associates, noted elsewhere by George and East Waterford O/C Paddy Paul, were Mick Collins, Sean Wall, Ernie O’Malley and George Plunkett of Dublin G.H.Q., “Sean Forde” (Tomas Malone of East Limerick), Seumus Robinson of Mid Tipp, Kerry’s Charlie Daly and, from Cork, Tom Barry, Michael Fitzgerald, George Power and Sean Moylan. Listed on his application (received and stamped by the government on 10 January 1935) was a crossed out American address of 14 West 74th Street replaced by a Dungarvan address of 11 Mitchell Terrace, the family home of brother in law Paddy Duggan married to George’s youngest sister, Sarah Frances. Apparently still suffering from PTSD and the after effects (T.B. or “consumption”) of his two incarcerations in Waterford and Cork and of years of being on the run, George, in a letter dated September 13, 1935 to the Secretary, Pensions Advisory Board, wrote that he was about to take "advantage of a sick leave to go to Ireland... to have an opportunity to go before the Board on a hearing on my own claim and also to testify on the claims of all the active Waterford Brigade men who were compelled to emigrate...." He duly arrived in Liverpool on the 29th of September 1935 and remained in England for two weeks. At this time he may very well have again made contact with older brother, James. In early October he was admitted to Saorstat Eireann (Irish Free State). He was successful in his 10 October 1935 appearance before the pension examiner and returned to the United States, as listed in his passport, January 14, 1936. Accordingly, per the award certificate dated 10 December 1935 with the Dungarvan address, he was granted, "in accordance with the terms of the Military Service Pensions Act, 1934,” a pension of ninety three pounds, six shillings and eight pence per annum. This is the equivalent of some $10,000 in 2016. Perhaps indicative of an intention to move back to Ireland was the 11 Mitchell Terrace address. Credit for pension purposes was extended, in full, for seven of the ten periods of time. The exceptions being the first period (Easter Week 1916) and the last period involving the Civil War (1 April 1923 to September 1923). For the period 1 July 1922 to 31 March 1923 credit was extended for "1/9 of the entire period" in that he had tendered his resignation on 1 August 1922 to O/C Liam Deasy. (Additionally on 8 August 1944, under a separate application process, a wound pension (pp. 216-217) was to be permanently awarded). Medals Lack of pension credit for Easter Week, 1916, when George and Pax had stopped a train 206 outside Dungarvan in a futile search for arms (pp. 71-72) was to have repercussions: As the Referee, who examined such applications, did not award ... any service for pension purposes during that particular period he did not qualify for the award of the 1916 Medal. Such was the 12 March 1984 response of the Irish Department of Defence when this writer made an enquery as to the reason for the denial of the coveted Easter Week 1916 Medal, which had been awarded to either 2411 or 2477 recipients. A similar denial was the result of an application of 14 August 1941 by Brigade Commandant Whelan. On the occasion of the twenty fifth anniversary of the Easter Rising, the government announced, in addition to the awarding of the 1916 Medal, the creation of the Irish War of Independence Service Medal (“Black and Tan”). Pensioners with actual armed service, like George Lennon, were issued this medal with the prestigious “Comrac” (combat) bar. Recipients totaled some 15,000 plus. Unfortunately, circa 1944, the author threw this original medal from his pram into Rathfarnham’s Owendoher River. A replacement was secured in 1984. The Truce Commemorative Medal was issued in 1971. In 2013 the smaller 1959 Na Fianna Eireann medal was obtained. 207 Black and Tan Medal /Truce Commemorative Medal /Na Fianna Eireann Medal CHAPTER XV RETURN OF THE NATIVE (1936 -1946) Church Controversy 208 Less than seven months after his return to the States on January 14, 1936, George decided, in part due to his physical and mental condition, to come home again “to live in the country” near the Dublin Mountains in Rathfarnham. Likely playing a role was the modicum of financial independence provided by the just acquired Military Service Pension. He accordingly resigned from his position at the Pennsylvania Hotel effective 3 July 1936. With a Cobh entry dated 4 August 1936, the stamp of the Irish Immigration Officer stipulated that he not remain in Ireland beyond 4 November 1936 and that he “not enter any employment, paid or unpaid, while in Saorstat Eireann.” George’s views of the Church may be viewed as a logical outgrowth of his experiences during the 1916--1922 period. There were, he observed, many supportive priests “in every parish we moved into.” These included Father Gleason of Aglish, Father Sheehy of Kilrossanty and, most notably, Father Tom Power of Kilgobnet who “fed us, gave us cigarettes, played the Victrola...and held himself in readiness to perform the last offices for the dying.” That said, “he considered his religious functions ended right there. He was a holy little man....” While on the run, seeking shelter and food from a supportive populace, the rebels were more than willing participants in saying the Rosary. Before a planned engagement it was not uncommon for the Rite of Absolution to be performed. Educated in Roman Catholic schools, the Volunteers took seriously the teachings of Mother Church and were loath to participate in any action that might endanger their immortal souls. However, there was a Church hierarchy and many parish priests not in sympathy with the struggle. On 12 December 1920 Bishop Cohalan of Cork denied the sacraments to those men of the I.R.A. who persisted in their attacks on the British presence in Cork. Cohalan’s edict had probably emboldened the parish priest in neighbouring County Waterford to attack from the pulpit, George Lennon and the men of the Deise I.R.A. To occur later, on 10 October 1922 during the Civil War, was a countrywide denial of sacraments to I.R.A Republican insurgents. Earlier, prior to the onset of hostilities in June, Waterford’s Monsignor Kearney had facilitated the escape of Free State officer Paddy Paul who had been arrested by the anti-Treaty forces (pp. 173-174). As discussed in Chapter XIII (“Legion of the Rearguard”), the anti- Republican stance of some in the Church was reflected in the treatment accorded the remains of Tom Keating (d.1923) and the father of Mick Mansfield. In the words of Pat and Tom Keating’s sister, Lena Keating Walsh, the priests in Dungarvan and Cappoquin “were very hostile to the I.R.A.” In light of such experiences, some members of the I.R.A. became violently anti-clerical; yet, for the most part, spiritual consolation remained profoundly important to them. It was felt that one could remain a good Catholic while contravening specific political teachings of the Church. Most thought the whole greater than the part and that a Church 209 should be judged by its spirit rather than its ministers. Reflecting this conciliatory attitude was the reaction of the mother of the protagonist John Davern in Una Troy Walsh’s novel, Dead Star’s Light, who, in the face of priestly condemnation of her son, commented: “if every priest that ever was a rogue incarnate – and the Pope himself the biggest rogue unhung – it wouldn’t affect my religion”. In her estimation “it’s a religion that’s grand enough even to get over the priesthood it has….” Born in Fermoy, Co Cork writer Una Troy was to become embroiled in controversy with her Parish Church in County Tipperary. In 1931 she married Joe Walsh of Clonmel who had served the men of the Deise Flying Column as medical doctor. Six years later, in 1937, the new Irish Free State Constitution recognised the special position of the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Roman Church as the guardian of the faith as professed by the majority of citizens. Choosing to write under the nom de plume of Elizabeth Connor, she began her writing career at age 26 when she published her first novel, Mount Prospect which was banned in Ireland. Two years later, in 1938, she published Dead Star's Light. While not banned it was to elicit censure from the local parish priest. The book was later adapted as the Dark Road (1947) for the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. Its preliminary title, later discarded, was Tyger,Tyger from the William Blake poem. The dark road title arguably from the Irish “an botharin dorcha;” perhaps in reference to the locale of the Sgt. Hickey execution on Beresford land above Dungarvan. The stage adaptation was ironically presented in 1947, the year of the adoption of the new Irish Constitution. Not surprisingly, the play, per author Terence O’Reilly, was noteworthy for “the almost complete absence of any criticism of the Catholic Church.” Being married to Dr Walsh, Una was well aware of other idealistic Republicans such as 210 Cork’s Liam Lynch and West Waterford’s Mick Mansfield and George Lennon. The latter’s character was used as the template for the revolutionary idealist John Davern in Dead Star's Light. The fictional town of "Kilvane" (Church of the vain?) is not unlike Dungarvan and nearby "Fordstown," in the estimation of military historian Terry O'Reilly, likely refers to Waterford in that The account of the Civil War battle is almost a perfect retelling of the Waterford battle (Davern commanding the garrison in the city's jail) and the description of the retreat afterwards to an occupied stately home, only to be annoyed by the “Cumann na Monsters" is almost identical to the account in Trauma in Time. At the National Library of Ireland are to be found the "Una Troy Papers" collected by Ann Butler. They provide a fascinating insight into the control the Catholic Church sought to exercise over its congregants. A letter to Una Troy Walsh, dated 18 March 1938, from the pastor of Saints Peter and Paul's, Clonmel, stated in regard to Dead Star's Light: I am truly appalled and grieved by the anti- religious and anti- clerical spirit which the...book reveals. I was utterly unprepared to find that such views as, for instance, are set forth on p. 244 and following would be propounded as the views of the hero and heroine of the book.... Specifically, this page included the following observation: Our patriotism...our religion...The shadows of our two illusions... We are so completely cynical in our acceptance of both. Patriotism - our new Irish synonym for jobbery; our Church - the best run and most powerful business institution in the country.... The Davern character remarks on page 245 of the book: I had a dream...I saw a country of beauty and courage...and I saw a people wandering in the darkness of the two shadows...blinded by a wrong conception of national pride ...blinded by superstition and ignorance...Ireland must take her place in the sun... I must fight… I must change it. Although he did not see fit to comment on the matter, the Clonmel priest, assuming he had read the book in its entirety, certainly must have encountered, the offending book's description of when Davern’s mother (Nellie Lennon) defended her son (pp. 62-63): Himself called your name off the altar... He preached a whole sermon on you - and he warned the people against you ...I wasn't going to stand for that! Not from him I wasn't! So when he was 211 worked up to the hottest pitch - prancing and fuming about like an old billy- goat there before God's altar, may God forgive him! - I just up and out of the chapel with me! No doubt alluding to Walsh's immortal soul, the pastor went on to plead in his letter that the author "consider the terrible course on which you have entered and the most serious responsibilities in which you are involving yourself.” Not desirous of harbouring individuals of such political and religious leanings, the priest effectively removed, by refusing to accept their dues, the Walsh family from the roles of Saints Peter and Paul's. Later, daughter Janet Walsh Helleris mentioned to researcher Ann Butler that, when she came of First Communion age, her parents took her to Dublin for a private ceremony. Ann also noted that "Janet did not participate in the Church...and she is buried with her husband in the grounds of the Church of Ireland, Rossmire." Una’s husband Joe, according to George Lennon, rejected entreaties "to come back to the Church." Joe replied, to a dying Old I.R.A. veteran’s (perhaps Ned Power) request to do so, that he "would have to think twice about that...." Ironically, his last wish "was to be buried with the lads…”at Kilrossanty. With Joe’s grave in consecrated grounds abutting the Republican monument, George observed: "one of the consoling things about Ireland is that everybody apparently goes to heaven, including atheists.” Joe Walsh by Sean Keating In historical context this was the time of the Spanish Civil War when General Franco sought the overthrow of the legitimate government of the Republic. The Roman Catholic hierarchy’s support of the rebel Franco was in complete contrast to the earlier position of the Irish Bishops when, in their joint pastoral letter of 10 October 1922, they had attacked I.R.A. rebels who persisted in the struggle against the Free State Government. 212 The Clonmel priest replied to a letter from Una Troy Walsh in which she had criticised, the silence of the Roman Catholic Church with respect to Fascist atrocities in Spain, including, most notably, the Luftwaffe bombing of the civilian population of Guernica: ...I suggest you have come under the influence of the "Red” propaganda so largely spread in England and nearer home. Are you aware this "Red" account is simply...complete falsification by numbers of those who have given the matter thorough investigation? George Lennon was also concerned with Spain. Some two weeks after landing at Cobh, his letter to the Irish Times (18 August 1936) noted, apropos of the Spanish Civil War, that it was “… in reality a Fascist revolt against a lawfully elected democratic government.” Fascists were “composed of the landlords, the nobles, the militarists….” He maintained that the Catholic Church had suffered because its ministers in Spain, as in other countries, have thrown in their lot with the powerful, the monied, the privileged, and turned a deaf ear to the just demands of the toiling masses. The real danger to Christianity does not come from the workers, but from the un-Christ like practices of its ministers in allying with the powerful against the poor. Perhaps “blinded by the light of a dead star” (i.e., the failed potentialities of a post revolutionary Ireland), he sounded not unlike the fictional John Davern when he continued: If the churches and particularly the Catholic Church, wish to retain the respect and support of the world they will have to respect the fundamental truth that you cannot serve God and Mammon. Comments of this nature did not make it easier for George, as a “pre-mature anti- Fascist,” to secure employment in a Free State where the “special position” of “the one true Church” was to be shortly recognised in the 1937 Constitution. Years later, adding credence to the charge that Ireland did indeed have "Rome Rule," was the 1950-1951 controversy over Dr. Noel Browne's "Mother and Child Scheme" under which all mothers and children, up to the age of sixteen, would be eligible for free health care. The Catholic hierarchy, led by John Charles McQuaid, Archbishop of Dublin, regarded the proposal as communist in nature and an invasion of "family rights." Most feared was what might flow from such family planning (e.g., contraception and abortion). George’s opposition to this Church position was evidenced when he dedicated his memoir to Dr. Browne. The post World War II period saw Walsh writing under her maiden name of Una Troy. All fifteen novels were published in London and America. Her 1955 novel We Are 213 Seven was adapted as a film entitled She Didn't Say No for which she was the co-writer. The film was England's official entry in the Brussels World Film Festival in 1958. No effort was made to show the film in the Irish Republic as the studio assumed it to be a given that it would have been banned by the Irish censors as being immoral in its portrayal of illegitimacy. Una Troy Walsh died in 1993 survived by her daughter Janet Helleris of Bunmahon, County Waterford. Like family friend George Lennon, Fordham School of Irish Studies founder and poet Joseph Campbell, adventurer “Nomad” McGuinness and painter Michael Augustine Power-O’Malley, she remains largely forgotten in her native land. Pre–War Rathfarnham In September of 1936, one month after his return, a Dublin newspaper noted George’s position, representing County Waterford, on the executive of the "All Ireland Old I.R.A. Men's Association,” later becoming the association’s secretary. Officers were President Liam Deasy, and Vice Presidents, Roger McCorley (Ulster), Thomas Crofts (Munster), Frank Thornton (Leinster) and Mathew Davis (Connacht). The organisation, in the late 1940’s, was renamed the 1916-1921 Club. At the association's conference that month a demand was made "that no public representative attend the Coronation of Edward VIII of England, in London next year.” Further: It was agreed that in moving towards the establishment of the Republic proclaimed in 1916 the full weight of the old I.R.A. would be thrown into the field to prevent any further growth of imperialism. A resolution deplored "the extent to which alien interests have been permitted to secure control of our industries" and called upon the government to take steps "to prevent further foreign penetration, and to bring all existing industries under complete national control within ten years." Of more immediate and practical concern, an I.R.A. deputation was to be sent to President de Valera regarding alleviating distress among old I.R.A. men, providing free hospital and sanatoria treatmentcare..and giving preference in the various spheres of employment for men with national records With respect to the duration of George’s stay beyond the original deadline of 4 November 1936, extensions were made by the Irish Government (dated 11 November 1936) to 30 April 1937 and then (dated 1 April 1937) to 30 April 1938. The American Foreign Service in Dublin granted a visa extension to September 16, 1938. Noted on his American passport was the statement that 214 "this passport is not valid for travel to or in any foreign state in connection with entrance into or service in foreign military or naval forces." This no doubt prompted by the continuing strife in Spain. As to residences, George led a somewhat itinerant lifestyle centered on Ivy, Geoffrey and son Niall Coulter at Rosebank, Rathfarnham. The Coulters had moved there, replacing tenant Joyce Roper, from Ballyroan House in early 1937. George listed, upon arrival, in his August 1936 letter to The Irish Times, a temporary address of convenience with the Duggans at 11 Mitchell Terrace, Dungarvan. Based on a wound pension application letter, January 1937 found him on Ballyboden Road in the small gate lodge at Rosebank. The lodge (just past the gate on the right) and the larger Rosebank cottage (seen in the distance in the photo) are accessed by a small bridge over the narrow Owendoher River. A well provided water and the stream disposal. He also lived, at some point, to the north in a terrace house on Beaufort Court near the R.C. Church. In early 1938 he was at O’Byrne House, Bray with a later listing of a mailing address “c/o American Express” on Grafton Street. The end of the year he was in Bermuda at the Princess Hotel returning to Dublin at 28 Pembroke St (June-July 1939). Circa 1937 he had met, through Ivy, Eveline May Sibbald, of Kingstown (Dun Laoghaire). Like George, May was of Ulster stock. However she was of Dissenting Presbyterian (father) and Church of Ireland (mother) background. She was a younger half sister of Ivy (nee Cromie Sibbald) who had been born in 1903 to Sam Sibbald and his first wife Sara Anne (nee Rodgers) who died subsequent (5 May 1904) to a stillborn 215 child (April 1904). Born to Sam’s second wife (married 21 February 1906), Annie (nee Harrison), were (Richard) Victor (1907), May (1909) and Olive. Per Ivy’s youngest son Brian, Annie Harrison Sibbald had a less than amicable relationship with Ivy, the only child of her husband’s first marriage. Ivy married in 1929 former Irish Volunteer Geoffrey Hugh Coulter (b.1900) of Fivemiletown, Co. Tyrone. Numerous friends and associates in the arts community. included such luminaries as Charles Lamb, Muriel Brandt of Strand Road, Harry Kernoff and Rathfarnham neighbour Sean Keating, RHA. May and George knew the Keatings through Sean’s wife May Walsh, the sister of Dr. Joe Walsh of the Column. May Walsh Keating by Sean Keating RHA Not one for the limelight, George, on more than one occasion, turned down an opportunity to sit for Sean as a subject in one of his paintings. Sean’s work as a “romantic realist” adopted the cause of a distinct Irish consciousness as shown in the works of Jack Yeats (brother of W.B.), Paul Henry and Charles Lamb. In the historically significant year of 1916 he returned to Ireland from the London studio of his mentor William Orpen. During the post Truce period he portrayed the men of the 216 North Cork Flying Column (p.94) - the A.S.U. organised in the summer of 1920 with the help of George Lennon. The Keatings with son Justin, later Irish T.D. and government minister, had vacated Rosebank in 1935, building, across the road closer to the Ballyboden-Ballyroan intersection, a bungalow (“Ait an Chuain”) and studio currently occupied by Kitty Keating, wife of Justin’s brother. On the Left In April of 1939, after Barbara’s September 1938 birth, the Coulters moved once again; this time to a commodious and drafty west facing Beachfield House, Strand Road, Sutton, Co. Dublin. Parties at Beachfield included people in the left leaning Republican and arts community. Friends and acquaintances were affiliated with such organisations as the Republican Congress, the Communist Party of Ireland (CPI), “Irish Friends of the Spanish Republic,” and the leftest (e.g., Peadar O’Donnell) wing of the I.R.A. Geoffrey, noted as “IRA Trotskyite propagandist” served as deputy editor, under Frank Ryan, of the Republican newspaper An Phoblacht . The Coulters spent occasional summer holidays at Donegal’s Bruckless House, owned by Thomas Rodrick Fforde, retired Royal Commander and member of the Soviet Communist Party who had influenced two sons of the local landlord family to become involved in communism in England and the Soviet Union. One son (Brian Goold- Verschoyle) was sent by the Soviet Comintern to assist the Spanish Republicans. He subsequently fell afoul of his Soviet masters and died in a gulag. A “stunning fictionalised portrait” of the family is to be found in Dermot Bolger’s acclaimed The Family on Paradise Pier. Earlier, in the War of Independence, the owners of Bruckless had provided shelter for Republicans such as Peadar O’Donnell and Geoffrey. Barred years later from Beachfield for unbecoming drunken behaviour was writer Brendan Behan (1923-1964). There was also talk of an act towards youngest son (b.1940) Brian (named perhaps in honour of Brian Goold Verschoyle) that was indicative of Behan’s alleged proclivities from his days in a British borstal. He was unceremoniously ejected by Armagh family relative and ship’s captain Ronnie Grey. A sign in book, maintained to this day by Niall, lists many of these political and artistic notables. Included in such listings, on occasion, were individuals bearing gift bottles of “vodka” – actually water- to gain entre to Beachfield House parties; assuming, at a late hour in the party, that no one would be any the wiser. Ryan, with George Gilmore and Peadar O’Donnell, had led the inter war Irish Republican Congress which espoused a “Republic of a united Ireland…through a struggle which uproots capitalism on its way” (Brian Hanley in The IRA 1926-1936). 217 Writing in 1937, Stephen J.M. Brown described the organisation’s publication as “the product of the definitely communist wing of the IRA” being “against Imperialism and Fascism and for the Irish Republic.” It was “anti-clerical” with “outspoken attacks on Bishops.” As a result it was “frequently suppressed.” Largely defunct by 1936, the ideals of the Congress nonetheless remained active on the battlefields of the Spanish Civil War where the “Connolly Column” fought, alongside other members of the International Brigade (e.g., the American Abraham Lincoln Brigade), for the Spanish Republic against the Fascist General Franco. George’s 1936 letter to the editor (p.204) clearly reflected his sympathies with the aims of the Republican Congress as they related to the Spanish Civil War. On the domestic military front, he wrote of Irish preparedness. As cited in Ireland To-Day (January 1938) "Notes on Contributors" he was …identified with (a) system of Flying Column organisation, Anglo Irish conflict, and engaged in action against British forces; associated in United States with League Against War and Fascism and Irish Cultural movement; secretary Nat. Assoc. of Old I.R.A. In the article entitled “National Defence,” he eschewed the former “George Crolly” nom de plume, and wrote under his own name. He elaborated upon the earlier 1934 Irish Review submission, "An Irish Volunteer Army:" ... Today for the first time we are in a position to arm our people in their own defence...to the point where it would make it a very costly business for any foreign power to again attempt a conquest of our liberated territory. He was of the opinion that military expenses are "at all times a burden and at best a necessary evil." Nevertheless, he found such outlays necessary to "deter the approach of deigning imperialisms.” This was in stark evidence in late 1930’s Spain. Later in the United States, George became, in contrast to liberal orthodoxy, a firm advocate of the “right to bear arms” as codified in the 2nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. He noted that the Irish government “is today lacking in a defence policy, in a defence force of any consequence and in experienced military leadership.” Regarding the army’s “modern armament,” he dismissed it as “negligible” and the air force as “Lilliputian.” Reviewed in 2009 by a former Commandant of the Irish Military College, the article elicited the observation that his “mature assessment” has withstood the test of time. He was right in his thesis but “it was not until years later that the Defence Forces did eventually get such a policy.” Lennon's analysis led military historian Terence O'Reilly to speculate as to the possibility that he wrote the article on behalf of an Irish Army officer (perhaps Paddy Paul) in that the army was effectively muzzled by the governments of the time. His 218 suggestion of a nationwide militia was actually implemented in 1940 in the form of the Local Defence Force. The LDF volunteer Force did prove to be invaluable in expanding the regular army in 1940. Its original name was to have been the National Guard. While opposing offensive military endeavors, his guerrilla experience in Ireland, fighting against a dominant colonial power, led him to support similar wars in which people sought to establish their own national identity (e.g., in Africa, India and French Indo China). Marriage Irish permission for George to remain in the Free State expired on 30 April 1938 but his American visa was not to lapse until 16 September. The latter was then extended belatedly on 26 September by one month to 16 October. This deadline may very well have been the impetus for his departure from Ireland. Perhaps another reason, was the advice of T.B. specialist Dr. Abrahamson that he “spend the winter abroad if possible.” Listing a Rosebank address, he secured passage on the Cunarder Georgic landing in New York City, en route to Bermuda, on 9 October. The winter of 1938-39 found him employed at the Princess Hotel as a cashier in the more benign southern climate. Resident in Bermuda at the time was Dungarvan born artist and Irish Review contributor Power-O’Malley. Returning to the States from Bermuda, he had removed from his passport, in Washington D.C. on 9 May 1939, the “prior restriction with regard to travel in Spain.” Added as place of birth was “Ireland” not, as previously noted “Irish Free State.” The U.S. Department of State visa stamp noted an expiration date of 16 September 1939. Continuing on to the New York World’s Fair he viewed the works of friends Harry Kernoff and Sean Keating at the Irish Pavilion. Also visited was the U.S.S.R. (“a socialist state of workers and peasants”) exhibit with his picture taken under that mural. He landed at Cobh on 23 May. This time the Irish authorities made no notations regarding the duration of his stay nor of any prohibitions regarding Irish employment. With the onset World War II any questions by Irish or American authorities regarding the length of his stay, were rendered moot. Noted on his passport, by the American Vice Counsel, was “at Dublin, Ireland, February 21, 1941.” 219 On 14 July 1939 George (“cashier”) married “Evaline”(per marriage certificate) May Sibbald. George’s address was listed as 28 Upper Pembroke Street, Dublin (the site of the “Cairo Gang” assassinations of British agents in November 1921). “Spinster” May resided at “Glenageary Park”, Dun Laoghaire located at the southeast corner of the Glenageary Road Upper and Glenageary Road Lower intersection. This is the present day site of the roundabout approaching Sallynoggin. Her father, Samuel, was listed by both the 1901 and 1911 census as “land steward” at the Glenageary demesne. Witnesses to the ceremony in the Presbyterian Church of Dun Laoghaire were May’s younger sister Olive and uncle Joe Kyle. The “blanket ban” of the time forbade Roman Catholics from attending the ceremony. May had previously worked for Dublin’s Cahill Printers and was obliged to resign, per 220 Article 41.2 of the 1937 Irish Constitution, from her government position as secretary to Fianna Fail T.D. (member of Parliament) Sean MacEntee. The newlyweds took up accomodations at Beachfield House in Sutton in the two ground floor rooms with Geoffrey, Ivy, Niall and infant Barbara above; Brian born in 1940. With the German attack on Poland in September, the men of the Old I.R.A., including former Belfast O/C Roger McCorley and George Lennon, gathered in the centre of Dublin and marched to Collins Barracks to offer their services in the fight against Fascism. McCorley, the great grandson of the famed Roddy of ballad fame, had been responsible for the Lisburn, Armagh reprisal killing of Constable Oswald Swanzy who reportedly assassinated Lord Mayor Tomas MacCurtain of Cork in March 1920. What is referred to in Ireland as "The Emergency” (1939-1945) had begun. 221 1939: George Lennon and Roger McCorley Employment: The Emergency In light of May’s required homemaker status and that George’s position with the Old I.R.A. organisation was probably unpaid, the matter of employment was, no doubt, particularly to May, of more than passing import. George ultimately secured a position, perhaps in late 1939 or early 1940, as an inspector with the Irish Tourist Board (I.T.B.). Former anti-Treatyites such as George were able, reportedly in light of the Republican sympathies of certain Fiannas Fail administrators, to secure pensionable national government positions. With George’s employment, he and May left Sutton and moved to “Fairbrook Bungalow,” near the Owendoher, just off the Ballyboden Road, south of the Tuning Fork Pub and immediately north of Rosebank and the Riversdale home of poet W.B. 222 Yeats (d.1939). A tiny bridge over the river (still extant) provided access to the lane. Just over the bridge was a small gate lodge ( since demolished for housing, as was Fairbrook Bungalow), not unlike the one at Rosebank. The Keatings home and studio were located on the other side of Ballyboden Road to the south. In his capacity as I.T.B. inspector, George was taken to the University Club by British Poet Laureate to be John Betjemin (1972-1984) who gave George “most useful advice.” Listed as a British Embassy press attache, Betjemin was viewed by some in neutral Ireland as a spy –albeit “low level” - and slated for assassination by the I.R.A. The to kill order was subsequently rescinded at the behest of an “unnamed Irish Republican” with a favourable view of his work. Betjemin later most notably wrote a poem to “Greta Hellstrom,” his Deise love interest; each stanza ending with “Dungarvan in the rain.” As part of the initiative to encourage tourism, the agency responsible for domestic tourism, the Irish Tourism Association (I.T.A.), undertook, on a parish basis within each of the twenty-six counties, a “Topographical and General Survey.” Information was gathered, during the Emergency World War II years, relating to natural features, antiquities, historic associations, sports and games, holiday amenities at seaside resorts, accommodations/catering and general information for towns and villages. This project was directed by George and, in the view of County Waterford Head Librarian Donal Brady, was “one of the most important and lasting national projects carried out at that time.” George drew attention to the lack of indoor tourist facilities, which were needed as “our enemy is the weather and…we could defeat this bogey by having every form of indoor amusement….” He further commented, “we had many ambitious schemes.” Included were New Grange and Cashel. As noted in The Irish Times, in mid March 1943, ITB, "the Irish Tourist Board ...just getting down to work when the war began ... suspended its activities for the duration" while “the older body, the Irish Tourist Association continues to operate.” Although his son’s birth certificate (14 June 1943) notes George’s occupation as “Inspector I.T.B.” he likely was made redundant at the earlier date in light of an April letter to de Valera. In June 1942 a Dublin conference had envisioned an organisation to arouse an interest in and encourage a movement towards national planning, to create a planning conscious public, to support the Government in a post war scheme of development... The main object of the conference was "the appointment of a body of men…. to organise an exhibition next year in Dublin, to collect data and plans, and, through lectures and conferences, educate the public to the necessity and importance of national planning.” In a letter dated 8 April 1943 to the Private Secretary of An Taoiseach de Valera, "Geo. Lennon, Acting Hon. Secretary" of The National Planning Conference, forwarded an agenda from the "organisers of the national planning exhibition, 1943." 223 A 21 March 1944 letter was forwarded to de Valera in which George conveyed "the request of the Executive Committee that An Taoiseach should formally open the National Planning Exhibition which will take place in the Mansion House from the 25th proximo until the 5th of May." Newspapers on Tuesday 15 April 1944, duly noted the official opening of a "National Planning Exhibition" scheduled for the 25th. Addressing the opening conclave, the Taoiseach "Mr. de Valera assured the meeting that every suggestion made by the Conference would be most certainly considered by the Government, and, when practicable, put into operation.” The Mansion House exhibition, per writer Terry O’Reilly, “was a lavish affair involving a wide group of enthusiastic people offering proposals as to how postwar Ireland might be developed.” DeValera appeared non-committal while Minister Sean MacEntee “dismissed the whole affair out of hand.” It was later charged that Fianna Fail’s adherence to a policy of self - sufficiency and “frugal comfort” condemned Ireland to poverty and massive emigration. While this initiative, in the estimation of librarian Brady, “seemed to offer some post- war promise of concerted and collective endeavor, it would appear that the government suddenly developed serious concern about the potential of external or non governmental policy initiatives and promptly disowned the Conference….” Presaging a subsequent national lack of interest in the matter was a 30 January 1944 letter from the Conference’s 32 Nassau Street address to The Irish Times, entitled "Towards Tomorrow.” George wrote ...about popular indifference to issue which are of deep and pressing importance in the lives of this and coming generations of Irish citizens. If you can do anything to dispel the current lethargy, your efforts will measure the gratitude of an indolent public, who are more disposed to indulge in destructive criticism of official activities than to contribute … to constructive thought and action. Parenthood Born during the Emergency, at the time of GGL’s transitioning to working for the Conference, was only child Ivan. Birth occurred at the Rotunda birthing facility - “the oldest continuously operating municipal hospital in the world.” Perhaps of some symbolic significance is the fact that, thirty years earlier, it was at the adjacent Rotunda Rink that the 1913 Volunteers were formed, just north of the site of the 1916 Rising at the G.P.O. 224 Unlikely as a matter of any concern to George, in contrast to May, was Ivan’s baptism, arguably in violation of the Church’s Ne Temere Decree, at May’s family church. Dun Laoghaire Presbyterian Church Bishop Cohalan of Cork had been quite explicit regarding the offspring of such “mixed marriages.” He repudiated the “doctrine that one religion is as lawful and good as another.” Catholics were not to bring up their children outside of the “one true Church.” Those Christians, outside of the Church of Rome, were seemingly excluded as valid practitioners of the Faith. Curiously, although always referred to as Ivan by everyone including his parents, the baptismal cert. reportedly notes a Christian name of “Ian Sibbald.” This “double barreled” moniker likely being a nod to Granny Sibbald and her family’s Ulster Presbyterian/C of I antecedents. The name Ivan, not uncommon in Ireland at the time (e.g., musician/singer “Van” Morrison), attributable to the popularity of the Soviet Union after the seminal 1942-43 Battle of Stalingrad. Of some relevance was George’s 1930’s attraction to Communism as an antidote to the seemingly failed western capitalism of the period. Perhaps of some 225 bearing was the earlier naming, arguably in honour of Brian Goold Verschoyle, of the youngest son of “Trotskyite propagandist” Geoffrey Coulter. As a new father and aware of the short term nature of his Conference employment, an additional and more permanent stream of income was sought via reapplication for the previously denied wound/disability pension. Wound Pension With regard to George’s numerous disability pension applications, a close reading of documents (1925-1944) obtained via a freedom of information request (FOI), reveals the numerous mental and physical breakdowns he experienced subsequent to the Grawn ambush of May 1921. Breakdowns, which gave meaning to the word trauma in the title of his memoir. While neither family members nor May and George spoke of such matters and Trauma in Time never specifically addressed the nature of his trauma, it became clear to me, upon researching his revolutionary past, that there were specific 1918-1922 incidents that led to subsequent breakdowns and an inability to cope with the exigencies of modern life. These initially traced to uncertainties from being on the run, essentially homeless, as a soon to be eighteen year old. He was well aware of likely execution, if caught with a weapon, under the terms of the 1920 Restoration of Order in Ireland Act (R.O.I.A.). It was a most narrow of escapes at Cappagh Station followed, two months later, by the “battering” at Grawn. Moreover, he held himself at least partially responsible for the deaths of Fitzgerald and Keating at the Burgery. Most traumatic was the incessant shelling of his Ballybricken redoubt which led to a breakdown and six months recuperation in Ardmore, England and Cappoquin. 1923 civilian employment was followed by a relapse resulting in a September 1925 application for a “disablement pension,” denied 1 January 1926. Emigrating in 1927, he was to suffer recurring breakdowns,“lack of concentration, memory lapses and an intense desire to escape.” Treatments occurred in Stamford, Connecticut at Resthaven and Falcon Manor and as an outpatient at New York City’s Vanderbilt Clinic. Having re entered Ireland on 4 August 1936, he reopened his application, from Rosebank, for a pension based upon “progressive neurasthenia” (PTSD) attributable to military service.” It was denied 26 January 1937. Another denial, dated 30 March 1938, was noted on the grounds of not meeting” the minimum required… 80% in the case of disease.” His 16 May 1938 application from Rosebank additionally cited “tubercular involvement of the lungs;” no doubt attributable to his two incarcerations and sleeping rough while “on the run” 1918-1921. This was perhaps, although not 226 stated in the application, exacerbated by exposure in prison to the pandemic of 1918-1919. Doctors seen at this time included O’Donnell of Rathfarnham and T.B. specialist Dr. Leonard Abrahamson of Richmond, Whitworth and Hartwicke Hospitals who noted “tuberculosis involvement of the left lung… confirmed by x-ray examination.” On behalf of George’s application, May Sibbald drafted a letter (some eleven months prior to their marriage) in June 1938 to Sean MacEntee, T.D. Sean duly appended the letter in a “Dear Frank” letter to the Minister for Defence, Frank Aiken. Requested was a “special effort…to have Mr. Lennon’s claim disposed of as expeditiously as possible.” Once again (e.g., Waterford employment in 1923 and then with the I.T.B.) contacts with prominent anti-Treaty Republicans, in this case May’s secretarial position with MacEntee, were to seemingly prove of value. Accordingly, a wound pension of 80 pounds per annum was granted forthwith, commencing September 1938, with George departing the next month for Bermuda, returning May 1939 to be married 14 July 1939. Due to the stability of employment and “increased well being,” the wound pension terminated on 30 September 1941. What George termed his “placid period” ended sometime mid to late 1943. Playing a role, in addition to becoming a father, was the financial instability attendent upon the 1943 loss of the tourism position followed, in the next year (May 1944), by the completion of his work with the Planning Conference. Anticipating the end of the temporary Planning position, George reapplied (4 February 1944), likely once again at May’s instigation, for a reinstitution of the wound pension. His application noted that “employment troubles began to bring me down again in 1943…Loss of confidence in myself has now manifested itself to an extreme degree…caused by my war experience….” 8 August 1944 saw reinstatement, in perpetuity, of the 80% disability at 120 pounds per annum, retroactive to 3 February 1944. The nature of the disablement was described (12 January 1944) as “Reactive Depression (Psychasthenia) and Pulmonary Disease attributable to Military Service.” He was to remain unemployed for the remaining 21 months of his time in Ireland. With May relegated to the role of homemaker, the only sources of income were the two small pensions: military service and wound. CHAPTER XVI UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (1946 ff.) 227 Family Emigration and Citizenship In the estimation of Donal Brady, Director of the County Waterford Library, it was “surely no coincidence” that George, in light of his 1936-1946 experience in the Free State, chose to permanently emigrate. In late 1946 he secured a booking for the 20th of February 1946 on Pan American Airways flight No. 101, Shannon to New York City, via Gander, Newfoundland. In that flights had been suspended at the outbreak of hostilities in 1939, this was one of the earliest civilian flights westward out of the just opened (October/November 1945) Shannon Airport. The Lockheed Super Constellation had a likely origination point at Heathrow. Listed on the manifest were a total of eleven passengers, significantly less than its carrying capacity of sixty. Reflecting his overweening desire to leave the Free State, despite the family’s precarious financial position, George chose the extremely expensive $249 one-way air fare (equivalent to some $3300 in 2016). As an unemployed male, George was a most unlikely flier; air travel at the time limited but to a few, largely wealthy, individuals. Less expensive Cunard ocean liners were unavailable, being used at the time to transport troops back to North America, Australia, etc. As the flight took off George “wanted to shout higher, higher, faster, faster.” The plane experienced mechanical problems over the Atlantic and was delayed at Gander before proceeding on to the United States. Later in the year, after two crashes, all such aircraft were temporarily grounded. He originally listed a 285 Riverside Drive address with married sister Eileen Sherwood. The following month he moved to nearby 180 Riverside Drive, apartment#7. Some time after George’s re-emigration, likely the autumn of 1946, May and Ivan moved from rural Rathfarnham to May’s native Dun Laoghaire in South Dublin. They took up residence at 8 Tivoli Terrace South in a one window, drafty, turf warmed basement flat occupied by Granny Sibbald (nee Harrison) and May’s spinster sister Olive. Financial exigencies, exacerbated by the presence of a three year old child, George’s expensive “flight” and the cost of the impending emigration, were obvious reasons for the move. This was the time of the “Big Snow” of early 1947 when horrendous winter weather struck Europe and the possibility of famine was once again raised in Ireland. Not unlike earlier food related disasters, this is a matter largely relegated to folk memory. May was granted immigration visa #41 as a Section 6(a) non-quota immigrant on the basis of her marriage to George, a naturalised U.S citizen. With respect to their son, attempts were made to categorize him as a "derivative citizen.” However, the U.S. State Department allegedly made a determination, according to George, "that he (George) did not have sufficient time (10 years) as a naturalized U.S. citizen to pass on United States citizenship to the subject (son)." 228 This was contradicted by a registered U.S. Department of Justice letter to George at the Riverside Drive address, dated March 21, 1947: "It appears that your son is a citizen...." A letter to May from the American Vice Counsel in Dublin dated April 22, 1947 noted re …appropriate documentation for your son, it is suggested that you contact the Citizenship Section of the Consulate General. With some six months time, prior to departure, to act upon this matter in Dublin, seemingly no contact was made by May and the author was granted immigration visa No. 3532 and unnecessarily labeled as a quota (based on the discriminatory national origins system instituted in the 1920’s) Irish immigrant on his mother’s Irish passport. Leaving Tivoli Terrace South, May and Ivan took the Dun Laoghaire mail boat (the “mercilessly rolling” Princess Maud) arriving at Holyhead, Wales on 12 October 1947. Coincidentally (and arguably symbolically) in May of that year the Una Troy Walsh novel was portrayed, with muted Church criticism, on the Abbey stage with the protagonist, John Davern, described as “a gunman, anti-cleric and communist.” Princess Maud Journeying to war ravaged Southampton, mother and child boarded the newly revamped Cunard Liner Mauretania (II) on the 15th of October, arriving New York City on the 20th. An earlier westbound passenger on the then troop carrier Maurie had been U.S. soldier Ray Wagner of Buffalo, father of Susan Rae, future wife of the author. 229 Cunard Liner Mauretania (II) Interestingly, the Mauretania's manifest notes Ivan’s nationality of "U.S.A.” crossed out and “Eire” written in. Also written in the formerly empty space for race or people is “Irish.” No doubt an assertion of Irish independence on the part of reluctant emigre May. Effective October 20, 1947, under the Alien Registration Act of 1940, May was given a “green card” or alien registration number 6787802. Ivan was number 6793340. It was not until 1968, approaching age 25, that the author determined that he was, in fact, a “natural born citizen” of the U.S.A. by virtue of his father’s 1934 naturalization. The disillusioned former rebel, who had come to eschew Irish nationalism, considered it, no doubt, a matter of absolutely no import; while May considered it of paramount import. Having left Ireland only in a physical sense, no more scathing comment could utter from her lips than to accuse her son of being “so American!” For her, Irish life was superior, reality to the contrary, in all respects. 230 Ivan Lennon: 1947 Irish Passport Rochester, New York The reunited three members of the family resided temporarily in New York City with George's younger brother John. For the first time May and Ivan were exposed to people of different racial hues. Ivan loudly noticed the presence in New York of a nearby African American who had a “dirty face.” In Ireland “exotic” people were largely limited to the proprietors of fish and chips and ice cream shops. Blacks were unknown (save for an occasional African at Trinity College) in an insular and homogeneous Ireland. A cottage type home was rented in the seaside community of Beachfield, New Jersey, adjacent to Toms River. Despite having endured Ireland’s near cataclysmic weather of January to March, the great American blizzard of Christmas 1947 proved quite a shock to the newly arrived emigrants who lacked the proper clothing for life in such a climate. A move was made, a few months later, to a somewhat larger nearby cottage. In New York City, George was employed, using an erroneous birthdate of 26 May 1907, as a cashier for $38/week at the Lexington Hotel. He was fired, effective April 19, 1948, after losing a National Labor Relations Board election to secure union representation. The hotel preferring to note, to a F.B.I. agent in 1959 (p. 229), that “he would not be rehired because of continued tardiness.” With a daily expensive round trip rail commute to NYC from Toms River of some 150 miles highly unlikely, George may have sought work week accomodation in the New York area with his brother John. Beginning 10 May he obtained a position as “machine operator” at the Federated Eggs Producers Cooperative in nearby Toms River. The business was allegedly controlled by the Communist Party of the United States. He left FEPCO shortly after Ivan began kindergarten in the former yacht club in Beachfield. An October 1948 move was made to western New York. The instability occasioned by these numerous 1946 ff. moves no doubt confirming May’s initial skepticism of George’s return to the States. 231 The City of Rochester had a vibrant industrial base including Bausch and Lomb, Eastman Kodak and a locally owned Haloid Corporation. Residing at that time in what has been referred to as "Smugtown, U.S.A," were (Richard) Victor Sibbald, older brother of May and estranged husband of Kate (Horan). Vic and Kate were the parents of Jack and Gary Sibbald. Kate, her mother and the two teen aged boys lived at 116 Palm Street adjacent to Kodak Park and #41 School. This, by all accounts, this was not a pleasant experience (definitely not from Ivan’s vegetarian perspective), due, in part, to the culinary experience being largely limited to large slabs of unappealing inexpensive cuts of meat from the nearby Skip’s Market. Kate’s outspoken wheelchair bound mother was derisively described by George as “Sitting Bull.” The Lennons finding the family’s forthrightness to be vulgar - certainly not in the more reticent Irish mode. Kate returned the favour by noting George, to son Gary, as an “old drunk.” A wary distance was maintained in subsequent years with the author, unaware at the time of the animosity, inviting Kate to his 1970 wedding. Nonetheless, a friendly relationship was established in the late 1960’s between the Lennons and Gary Sibbald’s (d.2016) family in Charlotte. Initial Rochester accommodation at the Sibbalds' home was to exhaust, to May’s chagrin and undying enmity towards Kate, the few remaining dollars the family possessed. Rental housing was then obtained at an unfurnished second floor one bedroom walkup apartment on Ashland St. at Gregory behind the local "mom and pop" corner store. Lacking central heating, a kerosene stove provided a measure of warmth and an icebox provided refrigeration for perishable food items. Ivan continued kindergarten across the street at #13 School and George secured an entry-level position as a janitor (15 November 1948) at the Eastman Kodak complex (Kodak Park) in northwest Rochester. Initially lacking work to do, he was told to “just go hide.” The next move in 1949 was to the seventh family accomodation since 1946. Acquired was a more commodious, albeit unfurnished, one bedroom first floor apartment at #210 Lexington Avenue on the northwest corner of Tacoma and Lexington. The Tenth Ward apartment building had central heating via a manually fed coal burning basement furnace and was located equidistant between the Lake Avenue bus line to the east and the Dewey Avenue route to the west. Also, beyond Dewey Avenue, was the recently enlarged #34 School with a substantial Italian student enrollment. In the late 1940's the Lennons attended Sunday meetings of the Society of Friends (Quakers) located downtown on Eagle Street in Rochester's historic Third Ward. There they made the acquaintance of Kenneth Holcomb of Scottsville whose family hosted the Lennons for early 1950’s Thanksgiving dinners. A close friendship ensued with Ernestine Klinzing, an original faculty appointee (piano) of Kodak founder George Eastman at the Eastman School of Music on East Main Street. The love of her life was the handsome nephew of deported "Red Emma" Goldman, David Hochstein. His life was tragically cut short in the waning months of the Great War of 1914-1918. Many felt his talent was potentially the equal of any violinist in the world including Heifitz. Today the noted Hochstein School of Music on Plymouth Avenue bears his name. After David’s 232 death, Ernestine never saw fit to marry. She maintained an interest in Eastern religions journeying to Nara, Japan and other Asian locales. She lived the tenets of her Quaker faith and became involved as a peace activist in Women's Strike for Peace and the Fellowship of Reconciliation. No doubt influenced by Ernestine, May contributed to the support of a South Vietnamese orphan (Nguyen–Thi-Hong-Van) born in 1967. Seeking a measure of peace within himself, George began, in the early 1950’s, a personal journey of sorts via his study of religion and philosophy. Of particular interest to him were the writings of Gurdjieff, Ouspensky and the philosophy of Zen Buddhism. Through his interest in the latter, he made the acquaintance of Chet Carlson, inventor of "electrophotography.” Along with Haloid's Joseph Wilson, Chet was struggling to make what was to become known popularly as "Xerography" a viable commercial enterprise. Chester Carlson Despite George’s meagre income, the summer of 1950 saw May and Ivan returning, after an absence of less than three years, to their last Irish residence at #8 Tivoli Terrace South. Living there were Granny Sibbald and her soon to be married daughter Olive. The more than four month sojourn began with a RMS Georgic departure on 17 May. A tender brought the passengers in to Cobh Harbour from the Cunard/White Star (including the 1912 ill fated Titantic) mooring just off Roche’s Point. Ivan’s seventh birthday was celebrated by a trip to the Dublin zoo with neighbour Ivan Smith. Time was also spent at the Co. Waterford home (the Burgery, Abbeyside) of Mick and 233 Mary Mansfield. The 23 September Cobh departure was on the Georgic arriving NYC on 30 September. Reportedly the last White Star liner, this was the same vessel George had taken on October of 1938, en route to employment at the Princess Hotel in Bermuda. Lacking appropriate “American" clothing (i.e., long pants), the author found himself attired, for 2nd grade at #34 School, in items (shorts and knee socks) more suitable for the Irish cultural and climatological environment. In 1951, another northward move was made to a converted first floor apartment at 180 Augustine Street, between the bus lines on Dewey Avenue and Lake Avenue. A source of some mild embarassment was George’s cavalier disposal of bottles of cheap spirits (muscatel) in the backyard shrubbery. Located two blocks away was the highly regarded Lakeview #7 School which became Ivan’s fourth school in three years. A couch, chair, lamp and small wooden round table were purchased to furnish the tiny living room. In this neighborhood, at that time, was a largely working class 100% white population which included a federal judge, the family of a noted television performer on the Arthur Godfrey Show (LuAnn Sims), doctors, dentists, factory workers and Kodak professionals with advanced degrees. Most noteworthy among the latter was immediate Augustine Street émigré neighbor, chess player extraordinaire and world famous Kodak researcher, Dr. Max Herzberger, who had secured his high laboratory position at Kodak upon the recommendation of his mentor, Albert Einstein. Dr. Herzberger would, on occasion, journey in the early morning hours, to the nearby Kodak research lab clothed in his pajamas and overcoat to pursue a potentially rewarding line of research. Security guards were instructed to admit him regardless of the time of night. Growing up in the Tenth Ward were youngsters destined perhaps by their childhood behaviour patterns, to play a prominent role in the local mob in the 1970's. Attica Prison eventually became their destination. One noteworthy “green card” holding Irish émigré balladeer and JMHS student, Liam Magee, having eschewed U.S. citizenship, reached a deal with local district attorney Donald Chesworth to accept deportation in lieu of possible other forms of punishment. Liam died in his native land. His brother, Cathal, was one of the earliest soccer style kickers in American football at Aquinas Institute. Many of the children of the largely Roman Catholic population in the Ward attended elementary school at Holy Rosary or Sacred Heart and then went on to Aquinas (boys) or Nazareth (girls). Despite the family’s more than one thousand year involvement with Christianity in its Irish variants, George was heard, on more than one occasion, to say that faced with the choice of a Catholic parochial school education or none for his son, he would opt for the latter. Influencing such a remark no doubt was his knowledge of the Irish theocracy’s corrosive/abusive educational system plus the scandalous slave like conditions found in the Magdalene Launderies and “industrial” schools. Of some relevance would have been his personal experiences: the Church’s anti I.R.A. position; the “Elizabeth Connor” book controversy in the 1930’s and the Church’s opposition to Dr. Noel Browne’s mother and child scheme of the early 1950’s. Despite their distinctive accents and May’s visceral connection to Ireland, not America, 234 the family maintained a healthy distance from Irish-American organisations; no doubt equating them with the likes of “super patriots” of the ilk of Senator Joe McCarthy, Father Coughlin, Cardinal Spellman, Fulton Sheen and the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH). The latter organisation was viewed, more accurately based upon its conservative positions, as the “Ancient Order of Hypocrites.” However, any Irish émigrés in Rochester, regardless of religious affiliation, were accorded a very warm cead mile failte at the Lennons. A strong friendship was maintained with recent emigres including the O’Duffy’s of Tait Avenue in Greece, Doris Ward and Joy Finnegan. Joining the family at their two bedroom apartment on the ground floor of 180 Augustine Street, in late 1951, was Barbara, the only daughter of May’s half sister, Ivy Sibbald Coulter (p.207). George unexpectantly noted to daughter-in-law Susan, in the late 1980’s, that Barbara’s father was not Geoffrey but a Jewish academic intimate of Ivy’s. Thirteen-year-old Barbara emigrated out of Dublin on a small tramp steamer which passed, outward bound on its lengthy journey, in front of her Sutton home. Unescorted, she was the only female on board. No doubt, in the twenty-first century, such an arrangement would be viewed with skepticism in certain quarters. Brothers Niall and Brian “thought Barbara would be back in a few years.” Certainly no preparatory, or subsequent, explanation to 8 year old Ivan for the unexpected appearance of a less than full cousin in his bedroom was forthcoming from his close-mouthed parents. They may have felt a commitment to Barbara’s parents for accommodation provided in 1937 for George at Rosebank gate lodge and then, as 1939 newlyweds, at Beachfield. There is also the possibility that George, in light of his own lack of a fixed abode from his 1936 return until housing was secured, at Fairbrook Bungalow, felt a degree of empathy for the “daughter” of an equally peripatetic former Volunteer with his own addiction problem. Arguably more likely it may have been solely May’s idea, during the 1950 visit, in that she was always desirous of having a daughter. Geoffrey, at the time, had “lost his job…due to drug addiction” (benzedrine) and removed himself from the family’s home. He lived a somewhat nomadic 1950’s existence with the itinerants (“Tinkers”) in the area above Dun Laoghaire. Eventually returning to the family home he was to be observed, with flowing silver mane, protesting in the Dublin streets against the apartheid policies of the S. African government. Despite his service in the Troubles, like Peadar O’Donnell, Pax Whelan and George Lennon, he did not file a Volunteer witness statement with the Bureau of Military History, Rathmines. With assistance from the Rochester City School District’s “Childrens Memorial Scholarship Fund,” Barbara graduated in 1956 from John Marshall High School and later attained a chemistry degree at the downtown campus of Rochester Institute of Technology. Subsequent employment resulted at Eastman Kodak’s research lab on Lake Avenue. Barbara married Felipe DeChateauvieux (d.2016) and had one child Philip. As one Sutton émigré family friend in Canada noted: Barbara’s ultimate fate, had she not emigrated, might very well have been quite different; perhaps “selling sweets at Sutton Cross.” In those post war days of de Valera’s frugal comfort, discretionary income was minimal. At the Coulters, as for others in Ireland, knickers (underwear) and shoes 235 were reportedly in short supply. Nonetheless, Ivy maintained a ferocious nicotine habit; lighting one “coffin nail” from the other. She was to die, age 67 in 1970, of emphysema. Beachfield House continues (2017) to be occupied by Niall and his wife Ann with an additional home tucked in at the back for their daughter’s family. Adjoining property- including the grass tennis court - having been sold over the years. The valuable property affords a magnificent view of Dublin harbour and towards Wicklow. In Rochester, life moved to an Eastman Kodak cadence: omnipresent chemical odors, three daily factory whistles, the Kodak Park Athletic Association boys’ softball program, the Eastman Dental Dispensary; the Eastman School of Music, Eastman Savings and Loan, the weekly Kodakery newspaper, the March Kodak "bonus," Durand-Eastman Park, and a 1936 built Kodak Park High School, newly named John Marshall. Most importantly, the community benefited from the secure non – union jobs stemming from the "fat cow" provided by Kodak's near monopoly of flexible film. These jobs, in large measure, effectively excluded members of certain ethnic and racial groups. In those halcyon days, it was quite common for 18 year old John Marshall High School graduates to walk across nearby Ridge Road to begin a lifetime of employment; later to retire with very attractive buy outs as Kodak began to downsize when it faced the very less profitable digital revolution begun in no small measure with Kodak holding the appropriate, but unacted upon, patents. Also eschewed were Carlson’s “electrophotography” invention and Polaroid’s land camera proposal. Having reached a 1980's peak of some 60,000 employees, Kodak, with its present work force of some 2500 workers (2017), is no longer Rochester's largest employer. The industrial area formerly known as Kodak Park has been largely demolished. To supplement her husband's wages May, upon her return from Ireland in 1950, began assisting a woman on nearby Mason Street. This led to work helping the young family of Ted and Doris Holmes at the western end of Lakeview Park. House cleaning jobs followed at nearby homes on Kislingbury Street, Lakeview Park and the apartment of Gannett newspaperman Hamilton Allen. Around 1954 May obtained part time employment, as a clerk/typist, at Grinnell's Kalbifleisch Travel Agency, initially located on South Clinton Avenue near Main Street and then on the mezzanine level of the new 1962 Midtown Plaza. Unable to drive, this entailed for May a daily round trip on the bus with grocery purchases at Sibley’s downtown made in the P.M. Circa 1953, George ultimately passed his driver’s examination; a skill he previously had no need for with his own chauffeur- cum -“batman” during the Troubles (pp.74, 103 ff., 173). After the family had purchased (from Doyle Studebaker) its first automobile, another move was made: two blocks southward to 60 Lakeview Park at the Pierpont corner; diagonally less than 100 feet from #7 School. This owner occupied building consisted of an upper and a lower apartment. The Lennons and Barbara occupied the upper floor which contained a small kitchen, adjacent “dinette,” bathroom with shower, a living room with two full sized bedrooms and a closet sized bedroom, off a large front room for Barbara. Overlooking Pierpont Street was a small rooftop area with 236 accompaning chaise lounge. Lakeview Park, like nearby Seneca Parkway, traced its origins to the firm of urban architect Frederick Law Olmstead. With May at work during school hours, the convenient school location provided Ivan the opportunity to make his vegetarian lunch (scrambled eggs/toast, peanut butter/jam, cheese or banana on toast) during the lengthy hour and quarter school lunch dismisal. Writing of his native land at this time, George commented, echoing Una Troy, on the “two snakes” that St. Patrick had failed to expunge from Ireland: “religious intolerance and tribal insularity.” This disdain for certain aspects of Christianity and its adherents could be multi national and ecumenical as was witnessed on a snowy evening in 1955 when the local Presbyterian minister visited the Irish emigres whose son was a Sunday school attendee. The discusion veered to America’s treatment of the Negro and the rampant McCarthyism of the period. Not encountering the convivial atmosphere he no doubt expected, the Reverend Warfield made an abrupt exit leaving his winter galoshes which were subsequently put to use by the, of necessity, frugal Lennons. Coincidentally, the author was never invited to class parties hosted by the Reverend’s son. The old Lakeview #7 School featured, on its Dewey Avenue side, a dusty playground and small wooden "shanty” (perhaps from the Irish sean tig). Largely unsupervised, urban youths formulated their own games, such as "Over the Line" and "Hotbox.” The wire- meshed playground facing windows of #7 School were utilised to make up baseball like games. The rat infested shanty offered a haven on rainy and wintry days. #7 School as viewed from 60 Lakeview Park Playground directors at #7 included the seemingly elderly spinster Miss Larkin and 237 noted Sacred Heart basketball coach “Packy” McFarlane. To the south, Edgerton Park featured as directors future NBA Hall of Famer Bobby Wanzer and former Boston Red Sox and Rochester Red Wing third baseman Tommy Carey. Living nearby during the baseball season were a handful of baseball players, employed by the St. Louis Cardinals organisation, who played at Red Wing Stadium across the river to the east. Close by were Maplewood Park, the Genesee River gorge with the Lower and Middle Falls and the Maplewood YMCA. To the west was Aquinas Stadium, the “Sisters Woods” behind Aquinas Institute, the “subway” to downtown and Brighton, and railway tracks which afforded the dangerous pleasure of “hopping” slow moving freight trains which supplied local factories. To the south was the Liberty Theatre on Driving Park Avenue, Herman’s Hobby Shop, the Liberty Sweet Shop, and Edgerton Park, home to the 1951 NBA champion Rochester Royals. Also located at Edgerton Park was “Building 6” which hosted a Saturday morning Playground Basketball League. To the north, closer to Kodak, was the Riviera Theatre, Kodak Park Athletic Association (K.P.A.A.) fields at KPX and DPI, John Marshall High School, and across the river, the Seneca Park zoo and swimming pool. Readily accessible, via a Lake Avenue bus ride northward, was Ontario Beach Park on the lake. Shopping downtown was a short 2-mile ride on either the Lake Avenue or Dewey Avenue bus line. The Dewey-Driving Park shopping area contained two supermarkets (Wegman’s and Loblaw’s), plus numerous other restaurants and businesses catering to the Tenth Ward community. Further north, larger stores (e.g., Sears, Neisners), a bowling alley, bakery, etc were to be found at the Dewey/Ridge Road intersection. 1954: Ivan at Leinster House, Dubln A 1954 trip by May and Ivan, of some three and one half months, leaving Lakeview on 238 Ivan’s birthday of 14 June, was made on the Mauretania (II). May likely having mixed feelings returning on the same Cunarder that had borne her westward, less than seven years earlier. Landing at Cobh, they were picked up by former RAF mechanic Alfie Patten, husband of May’s sister Olive. Residence was taken at the #8 Tivoli Terrace South basement flat. Having died in April, Granny Sibbald was buried, with husband Sam and his first wife, Sara Anne, at Dean’s Grange. Also in the plot (space 55, lat. south, R2), but not noted on the gravestone, is Sara Anne’s stillborn male infant. No mention was ever made by the family of Sara’s marriage to Sam and postpartum death. Returning to the States via Cobh, the requisite stay, en route, was made with Mick and Mary Mansfield at their Burgery home across from the ambush site with its bullet scarred farmer’s gate still intact. May and Mary having established, despite their differing religious backgrounds, a close relationship. Like most in Ireland, the Mansfields lacked a car and transport to the local bus station was made by Tommy Keating’s donkey and cart. The liner Britannic arrived in New York on 2 October. Returning by New York Central train to Rochester, Ivan continued his education at Lakeview #7 for grades six and seven and then at John Marshall High School. A nod to modernity was duly made at 60 Lakeview Park with the installation of a “party line” phone in 1955. Due to cultural considerations and financial constraints, necessitated by saving for a significant down payment on a home and trips back to Ireland, no thought was ever given to the purchase of a television. The fall of 1956 witnessed the end of a somewhat nomadic decade when the family moved to its 10th and final residence. Purchased ($14,500) was a three bedroom 1920's built “Dutch Colonial” home at 31 Grassmere Park, just off Lake Avenue, in the seemingly remote, to Ivan, Charlotte or 23rd Ward neighborhood. A second floor laundry chute provided May with a convenient locale to hide intoxicating spirits from George. Obtaining a mortgage, even with the considerable down payment, proved a minor inconvenience in that the family's habit of paying all bills in full, in cash, meant that they lacked a satisfactory "credit rating" with the Rochester Credit Bureau. The Charlotte locale necessitated a daily ride for the author, from 1956 to 1961, to John Marshall via city bus, or, more commonly, by hitchhiking ("thumbing"). Surprised by the move out of the old Tenth Ward neighborhood, Ivan avoided attending nearby Charlotte High School by the simple expedient of not notifying the school authorities. Due to after school sports activities, a typical school day, portal to portal, often stretched from 7 A.M. to 7 P.M. returning at times to play pick up basketball in the JMHS gym. With their stated left of center political opinions, at least by American standards, George and May had earlier incurred the ire of former Quaker friend Kenneth Holcomb who reported George as a communist to the F.B.I. A 9 April 1959 visit from an agent resulted with May initially denying him entry to the Grassmere Park residence. In the mid 1960's, George’s portrait (p.239) by local artist Ruth Carver, was exhibited at Rochester’s Memorial Art Gallery. Included in his group of Rochester artiste/intellectual 239 friends was acclaimed R.I.T. photographer Minor White. George became, in the mid 1960’s, one of eleven founding members of the Rochester Zen Center and a member of its original Board. Included in this group were Chet and Dorris Carlson, Harriet Gatwick, Audrey Fernandez and Ralph Chapin. In 1966 the group invited the noted Sensei Philip Kapleau, who lived in Japan and had authored The Seven Pillars of Zen, to visit Rochester. So impressed were they that he was invited to be the resident teacher, ably assisted by youthful Hugh Curran. The group of stunning structures of the Zen Center is located on Arnold Park just off East Avenue. Initial funding for the building, with a stipend for Kapleau, was made possible by Carlson generosity. Reportedly, Dorris Carlson had a strained relationship with Kapleau who resented her interference with Zendo matters. Chet withdrew his financial support and was to die prematurely, at age 62, in 1968. Although a Forbes magazine article in 1967 listed his assets in excess of $100,000,000, he maintained, in private conversations, that it was much closer to $50,000,000. Regardless, by the time of his death he had not realised his philanthropic goal of exhausting his wealth. This was in the Rochester tradition of giving established by Eastman, Strong, Joe Wilson and, most recently, Paychex's Tom Golisano. Chet’s wife (d.1998) and adopted daughter Catherine continued his philanthropic and humanitarian endeavors (e.g., Carlson Metrocenter YMCA, Chicago’s Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions, etc.) Last Years Skeptical of what little was written and aware of the lack of reliable first hand information regarding the revolutionary period in the Deise, George saw fit, upon retirement in 1965, to begin work on a short memoir entitled Trauma in Time. Undertaken, no doubt, in lieu of filing what he would have perceived to be a self serving witness statement with the Bureau of Military History. Nonetheless, his fellow comrades’ statements paid, in writer Terry O’Reilly’s words, “full tribute to his role.” He did deign however to return, in April 1966, to Ireland for the first time since 1936, on the occason of the fiftieth anniversary of the 1916 Easter Week Rising. The author, having graduated in 1965 from St. Lawrence University, was at this time attending, on a Carnegie Fellowship, New York University’s Graduate School of Public Administration in Washington Square. George made no mention of nor did he write of the commemoration events held in Dublin which he may very well not have attended; likely preferring the company of friends in Bunmahon (Walshes), Comeragh (Keatings) and Kilmacthomas (the now married rebel Cullinane sisters). Upon receipt in 1983 from Mick Mansfield of the paper back Sean Murphy book on the War of Independence in West Waterford (The Comeraghs: Refuge of Rebels), he atypically dismissed it as “lies.” Although unstated, there was a sentiment, on George’s part, that his revolutionary endeavors were largely unappreciated. Attributable perhaps to a perceived “premature” laying down of arms in August 1922, an unacknowledged PTSD, a “mixed marriage,” two emigrations and what were at the time, unpopular yet prescient positions. 240 He wrote of the Hickey execution at the Burgery in an earlier unpublished 1960’s play, Down by the Glen Side, which was similar to Frank O’Connor’s iconic 1931 short story “Guests of the Nation.” The subject was a captured British officer who was to be shot in reprisal by an Irish Commandant. The protagonist, a “boyish” Column O/C Rogan, choosing “a dramatically different course of action” than that taken by twenty one year old GGL upon the capture of childhood acquaintance Sergeant Hickey. His memories of the 1916 -1922 period in Waterford were refreshed by a Rochester visit, circa 1970, of former Civil War foe and E. Waterford O/C Paddy Paul. Attending what they anticipated to be a film murder mystery, “The Killing of Sister George,” the two former rebels were mildly shocked by its portrayal of an love interest involving two women. A photo was taken of George with Paddy holding George’s memoir. It is not surprising that George would have been a vocal and early opponent of the war in the former French Indo-China. The local morning Rochester newspaper, in a column by Henry Clune (October 21, 1967), was headlined “Ex Rebel Holds Viet War Futile.” George noted similarities between the Irish guerrilla struggle and the war of national liberation in Viet Nam. Commenting that “decency and magnanimity never severely harmed any great nation and it cannot harm ours - we will have to withdraw from Viet Nam sooner or later, so why not now?” This may be viewed in the family’s tradition of forthrightly speaking out regarding matters yet to gain popular acceptance. Witness the outspokenness of RC Primate Dr. Crolly; Nellie Lennon moving beyond obeisance to the priests; George as an early twentieth century proponent of guerrilla warfare against a colonial usurper and a “premature anti-Fascist” critic of the Irish Free State theocracy of de Valera and McQuaid. He also had the foresight – some 50 years before the successful Irish-America - to see the need for “a magazine of Irish expression.” 241 George made another visit, this time with May, to Ireland with recently married (June 1970) Ivan and Sue and infant daughter Kristin occupying 31 Grassmere Park. This visit in 1971 -1972, included, for George, a stay in County Waterford where he contacted, most notably, former youthful love interest Lena Keating Walsh, sister of the slain Pat and Tom Keating. Others included Katie Cullinane Kent ("Mother Kent") in Kilmacthomas and, in nearby Bunmahon, writer and widow Una Troy Walsh and her daughter Janet Walsh Helleris. Atheist Dr. Joe Walsh’s remains (d.1969) had been laid to rest immediately adjacent to his Roman Catholic Republican comrades in Kilrossanty. He also visited the burial site of great granduncle Archbishop Crolly at Armagh's St. Patrick's Cathedral. Searching for the burial site of Niall O'Neill, with whom a Crolly forebearer of a “military caste” had been allied at the Battle of the Boyne, he was surprised to find his resting place at Waterford's Greyfriars Church. His return to Rochester preceded that of May who, not surprisingly, elected to stay longer. As George had observed of May as they departed on this sojourn: “She knows there are other countries in the world, but May is quite cool to them. She is going back to Ireland; in fact she never left.” On his last trip back, in 1976, he and May resided in Rathgar on Palmerston Park where the author, Susan, Kristin and Colin visited that summer. 242 Returning to 31 Grassmere Park they lived more than adequately, accustomed to the Irish lifestyle of “frugal comfort” (in the words of Taoisech Eamon de Valera) as practiced by May. Income included savings, a small Eastman Kodak pension cheque, two Social Security cheques and the I.R.A. military service and wound pension cheques (undeclared on income tax forms). Suffering from memory loss (e.g., seeking the Dun Laoghaire bus from in front of downtown Sibley’s) and cancer, May died, age 74, on the 13 November 1983 and was buried in Rochester’s historic Mt Hope cemetery, not far from the family’s first Rochester apartment at the corner of Gregory and Ashland. George remained alone in the Charlotte home until 1987. Accustomed from his youth to having his needs, in large measure, tended to by others: a tutor; a household servant; mother and sisters; driver “Nipper;” military subordinates of the likes of Jim Power; people in “safe houses” such as the Whelans of Ballyduff, the Keatings of Comeragh and the Cullinane/Kents of Kilmac; highly placed anti-Treatyites in the government; the Coulters in Rathfarnham and ultimately, May, Susan and Ivan, George was ill suited, in his eighties, to the mundane tasks associated with maintaining a home. His idealism and intellectualism conceivably making him better suited to a life, not unlike his Ulster monastic and priestly forebearers, of a “superior of a …religious order,” as he had observed of his friend IRA Chief of Staff Liam Lynch. In declining health, due to the lingering effects of tuberculosis (exacerbated by a low level of smoking), he entered Beechwood Nursing Home on Culver Road. Monies dutifully saved by May bankrolled the greater part of his stay until they were exhausted and government funded assistance was provided. Legal assistance was successfully sought when the nursing home attempted to have him removed at the time of the implementation of the much lower Medicaid reimbursements. George died in his 91 st year on 20 February 1991. No ceremony was held. His ashes were placed under a tree at the Maine home of former Rochester Zen Center members Hugh and Susan Curran. Hugh had been the head monastic for the first five years of the Rochester Zen Center’s existence. He had earlier emigrated with his family to Canada from Donegal. Hugh curently teaches courses on early Irish literature and Celtic spirituality at the University of Maine. He is also a peace activist and father of Oisin, Brown University graduate and author. In that the tree was showing “serious signs of rust”, a neighbouring potter, Dennis Riley, designed clay pots to hold the ashes. One now resides on a ledge in Hugh and Susan’s sunroom. Others may be found at the Lennon’s Beresford Road home and in the possession of the Rochester Zen Center alongside those of Roshi Philip Kapleau. A scattering of ashes occurred in the waters of Casco Bay, Maine, adjacent to the Falmouth-Foreside home of grand daughter Kristin Lennon Cohen. Belated Recognition Realising, due partially to a lack of fecundity in the family, that the Lennon story would be largely forgotten unless I made the effort, application was made in 1983 for a replacement of the 1941 Black and Tan medal so unceremoniously jettisoned during the Emergency years from my pram into the Owendoher. Also received was the “Truce 243 Commemorative Medal” of 1971, which apparently had not been sent to George. The two medals, along with a later acquired Na Fianna Eireann medal, were duly framed. Of far greater import was the inclusion with the medals of a copy of George’s military service pension application (pp. 196-199) as received by the pensions branch of the Irish government on 10 January 1935. This detailed recital of 1916-1922 events was to serve as the basis for my investigation.. Entertained at 242 Beresford Road in the mid 1980’s was Billy (“Buses”) Kenneally, Remembrances of days past occurred when the former “Irregular” and Waterford “military governor” of 1922 was introduced to the reigning Lord Mayor. Thanks to Peter A. Korn, Beresford Road neighbour and Rochester City Manager, my wife and I in 1987 were part of a Sisters Cities delegation to the “twinned” city of Waterford. After a thirty-three year hiatus, a reconnection was made with Mick and Mary Mansfield at their Burgery home. Sadly, the bullet scarred gate across the road at the ambush site had been removed. Contacted, just prior to his death, was Volunteer Sonny Cullinan, father of émigré author Jimmy (Arses and Elbows and Imagine). For the most part, no one in 1987 Waterford City remembered the twenty one year old who led his I.R.A. forces into an apathetic Waterford City, claiming it as part of an Irish nation. Scant interest was shown in my attempt to garner a wider audience for George’s Trauma in Time. Accordingly, I resolved to move beyond his memoir and pursue my own investigation into the matter of my family’s past; blissfully unaware of the significance of the operative word “trauma” in the title. Fortunately there were people such as Kilmacthomas writer Sean Murphy, Tony Mansfield (son of Mick) of Sexton Street, Abbeyside, Eddie Cantwell of the Museum, Dr. Pat McCarthy and Ardmore’s Tommy Mooney who maintained a lively interest in the years of the “Troubles.” In September of 1998 I led a group of triathletes on a bicycling tour of Ireland. Cycling eastward out of Dungarvan, I viewed for the first time the Kilrossanty Republican Plot where the remains of Pat Keating, Sean Fitzgerald, Tom Keating and others lay near those of Dr. Walsh. Resolved, with time newly made available by my 1996 retirement, was the intention to put pen to paper regarding Waterford’s largely forgotten I.R.A. commander. In March of 2006 a Jim Memmott article in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle regarding the Lennon-Sergeant Hickey relationship (pp.133-138) was reprinted by Waterford’s Munster Express (see Appendix E). This caught the attention of Deise military historian and writer Terence O’Reilly. Terry’s preliminary research (e.g., the availability of George’s memoir on the County Waterford Museum website) regarding the War of Independence in Waterford had led him to conclude that the history of the period was encapsulated in the personage of George Lennon. Seeking a measure of government recognition for my father in 2008-2009, I was 244 denied, on the specious grounds that a funeral had been held upon George’s 1991 death, a Department of Defence presence at a proposed scattering of his ashes at the Kilrossanty Republican Plot. Additionally, in exercise of its remit, the Waterford Old I.R.A. Memorial Organisation noted the “sacred” nature of the plot and that a dispersal would constitute ”penetration of the soil.” Further controversy was engendered in that same year when it came to my attention that the Waterford Republican Sinn Fein (RSF) Cumann had adopted the Whelan- Lennon name. The Cumann was notified that George, in his later years, had eschewed violence. As a result, the organisation renamed itself in honour of Northern hunger striker (d. 8 August 1981) Thomas McElwee. In September 2009 a talk and exhibition entitled “The Road to Independence” was held, under the auspices of of the Waterford County Museum, on the ground floor of the old Dungarvan Town Hall. Prominently figuring in the discussion, by Dr Pat McCarthy, Sean Murphy, Terence O’Reilly and the author, was the role of George Lennon. This event coincided with the completion of my Ulster to the Deise: Lennons in Time and, O’Reilly’s Rebel Heart: George Lennon Flying Column Commander. Following talks and a discussion a crumpled up British newspaper was prominantly left discarded on the 2nd floor auditorium floor. Highlighted was a prominent article and photo regarding the dispersal of the ashes controversy. Some in the contemporary Republican movement in County Waterford were seemingly not pleased by the airing of details regarding their organisation’s denial of the author’s request. St John Fisher’s newly opened Skalny Welcome Center witnessed, for six weeks from 15 March to 30 April 2010, an art exhibit entitled “Forgotten Ireland” featuring artist friends of George including Harry Kernoff and Charles Lamb. Displayed were the works of Power-O’Malley and renditions of the Lennon and Shanahan Dungarvan homes by Blawnin Clancy, daughter of Tom Clancy of the famed Clancy Brothers. In 2011 a documentary (From War to Peace: The Life of George Lennon), was shown in the Dungarvan film theatre, on the Irish language TV station TG4 and at an Irish Film Feis in Rochester, N.Y. It is currently available on YouTube. November 2012 saw the presentation of four performances, at the old Town Hall auditorium, of Muiris O’Keeffe’s play Days of Our Youth. The subject was George’s revolutionary days centered on the Piltown and Burgery ambushes. The former town hall was a most appropriate locale as it was in the front of this building that George had received a “massive reception” upon his February 1918 release from Ballybricken prison. Along with a window display entitled “Irish Rebel to Zen Buddhist,” shown at Rochester’s Winton Road Library on 18 March 2013, was Cormac’s TG4 documentary. In 2013 a headstone was erected at the grassy Shanahan family plot located immediately behind the St. Mary’s Church office. Interred in that plot, in 1954, was the last surviving Dungarvan Shanahan - school teacher Josephine, sister of Nellie Shanahan Lennon. 245 On 22 March 2014, at Albany’s Irish American Heritage Museum, SUNY Professor Donald Masterson and the author led a presentation and discussion on George Lennon, 1913-1922. This was followed the next year by an Albany exhibit, from 23 January to 22 March, entitled “The Art of Michael Augustine Power O’Malley.” With the impending centenaries, a number of books were published in the Deise. Tommy Mooney of Ardmore, son of Volunteer Tom Mooney, released his 358 page study of Waterford’s revolutionary period month by month from 1913 to June 1922. The Siege of Waterford, a “graphic novel” suitably written and illustrated by Eamon Cowan, “based on the photographic archives of Waterford County Museum,” was released regarding the July 1922 Free State attack of Paddy Paul on his former comrades. Another 2015 work on the 1912-1923 period was Dr. Pat McCarthy’s Waterford. There was also a Park Hotel Dungarvan exhibit (31 October 2015) entitled “Waterford’s Revolutionary Decade Roadshow.” The summer of 2014 saw the installation of a plaque on the cemetery wall at St. Mary’s parish church. Noted are the nearby presence (pp. 64-65) of the remains of George’s parents (George Crolly Lennon/Nellie Shanahan Lennon) and grandparents (James Lennon /Mary Anne Crolly Lennon). Also enscribed were the names of May and George. A PowerPoint presentation entitled “George Lennon: I.R.A. Rebel to Zen Pacifist” was shown at St. John Fisher College (16 April 2010), Tramore’s Old Coast Guard Station (28 August 2015) and at Rochester Institute of Technology’s OSHER Institute (2016). 246 Chapter XVII CONCLUSIONS Waterford Didn't Do Much? It has been written that Munster, with the exception of Waterford, was the heartland of the I.R.A. campaign. However, was it true that upon crossing the Youghal Bridge eastward from "Rebel Cork" or the River Suir at Carrick, the domain of the Third Tipperary Brigade, that one entered a peaceable domain in 1919 -1921? Originally posed by Ernie O’Malley, this is the question that Dr. Pat McCarthy set out to answer in a Deise article entitled "Waterford Hasn't Done Much Either? Waterford in the War of Independence, 1919-1921 -- A Comparative Analysis.” At the time of the Volunteer split in 1914, the Redmondite National Volunteers (constitutional nationalists) in County Waterford vastly outnumbered the physical force Irish Volunteers (anti- parliamentarians). The latter, according to police estimates in 1915, were down to some 73 men with only two rifles. With such paltry numbers it is not surprising that the oath bound Irish Republican Brotherhood (I.R.B.) did not seem to have included Waterford in their plans for the Easter 1916 Rising. What national plan there was reportedly envisaged the Volunteers from the county and city linking up with the South Tipperary Volunteers and continuing to Limerick where the anticipated arms from Germany would be distributed. With the cancellation of the general mobilization, all that took place in Waterford was the abortive search for arms by Pax Whelan and George Lennon. Nonetheless, Volunteer training, gun running and the search for arms, both in The Deise and as far away as Dublin, continued through 1918 and 1919. Lennon and Whelan were arrested for theft of a British soldier’s weapon and were incarcerated in January 1918 in Waterford gaol. Later re-arrested, after being “on the run” for nearly a year, Lennon spent April – May 1919 in Cork Male Prison. The first violent enemy encounter involving men from Waterford occurred out of the county. On 7 September 1919, Mick Mansfield and George joined forces with Volunteers of Liam Lynch's 2nd Cork Brigade and ambushed members of the Royal Shropshire Light Infantry outside of the Wesleyan Church in Fermoy. Subsequent Volunteer activities in West Waterford, in early 1920, involved raids on income tax offices, the R.I.C., the postal service and courts in Dungarvan, Lismore and Ardmore. In May 1920, West Waterford Brigade Vice O/C Lennon journeyed northward and joined the East Limerick men in the successful attack on the Kilmallock R.I.C. Barracks. George was with these men when they went “on the run” and formed the first I.R.A. active service unit or Flying Column. After Kilmallock, he was involved with Ernie O’Malley and Sean Moylan in making gelignite at Bunratty, County Clare and planning 247 for the subsequently aborted attack at Sixmilebridge. Engagements followed at Bruree and Kildorrery, Co. Cork. At the request of Liam Lynch George helped set up the famed North Cork Flying Column later portrayed in Sean Keating’s iconic painting,” Men of the South.” With Pat Keating, he journeyed to Vaughan’s Hotel, Dublin to meet with Mick Collins to discuss Pat’s “mud bombs” proposal. He and Pat also planned, in conjunction with East Waterford’s Paddy Paul, attacks at Bunmahon and Kill, County Waterford. After attending a three-week September training camp, organised by Lynch and conducted by O'Malley, he returned to West Waterford to lead the men on active service. As detailed in Chapters X through XIII, West Waterford men were involved in many encounters with the R.I.C., Black and Tans and British military forces. Lennon personally noted his involvement in seventeen engagements. In actuality, this is probably a conservative figure. There were also ambushes, which were set up but did not come to fruition. Additionally, beyond the scope of this study, were the activities of the four West Waterford Battalions. Subsequent to the Truce, Waterford barracks were seized, weapons captured at Dunkitt and guns landed at Cheekpoint and Ballinagoul. In terms of revolutionary violence, County Waterford (east and west) fell between the quiescent east coast (outside of Dublin) and "Rebel Cork.” On a population basis I.R.A. operations in County Waterford, per 10,000 of the population, numbered 1.7; more than double that of Wexford (.8) and about one half of Tipperary (3.8) and Cork (3.5). Were West Waterford treated in isolation from the entire County, this figure, of course, would have been much higher in that east County Waterford more closely resembled, in level of activity, nearby Kilkenny and Wexford. Working against an active campaign to the east was the strong Redmondite presence and what Paddy Paul termed “the unsuitability of the terrain....” In contrast, to the west the Knockmealdown, Nire, Comeragh, Drum Hills terrain afforded a far more hospitable environment for guerrilla fighters. Additionally, the Deise populace, with a relatively higher proportion of native Irish speakers, was far more sympathetic to the I.R.A. As discussed earlier in Chapter XII ("Brigade Reorganisation"), I.R.A. G.H.Q., aware of the greater involvement of the Deise Brigade, saw fit, most likely in August of 1921, to combine the two Waterford Brigades with an enlarged and better armed active service unit operating under George two months earlier. McCarthy's analysis concluded: By the summer of 1921 West Waterford was heading towards a more active part in the War of Independence. The West Waterford Brigade had demonstrated its ability to mount relatively large-scale operations such as the ambushes at the Burgery and Ballyvoile. It had the leadership, the manpower and the arms. 248 Seoirse O Leannain George Lennon by Ruth Carver In a 1967 letter to Rochester Democrat and Chronicle columnist Henry Clune, George Lennon compared the situation in Viet Nam to that faced by the British in revolutionary Ireland: When in the early months of 1920 it was decided to resort to guerrilla warfare...commandos in the field numbered no more than 150 men in opposition to an occupation army of 25,000 troops plus an armed police force...of 10,000. At the termination of hostilities the armed Irish... did not far exceed 1,000 trained guerrillas and the British troops were holding only the towns and cities.... 249 Others have estimated the number of men in the field at the time of the Truce as approaching 2000 with 4500 internees. Regardless of the actual number, as Hopkinson noted, “a surprisingly small proportion of the young were I.R.A. members and the actual fighting was done by relatively few.” How was it that such a small force could have succeeded against a mighty Empire? Lennon observed that the only way to defeat an indigenous guerrilla force "is by a policy of genocide." Hopkinson remarked: IRA fighting did not need to be that widespread or that continuous: individual actions on a comparatively small scale had profound effects on British opinion and morale. The British military had a far higher opinion of IRA Intelligence in the provinces than the IRA's own GHQ did. The success of a guerrilla force is partly built on myth: from a British perspective it was a sinister, shadowy, intangible and ubiquitous presence threatening them anywhere and at anytime Looking back upon that troubled period, what most struck me, upon a closer reading of George’s Trauma in Time and his I.R.A. pension application, was my father's unbroken (save for two incarcerations and resulting “ill health” during the summer of 1919) involvement in the Republican struggle. This began as a teenage member of Na Fianna Eireann when he gathered the Dungarvan gorsoons and "drilled them up and down the street using their hurleys as mock rifles.” Also, with Barney Dalton, exploding an early “improvised explosive device (I.E.D) at the Dungarvan waterfront. Involvement which ended late July 1922 with the I.R.A. retreat from the Free State Army. At age fourteen he was appointed Adjutant in the newly formed (October 1914) Dungarvan Volunteers. He was only fifteen years of age during Easter Week 1916 when he set off with Pax Whelan on an abortive attempt to seize arms from a train. He was incarcerated in Waterford Gaol at age seventeen and marked his nineteenth birthday in solitary confinement in Cork Gaol. Earlier, he was sworn into the secret oath bound Irish Republican Brotherhood (I.R.B.). He was militarily active in Limerick, Clare and Cork, prior to the formation of an Active Service Unit in his native An Deise. Returning to Dungarvan, he likely became the youngest O/C of an A.S.U. Additionally, he was probably one of the youngest, if not the youngest, Vice O/C of an I.R.A. Brigade. Like many of the more active men, such as Pat Keating and Mick Mansfield, he was a person who did not dwell on his accomplishments and his numerous “hair breadth escapes.” The latter included: Using fire extinguishers as a ruse in Kilkenny with the Nipper (February 1918); “living rough” as an eighteen year old on the run for 11 months (1918-1919); Fermoy (9 September 1919); escaping with others from a billet at Mother Kent’s in Kilmac (Spring 1920); Ballyhooly and Cappagh Train Stations (March 1921); Walsh’s Hotel, Cappoquin (27 November 1920) and, lastly, during the War of Independence period, at Grawn/Faha Bridge (19 May 1921). Two further escapes ocurred involving Free State soldiers in July 1922: at the shelled Ballybricken jail and at Barnakil. 250 He was quite ready to admit, as at the Burgery, when his actions were less than heroic. Many of these men of the 1919 -1923 period were revolutionary idealists motivated, not by personal gain, but by a desire to rid their native land of a 750 year colonial presence. George Lennon moved beyond mere patriotism. It was the Lennon/Davern character in Dead Star's Light who saw "a people wandering in the darkness of the two shadows" of patriotism and "our Church - the best run and most powerful business institution in the country." He rejected a parochial Roman Catholicism in favour of a more universal humanitarianism that respected "the fundamental truth that you cannot serve God and Mammon." George, like many nationalists including Pearse and Lynch, according to Richard English in his study of Ernie O’Malley, "celebrated the spiritual and the anti- material quality of Irish Republicanism." English noted: ...Romantic conceptions of Ireland contrasted its supposed spirituality with the materialism held to be characteristic of England. Ireland was, in the eyes of the Revolutionaries, to play a role in rescuing people from materialism. The Pearsean Terence MacSwiney, the Republican Lord Mayor of Cork who died on hunger strike in 1920, argued that, "We shall rouse the world from a wicked dream of material greed". Under his leadership, the Flying Column was ultimately successful in making West Waterford ungovernable. The morale of the Royal Irish Constabulary was undermined, recruitment impaired, barracks destroyed and individual constables forced to leave the service. Those Irish policemen (e.g., Prendiville and Hickey) who persisted in the performance of their duty faced an untimely death. I.R.A. targets were always the enemy (R.I.C., Tans, and British military) and the foreign governmental apparatus. Life was not taken indiscriminately. By the standards of this, or any other day, I.R.A. behaviour was most chivalrous toward their foe. It is difficult, for example, in the light of subsequent twentieth century conflicts, to imagine a combatant going to the aid of a wounded enemy, as did George Plunkett at the Dublin G.P.O. Captured British military were always treated humanely and released as was shown at Piltown and the Burgery. Volunteers struggled with the fate of captured native Irishmen who were furthering British objectives. At Durrow, they had released, at Mike Mansfield's insistence, Charles Nugent Humble whose home had been made available to the British military. Also released, in November of 1920 at Piltown Cross, were the two constables who had pledged to leave the R.I.C. It was with the greatest reluctance that the Column O/C faced the necessity of executing his childhood acquaintance, Sergeant Hickey. This was understandable in that, only 251 days earlier, Lennon had his presence at Cappagh station ignored by Constable Neery of Dungarvan.This arguably “beneficent” reaction avoided incarceration, interrogation and quite possibly, a death sentence for the leader of the Waterford rebels. Deaths at engagements in which he was involved included Volunteer Liam Scully at Kilmallock, Constable Watkins at Kildorrery, two enemy at Piltown, Constable Quirk at Cappoquin and two I.R.A. men shot following the Pickardstown engagement. March of 1921 saw the death of a British soldier at Durrow and of Constable Redman at the Burgery. That same morning the arguably avoidable fatal shootings of Sean Fitzgerald and Pat Keating occurred. Although he was not directly involved, the 5th June 1921 witnessed the death of John Cummins. Lennon's order to reopen the trench at Kilgobnet, days before the Truce, led to the death of six civilians. He held himself at least partially responsible for the deaths of Keating and Fitzgerald. He was deeply moved by the necessity of the firing squad death of police spy Hickey and by the subsequent coup de grace, which he administered to the temple of the policeman. A shot perhaps necessitated by the fact that the autopsy revealed only two firing squad bullets in Hickey’s torso. Even more traumatic, being acutely aware of his likely execution if caught, was his May 1921 Grawn escape with Mick Mansfield. This was followed, the next year, by the effects upon him of the “accurately directed” Free State bombardment of his Ballybricken command. Disillusionment occurred with what he viewed as the "sellout" of the 11 July 1921 Truce at a time when "things seemed to be going so well": ... Our enemies had retreated into the towns and they were now only venturing out in large mobile columns complete with mounted officers and a field kitchen. A further blow to his revolutionary ardour was when the I.R.A. entered Waterford City and claimed it for the Irish nation for the first time in some 750 years. A significance apparently not appreciated by the citizenry who were generally less than receptive. Retreating westward after the Free State attack on Waterford, the Column was to find a not always hospitable reception by the country people who, in the past, had sustained the men on the run. In his words, "we were not going to live off the good country people again." Inevitably, this marked a low point in his young life. Shortly after the end of what he termed that unmentionable Civil War, his short poem ("be kind to little animals...") on the occasion of Anastasia Keating's "American Wake" in Ardmore, was indicative of evolving political, philosophical and religious underpinnings. He later observed that St Patrick had been unsuccessful in banishing two “snakes:” namely “religious intolerance and tribal insularity….” His disenchantment with the conservative nature of the Church traced to personal experiences beginning with the antipathy of the Dungavan clergy towards the I.R.A. when his parish priest excoriated 252 him as the leader of the men in the surrounding hills. In May of 1922, the local monsignor in Waterford abetted the escape of Free State officer Paddy Paul from his imprisonment by the I.R.A. garrison. Later that year, the Irish Bishops denied the sacraments to members of the I.R.A. during the Civil War. Not allowed to bury the father of the Mansfield brothers, the I.R.A. was forced to take over the Grange Church. George’s close friend, Lena Keating Walsh noted that the Cappoquin priest denied “spiritual attention” to her dying brother Tom What Lena termed the “hostile” clergy in Dungarvan permitted only one mass to be said for him. Later, in the 1930’s, the Clonmel parish priest reacted strongly to the contents of Dead Star’s Light and effectively expunged author Una Troy Walsh and her husband Dr. Joe Walsh from membership in that church. George objected to the “special position” accorded the Church in the Free State Constitution of 1937 and supported the Republicans in their struggle against the Church backed Fascist General Franco in Spain. Reportedly, not viewed favorably in some quarters was his 1939 marriage outside the “one true Church” and the 1943 baptism of his son, in seeming violation of the Ne Temere decree. In the early 1950’s he favoured Dr. Noel Browne’s health scheme, which was vociferously opposed by the Church hierarchy who viewed it as an attack on family and Church values. He may have been aware of the “disappearance” of his family’s plot at St. Mary’s. Perhaps he also wondered as to the whereabouts, in that same cemetery, of his erstwhile enemy and childhood acquaintance, Sergeant Hickey. His motivation for returning to Ireland in 1936, after a decade in New York City, is a matter of conjecture. Certainly his health was a factor as was the receipt in 1935 of a military service pension. As to the likely duration of his stay, insight may be gleaned from “Elizabeth Connor’s” (Una Troy Walsh) 1947 Abbey play in which the Lennon/Davern character states: “…Well, here I am now at home again- at home for good…” Followed by the words “I hope.” When questioned as to why he didn’t “think so much of the country you fought to make…,” he replied: “Not quite. I’m looking for that country – still.” Likely “blinded by the light of a dead star.” As to the practical matter of employment, he rejected the notion that he might cash in on Fianna Fail’s (anti-Treatyites) assumption of power by becoming a T.D. (member of the Dail). This prompted his antithesis in the Walsh book, the lawyer Ross, to comment that Davern had “left the returned hero stuff rather late.” In that “heroes are out of fashion,” perhaps he “could be an inspector…I’m sure they’d think up something for you to inspect.” Ironic in that this was the position George eventually did secure. Working against government employment, however, was the fact that, save for some six months, he lacked formal schooling and hence, was deficient in the language of his forbearers. Also, his outspokenness against the Church did not serve him well in this regard. However he was not loath to draw upon his Republican contacts in securing employment and the wound/disability pension. 253 Reportedly viewed by some as a “communist, an anti-cleric, an agitator, a gun-man,” his decade long sojourn in the Free State ended with unemployment, relying upon the two government pensions for his last twenty one months in the Free State. Nonetheless, so anxious was he to leave that he chose the only available option at that time - a very expensive flight out of the newly opened Shannon Airport. In the former “burnt over district” of western New York State, centered on Rochester (home to the Mormons, the Fox Sisters, the Shakers, Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony and “Red Emma” Goldman) he was attracted, by the non - violent tenets of the Quakers, Unitarians and the Eastern philosophy of Zen Buddhism. Reflecting in the 1950's, and 1960’s, he wrote a play (Down by the Glen Side) dealing with an "Irish Commandant" who had forged a brief, albeit unlikely, friendship with a captured English Captain who was to be shot in reprisal. As the Commandant pointed his Luger at the officer’s temple, the British Captain reached up and pulled the blindfold Down around his neck and gazed directly into the eyes of his executioner who now has only split moments to make a decision. His humanity and his generosity are in wild conflict with what he conceives to be his duty. But, in spite of his youth, he is a person with an understanding beyond the ordinary - A deeply rooted instinct, an instruction, as it were, pulls him out of his dilemma. He chooses to take a different path than that taken by the twenty-year-old Column O/C immediately after the first Burgery ambush. He “picks up his rifle and goes toward the rear exit” declaring, “goodbye, English Officer.” He then “runs forward into a hail of rifle fire...throws his arm over his head and staggers in the opposite direction...trips and pitches heavily on his face.” The spared British Captain then declares: We must all perform our duty as we see fit.... Fighting! Killing! It has been going on and on and there is more to come - but it cannot go on forever. I take it upon myself to refuse – to say NO!! It is my personal choice! Written in an obituary entitled "George Lennon: A Quiet Warrior" by Brian Coulter, son of former An Phoblacht Assistant Editor Geoffrey Coulter, it was observed: He was reserved and determined and had little time for trivia or trivial people. Yet in his time he was a giant. Pax Whelan... was said... to have spoken of him in hushed, reverent tones as befits a true leader. Whenever there was a "job" to be done, George Lennon was always there, organising, leading, quite ruthless and extra- ordinarily brave. He shirked nothing. 254 Most notably, Brian continued, "when the engagement was over and backs were being slapped, George would quietly slip away, for he had no time for such frivolities.” APPENDICES As noted on page 5, what follows (as in Chapter XVII) are, for the most part, summations of matters contained in the body of this work and, in some cases, written earlier. APPENDIX A LENNONS IN TIME 226-268 A.D.......... Cormac MacArt, King of Tara (254 A.D.) (Drove the Desii from Tara to "South Desii") 6th Century............ Colman macLeinin (Monastery at Cloyne) 606 A.D. ................ A "Lenin" (Annals of Innisfallen) 780 A.D. ................ MacLeinne, Abbot of Innis Bairein (Annals of Ulster) 896 A.D. ................ A "Lonain" ( Annals of Innisfallen) 898 A.D.................. A County Clare Lennan (Annals of Inisfallen) 898 A.D.................. Lennain macCathrannach succeeds brother Flann mac Cathrannach as King of Corcu Bhaiscinn (Kilrush, Co. Clare) 900 A.D.................. Abbot Flannagain O Lonain 913 A.D................... Death of Lennain MacCathranagh, Erenagh of Inis Cathaig 1064 A.D................. Death of O Lonain, blind poet of Munster 1119 A.D.................. Death of Diarmait Ua Lennain, Bishop/Erenagh of Inis Cathaig 1380 A.D................. Death of Domnail O Leannain, Prior of Lisgoole 1396 A.D................. Death of Matha O Luinin, Herenagh of Arda 1430 A.D................. Death of Giolla na Naomh Ua Lennain, Prior of Lisgoole 1434 A.D. ............... Death of Lucas O Leannain, Prior of Lisgoole 1441 A.D................. Death of Piarus Cam O Luinin, Erenagh of Arda 1445 A.D................. Death of Tomas O Leannain, Prior of Lisgoole 1446 A.D. ............... Death of Eoin Ua Leannain, Prior of Lisgoole 1446 A.D................. Death of Adhamh mac Matha mhoir hUi Luinin 255 1466 A.D................. Death of Donnall O Leannain, Canon of Lisgoole 1477 A.D.................. Death of Matha O Luinin, Erenagh of Arda 1470-1516 A.D......... Matha macBriain mhicCormaic Oig O Luinin, scribe 1478 A.D................. Death of Tadhg Fionn O Luinin, Maguire historian 1528 A.D................. Death of Ruaidhri O Luinin, scribe of the Annals of Ulster 1529 A.D................. Death of Cormac macDeinis mac Phiarusa OLuini 1540 A.D................. Neime O Luinin family dies of the plague 1571 A.D.................. “Bretha Nemed” manuscript by Matha O Luinin 1579 A.D................. Matha O Luinin complains regarding a manuscript allegedly by O Cassaide 1586 A.D................ Matha O Luinin pardoned by the Crown 1588 A.D................ Death of Matha O Luinin, Maguire historian 1630's A.D.............. Giolla Padraig O Luinin, Maguire, scribe, Annals of the Four Masters plus a new edition of the Book of Invasions 1647 A.D................. Reverend O'Crilli 1649 A.D................. Abbot Patrick Crolly, emissary between Lord Antrim and Charles Cromwell 1676 A.D. ................ Conchubhar Caoch O Luinin, wrote "G129" manuscript and later brought the Fermanagh Genealogies up to date 1690 A.D................. James Crolly (Crilly) with Niall O'Neill at the Battle of the Boyne 1712 A.D.................. Cormac O Luinin (aka Seurlas O Luinin and Charles Lynegar), Professor of Irish, Trinity College, Dublin and "chief antequary of the Kingdom of Ireland" 1813-1878 A.D......... Reverend George Crolly, biographer, journalist 1782-1849 A.D........ Dr. William Crolly, Roman Catholic Archbishop Primate of Ireland 1780-1860 A.D....... Reverend George Croly, preacher, poet 1842 A.D................. Pol O Longan, transcribes Fermanagh Geneaologies Late 1700's ............. Birth in the Deise of James Shanahan (maternal great grandfather of George Gerard Lennon) 1811……………………..Birth of William Walsh (maternal great grandfather of GGL) 1831........................ Birth of James Shanahan (maternal grand father of GGL) 1823...................……Birth of James Lennon (paternal grandfather of GGL) 1825.........................Birth of Mary Anne Crolly (paternal grandmother of GGL) 1845.........................Marriage (22 September) of William Walsh to Ellen Agnes Power GGL’s maternal great grandparents) 256 1846 ………...............Birth (18 October) of Sara Eliza Walsh (maternal grand mother of GGL) to William Walsh and Ellen Agnes Power Walsh 1873.........................Marriage (7 September) of James Shanahan/Sara Eliza Walsh 1875 ………… Birth (August 4) of Ellen Shanahan (mother of GGL) to James Shanahan and Sarah Eliza Walsh Shanahan 1870...............Birth (January 23) of George Crolly Lennon (father of GGL) to James Lennon/ Anne Crolly Lennon (paternal grandparents of GGL) 1889… ……… Death (March 29) of James Lennon (GGL’s paternal grandfather) 1898…………..Death (16 September) of Mary Anne Crolly Lennon (GGL’s paternal grandmother) 1891………… Death (20 December) of William Walsh (GGL’s maternal great grand father (Preceded by wife Ellen Agnes Power Walsh) 1894………… Death (11 Oct) of Sara Eliza Walsh (GGL’s maternal grandmother) 1897..............Marriage (9 September) of George Crolly Lennon to Ellen Shanahan (parents of GGL) 1900…………..Birth (25 May) of George Gerard Lennon to George Crolly Lennon/ Ellen Shanahan Lennon 1900...............Death of James Shanahan (GGL’s maternal grandfather) 1914................Death (June 11) of George Crolly Lennon (GGL’s father) 1916 -1923..... The "Troubles:” War of Independence and Civil War 1924...............Death (7 November) of Ellen Shanahan Lennon (GGL’s mother) 1927...............George G. Lennon (20 January) emigrates from Cobh, County Cork 1934……………Naturalization of George Lennon (22 April) 1936...............George Lennon returns (4 August) to Ireland 1939...............Marriage (14 July) of George to Eveline May Sibbald 1943...............Birth (14 June) of Ivan Lennon 1946...............George G. Lennon returns (20 February) to the United States 1947…………… Eveline May Lennon and Ivan Lennon emigrate (14 October) 1966…………… George Lennon returns (April) for 5oth Easter Week Commemoration 1970…………… Marriage (27 June) of Susan Rae Wagner to Ivan Lennon 1970…………… Birth (11 November) of Kristin Maureen Lennon 1974…………… Birth (11 February) of Colin Michael Lennon 257 1983…………… Death (13 November) of Eveline May Sibbald Lennon 1991…………… Death (20 February) of George G. Lennon APPENDIX B IRISH VOLUNTEERS: A REVOLUTIONARY CHRONOLOGY # PLACE EVENT DATE 1 Ballynamuck Train ambush 24 April 1916 2 Dungarvan Gun theft 9 January 1918 3 Waterford Gaol Incarceration Jan/Feb 1918 4 Dublin/Kilkenny Collecting arms/eludes capture February 1918 5 Waterford City Parliamentary Election March 1918 6 Dungarvan Court House Riot April 1918 7 Co. Waterford “on the run”/eludes capture 11 April 1918 ff. 8 Lismore Court Caught/sentenced March 1919 9 Cork Male Prison Incarceration March - 28 May 1919 10 Whelans of Ballyduff Recuperation (‘in ill health”) June - August 1919 11 Wesleyan Church, Royal Shropshire Light 7 September 1919 Fermoy, Co. Cork Infantry ambush/Escape 12 Dungarvan Petty Sessions Clerk raid 1 January 1920 13 Ardmore R.I.C. Barracks attack 17 January 1920 14 Dungarvan (Church St.) R.I.C. Inspector King’s car 2 February 1920 15 Dungarvan, Lismore, Ring Tax offices etc. raided Spring 1920 16. Kilmacthomas Eludes capture Spring 1920 17 Kilmallock, Co. Limerick R.I.C. Barracks attack 28 May 1920 18 Corbetts of Bunratty Gelignite manufacture June 1920 Co. Clare Aborted attack at Sixmilebridge 19 Bruree, Co. Limerick Ambush 30 July 1920 20 Kildorrery, Co. Cork Ambush 7 August 1920 21 North Cork Formation of N. Cork Column August 1920 22 Bunmahon, Co. Waterford Coastguard Station burned August 1920 23 Vaughan’s Hotel, Dublin Mick Collins meeting 9 September 1920 24 Youghal, Co. Cork Stolen motorcar 12 September 1920 25 Glenville, Co. Cork Lynch Training Camp 17 September 1920 ff. 258 26 Kill, Waterford Planned R.I.C Barracks attack 18 September 1920 27 Dungarvan, Co Waterford W.Waterford Flying Column Sept./Oct. 1920 28 Brown’s Pike Ambush 12 October 1920 29 Piltown Cross Ambush 1 November 1920 30 Cappoquin (Walsh’s Hotel) Constable Quirk killed 27 November 1920 Eludes capture 31 Kilminnion Bridge, etc. Aborted ambushes Autumn/Winter 1920-21 32 Rockfield Cross, Cappagh Ambush 31 November 1920 33 Pickardstown (Tramore) Ambush 7 January 1921 34 Robert’s Cross, Ring Ambush 11 February 1921 35 Glenville, Cork Officers Convention 27 February 1921 36 Durrow/Ballyvoyle Ambush (jurors) 3 March 1921 37 Glenville, Cork Liam Lynch meeting called 4 March 1921 38 Ballyhooly/Cappagh Eludes capture March 1921 39 Burgery, Abbeyside Ambush 18-19 March 1921 40 Carrowncashlane Sgt. Hickey executed 19 March 1921 41 Glenville, Co. Cork Officers Convention 28 March 1921 42 Cutteen House (?) Meeting w/ O/C Paddy Paul 28 April 1921 43 Ballyvoyle/Ballylynch Train ambush 29 April 1921 44 Glenville, Cork Officers Convention 7 May 1921 45Kilrossanty Pat Keating funeral 18 May 1921 46 Grawn (Faha Bridge) Eludes British ambush 19 May 1921 47 Cutteen House, Comeragh Paddy Paul meeting May 1921 48 Cappagh Station Train ambush 4 July 1921 49 Kilgobnet Trench explosion 9 July 1921 50 Sleady Castle area Truce news received 11 July 1921 51 Devonshire Arms Hotel I.R.A. Liaison Officer Aug./Nov.1921 52 Cheekpoint, Waterford Gun running 11-12 November 1921 53 Mansion House, Dublin Dail accepts treaty 7 January 1922 54 Dunkitt, Co. Kilkenny Arms Seizure 3 March 1922 55 Cappoquin Barracks seizure March 1922 56 Waterford City I.R.A. occupation 9 March 1922 57 Mansion House, Dublin Army Convention 26 March 1922 58 Waterford City Free State attack 18 July 1922 259 59 Ballybricken redoubt Escapes after artillery fire 21 July 1922 60 Barnakill, Kilrossanty Eludes Free State ambush July 1922 61 Co. Waterford Resignation 1 August APPENDIX C A DEISE TALE: THE BURGERY AMBUSH In Limerick, Michael Joseph Hickey, the son of a Royal Irish Constabulary officer, had to choose a career path from the few available to an Irishman at the dawn of the 20th century. Cleric, farmer or emigrant seemingly had no appeal. He elected to follow in the footsteps of his father; although it meant adherence to the R.I.C. policy of stationing men outside their home county, away from immediate family and friends. The recently promoted Sergeant, at the time of the Burgery ambush, was a fifteen-year veteran of the police force. This position was an important one involving prestige and authority. He was in charge, on a daily basis, of the constables and the police barracks at Dungarvan Castle. According to some, Hickey was "very popular" and, in all probability, with an impending marriage, entertained thoughts of raising a family in his adopted Dungarvan. Men of the police force, as North Cork I.R.A. Commandant Sean Moylan observed: Were of the people, were inter-married with the people and were generally men of exemplary lives of a high level of intelligence. As native Irishmen, they were, with the exception of Dublin Castle officials, generally sympathetic to a degree of national independence for Ireland. As to the extent of Hickey's nationalist sympathies one can only speculate: "physical force" Republican or, the more likely, moderate constitutional Home Ruler? Indicative of his sympathies was a green, white and orange tricolour flag reportedly sewn to the inside of his tunic, according to Margo Lordan Kehoe, daughter of his fiancee Nellie Kelly. The men of the R.I.C were in an untenable position, in that, as natives, they represented a 750-year foreign presence in Waterford, which traced to the arrival in of the Norman Strongbow in 1170 A.D. Regarding a conflicted R.I.C., Moylan continued: Even if they understood and sympathised with the motives of the I.R.A. it would have been most difficult for them to realise that any success would attend the efforts of the handful of men putting their puny strength against the might of the Empire. It was expecting too much of them to expect that they would resign. 260 Hickey had been repeatedly warned by the I.R.A. to do just that or, at least, desist, in the performance of his duties, from furthering the objectives of Crown forces. Surely he was aware of the fate of other R.I.C. constables in County Waterford and adjoining Youghal, County Cork. At Piltown, O/C Lennon had released Constable Maurice Prendiville in return for a promise to leave the force. Failing to do so, he was fatally shot (3 December 1920) near the Blackwater Bridge outside Youghal. Killed in Kilmacthomas (3 September 1920) was Sergeant Morgan. March the 3rd witnessed the death of Constable Duddy in Scartacrooks. Late November 1920 saw two constables (Rea and Quirk) fatally shot in Cappoquin. Involved in the Cappoquin incidents were at least four Dungarvan men George Lennon, Pat Keating, Mick Mansfield and the “Nipper” McCarthy - who were to play prominent roles at the Burgery. Stationed at the West Waterford Dungarvan Barracks, Hickey and other constables had befriended the gorsoons who came to play with the children of the Chief Constable. Among them was a young lad, George Lennon, the son of the manager of the local gas works. This police - child relationship, in the face of physical force, nationalism, was to place both the officer and Lennon in a conflicted position. Another childhood friendship which was to intersect at the ambush was that of I.R.A. Volunteers Pat Keating and Sean Fitzgerald. At the beginning of hostilities their paths had diverged when Sean emigrated to find work and Pat joined the men on active service with the West Waterford I.R.A. Brigade under the command of twenty-year-old Lennon. Pat was a poet, Irish footballer, member of the Gaelic Athletic Association, Sinn Fein organiser and lover of all things Irish. "On the run" as a member of the Deise Flying Column, he was wanted "dead or alive" with a reward of four hundred pounds for his capture per the police publication Hue and Cry. Like others including Liam Lynch, Cathal Brugha, Mick Mansfield and Pax Whelan, he was imbued with a revolutionary idealism. This was reflected in his poetry. With thoughts of emigrated friend Sean Fitzgerald he included the following in his poem Comeragh's Rugged Hills: It's long since I bade farewell For it is my sad fate Our land oppressed by tyrant's laws I had to emigrate... When on my pillow I recline On a foreign land to rest The thoughts of my dear native home Still throbs within my heart When silence overcomes me My dreams they seem to fill Of my dear native happy home Nigh Comeragh's rugged hills 261 Pat felt a personal responsibility for all aspects of the lives of the men of the column. He was concerned about the possibility of reprisals, not only against his family but also against others who provided assistance to the guerrilla fighters. This concern extended to his employers at the Durrow Co-operative. As a wanted man he knew that if the authorities were to learn of his employment "the store would have been burned to the ground." He, accordingly, resigned from his job. Sean Fitzgerald kept in touch with his friends and family in the Deise. He was well aware of how the national struggle was progressing and "longed to return to give a helping hand.” Informed of Pat's reported death at an ambush outside Tramore (Pickardstown), his response was prophetic: “I was saddened to hear of Pat's death and I am sorry I was not alongside him." Relieved to hear, upon returning home, that the rumour was false, he joined the active service unit and participated in the encounter against British forces at the Durrow train station and adjacent Co-operative. George Lennon was cut from the same cloth as fellow Volunteers Fitzgerald and Keating. He was reared on tales of Cuchulainn, the Red Branch Knights and Sarsfield at Ballyneedy. His ancestry traced to medieval church monasteries where his antecedents served as erenaghs or lay abbots. His Crolly ancestors were aligned with Owen Roe O'Neill and later, at the time of the Battle of the Boyne, with Niall O'Neill who lies buried at Greyfriars Church in nearby Waterford City. In the nineteenth century, uncle George Crolly worked with Gavan Duffy of the Young Ireland Movement. His great grand uncle was William Crolly, Archbishop Primate of Ireland who had cautioned against Church involvement in County Roscommon landlord matters during the 1840’s. As an Irish Volunteer, at age fourteen, he chose to go with the minority of physical force nationalists rather than the constitutional Redmondites (National Volunteers) who had placed their faith in British promises while Irish men were sent to the Great War's killing fields. The Irish Volunteers opposed conscription in the British cause and saw Britain's difficulty as Ireland's opportunity. The Easter Sunday 1916 uprising was cancelled; yet Easter Monday witnessed a blood sacrifice on Sackville (O'Connell) Street with fourteen in Dublin, excepting Countess Gore Booth Markievicz and the American born de Valera, to face the firing squad. In Dungarvan, as one of only a few members of the local Volunteer brigade, he made an abortive attempt with Pax Whelan to seize weapons from a train. He left school in that year, not yet sixteen, to devote himself to the cause of an independent Irish Republic. The following years found him gun running and disrupting British administration in West Waterford. He was incarcerated at age seventeen in Waterford Gaol and later in Cork Gaol where he celebrated his nineteenth birthday. He was active in the first Flying Columns in East Limerick, West Limerick, and Cork. After training under Ernie O'Malley, with Liam Lynch, George Power and others, he returned to West Waterford to lead the Column under Brigade Commandant Whelan. Just turned twenty, he was the youngest of all the Column O/Cs throughout Ireland. He was also chosen Vice Commanding Officer of the West Waterford Brigade and inducted into the IRB. 262 There appeared in the Deise, in February of 1921, the "Count" or, as he preferred to be known, "Captain Murphy." In actuality he was George Plunkett, a G.H.Q. staff officer on a tour of inspection. If anyone could be said to have an Irish Republican pedigree it was he, having fought with distinction at the Dublin G.P.O. Easter Week. He had been sentenced to death and his brother, Joseph Mary Plunkett, was an Easter Week martyr. The home of his father, the Papal Count, had been ransacked and both parents had been incarcerated awaiting deportation. Viewed by Lennon as a "thoroughly conscientious man,” his humanity was in evidence when he ran out of the besieged G.P.O. to aid a wounded British officer. On the night of 18 March, the day of his 36th birthday, Sergeant Hickey accompanied a force of Black and Tans and British soldiers to apprehend a suspect sought by the authorities. Hickey's role was to identify the individual. While the Deise Flying Column was engaged in a fruitless attempt to blow up Tarr's Bridge, near the Burgery outside of Dungarvan, the military convoy was spied on its outward leg. The men of the I.R.A. rapidly deployed to ambush the convoy upon its return. Returning to Dungarvan with the identified prisoner, the enemy force was attacked by the Column at the Burgery. Captured British soldiers were eventually released. Hickey was not set free, as his knowledge would have endangered the lives of the Volunteers, their immediate families and others who would have been subject to reprisals at the hands of the Black and Tans. The O/C of the Column faced a dilemma: did he not perhaps owe his own life to Dungarvan Constable Neery? Earlier that month, returning from a Ballyhooly, Co. Cork meeting with Liam Lynch, he had found himself seated next to British Major Neville Cameron on a Dungarvan bound train. In an untenable situation, he sought to make his exit at Cappagh Station. Spying the departing rebel leader, the Constable averted his eyes allowing George to make his retreat. Life was not to be taken lightly as had been evidenced at the Durrow engagement when Mick Mansfield had successfully argued for the release of a British sympathiser. Hickey, however, was not a civilian or a member of the British military. He was viewed as an armed traitor and likely informer. A "subordinate officer," either Pat Keating or Mick Mansfield, expressed the reality of the situation faced by the I.R.A. men: "It would be the end of us all and our homes!" Last rites were administered by Father Power of Kilgobnet with the Constable pleading for his life to the former gorsoon: George, I knew you as a child. You used to play with the head constable's children in the barracks... You are the only person in the world who can save me. 263 A label "Police Spy" was affixed to his tunic; the O/C yelled "fire" and Hickey fell to the ground. Approaching the prostrate Sergeant, Lennon looked down "at the erstwhile enemy who is now an enemy no more" and administered a coup de grace to his temple. In a futile attempt to secure armaments possibly left behind after the ambush, a force under Plunkett, contrary to advice, returned to the ambush site early that morning. The men were surprised by an ambush and Sean Fitzgerald was mortally wounded. Pat Keating was shot attempting to go to the aid of his childhood companion. Hickey’s body was eventually conveyed to the Dungarvan parish church, St. Mary's, where gravediggers initially refused to perform their task. It was only at the instigation of a local curate that the unmarked grave was dug. The plot belonged to the family of the Sergeant’s fiancée. To avoid likely reprisals by Crown forces, Pat’s body of was placed in a coffin by Dr. Joe Walsh and interred, to avoid detection by the authorities, at two locales before finally resting, two months later, on the night of 18 May, in Kilrossanty where he rests "nigh Comeragh's rugged hills" alongside his lifelong friend, Sean Fitzgerald, for whom he had heroically given his life. Returning from the belated Kilrossanty burial, the I.R.A. pallbearers and other civilians were, likely based upon an informant, ambushed at Grawn near Faha Bridge. Making their escape from the horse and trap, Mick Mansfield managed at the last moment to refrain from shooting his friend Lennon who had landed on top of him. Sentenced to imprisonment were the civilian members of the party who were caught with weapons. Hospitalised, reportedly awaiting execution, was Paddy Joe Power. Had the armed Column leaders been caught, their fate would, no doubt, have been that accorded Hickey. Widowed some seven years earlier, Ellen Shanahan had sought to keep her young family of five intact despite the closure of the Lennon operated Dungarvan Gas Works and the loss of her second eldest son, George to the allure of the Republican movement. Attending daily mass she found solace in her abiding faith. At Sunday mass, some months before the Burgery incident, she had walked out in protest as the local parish priest attacked from the pulpit, her son and the men "on the run." She simply transferred her allegiance to a nearby church declaring "...it's a religion that's grand enough even to get over the priesthood it has -- and that ought to be enough to make any one believe it's the true one." (Dead Star's Light by "Elizabeth Connor", p. 303). Succumbing to cancer in 1924, her body was taken from Richmond Hospital, Dublin to that same parish church. After the ceremony her remains were moved to the adjacent cemetery where her husband, George Crolly Lennon and Sergeant Hickey lay. 264 Newspaper and family accounts reported her burial there along the wall to the right of the church entry; yet, as in the case of Hickey, no parish records exist to reveal her presence nor does a schematic drawing of the plots reveal a family presence. Civil authorities report no exhumation requests and the current parish priest observed that "no records were kept." George Lennon’s character was to form the basis for Una Troy Walsh’s s protagonist (John Davern) in her novel Dead Star's Light, written under the nom de plume of "Elizabeth Connor." The author, wife of Flying Column doctor Joe Walsh and sister in law of painter Sean Keating ("Men of the South"), was severely criticised by her parish priest who effectively expunged Una, her husband and daughter from the roles of their Clonmel church. The novel was adapted as The Dark Road, and performed on the Abbey stage in 1947. Alluding to the William Blake poem it was initially titled Tyger, Tyger with the ultimate title arguably referencing “an botharin dorcha” (the dark road) adjacent to the Sergeant Hickey execution site. Coincidentally, 1947 was the same year that the wife and young son of George elected to emigrate; joining George who had taken, on 20 February 1946 one of the earliest civilian flights (Pan American Airways) to leave Ireland for the States after the end of World War II. Speaking at the Dungarvan Library in 2006, Willie Whelan of the Waterford Museum spoke of the Lennon/Sgt. Hickey nexus and was approached by a woman who knew the whereabouts of Hickey’s remains in the Kelly-Lordan-Kehoe family plot at St. Mary’s. The family's wish that the grave remain unmonumented continues to be honoured (p.155). 265 APPENDIX D “Down From the Comeragh Hills He Came” Down from the Comeragh hills he came To join his comrades on the plain His eyes were on the castle walls Guerilla tactics in his thoughts When the Column assembled, the O.C. spoke We're going to ambush the Saxon foe The Buffs are out on a hunting miss Now is our chance to teach them a lesson That night at eleven the guns stared blazing For the men in green were very daring The action continued throughout the night And the enemy suffered a heavy defeat At dawn on the morning Fitzgerald fell Never to stand on his feet again Brave Pat went out to bring him back But a British bullet found its mark When Patrick fell he was taken back To the hills and valleys he loved so well Men of the West be proud of the past And say an Ava for those men in that plot And when those men died they left One in orange and three in green If they survived they would have tried 266 To get that field for dark Rosaleen Re Pat Keating at the Burgery by Michael Walsh (“The Poet of the Comeraghs”) 267 APPENDIX E Friday, March 17th, 2006 Unmarked Dungarvan grave pushes man to act as his father’s son By Jim Memmott, Senior Editor, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle Wrapped in sorrow and silence, this pre-Saint Patrick’s Day story seems to linger in time, haunting, unresolved. It has a Rochester angle, certainly. But it focuses on a grave in Dungarvan, County Waterford, Ireland. Ivan Lennon, 62, a retired Rochester schoolteacher who was born in Ireland, would like to put a marker on the grave. In a sense, he is acting as his father’s son in desiring to do this. But Lennon’s father is not in that grave. Resting there is a man his father had executed 85 years ago. The details of that execution and its consequence are anchored in the Irish War of Independence, the uprising against the British that lasted from 1919 to 1921. Lennon’s father, George, who later became a pacifist, was an officer then in the West Waterford Brigade of the Irish Republican Army, the force committed to disrupting and supplanting British rule. On March 18, 1921, he led a group that ambushed some Black and Tans, members of the British paramilitary force. Men on both sides died, and the IRA forces captured Sgt. Michael Hickey, an Irish police officer who was with the Black and Tans. Hickey was well known and well liked, a respected community police officer. He was Catholic, he was Irish, but, at least technically, he worked for the British. War has its own logic, and the IRA members decided Hickey had to be killed because he knew their identities. Right before he was shot by a makeshift firing squad, Hickey turned toward George Lennon. 268 “George, I knew you as a child,” the policeman said. “… You are the only person in the world that can save me.” “I would give anything in the world to save you,” Lennon replied. “But I cannot.” As George Lennon later recalled in a memoir, Trauma in Time, the two men exchanged a “glance of understanding.” Hickey, who had turned 36 the day before and was about to be married, squared his shoulders. Lennon tied a bandage around Hickey’s eyes. Stepping back, he called, “Fire.” Shots rang out. Hickey slumped to the ground, dead. Lennon walked over to his body and fired one shot into Hickey’s head, a coup de grace. His killers put a tag on Hickey’s body that said “Police Spy.” Gravediggers at first refused to dig a grave for his burial. They relented, but Hickey’s fiancée asked that no marker be put on the grave for fear that it would be defaced. George Lennon laid down his arms in 1922. Eventually, he immigrated to the United States, only to return to Ireland in 1935. Eleven years later, he came back to the United States. His wife, May, and his son joined him a few years later. George Lennon, who never talked to his son about his time in the IRA, became a Quaker, an opponent of the war in Vietnam. He helped found the Rochester Zen Centre. He died in 1991. But starting with a trip to Waterford in 1987, Ivan began to pick up on clues to his father’s past. Eventually, he understood his father’s role in Hickey’s death. And eventually, he came to believe that he should put a marker on Hickey’s grave. It has proved to be a sensitive issue. A contact at the Waterford Museum in Dungarvan has told Lennon that there is some opposition to a marker, some concern that it could raise old grievances against Hickey. But Lennon says that he’ll persist. “It’s 85 years later,” Lennon says. “The guy (Hickey) wasn’t a hero, but he was a victim. of circumstance.” * This report originally appeared in the March 11th edition of the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, Rochester, New York - www.democratandchronicle.com 269 APPENDIX F IN SEARCH OF A FORGOTTEN I.R.A. COMMANDER In the summer of 1969, as I departed the United Arts Club in Dublin, accompanied by Sean O’Driscoll of the Irish Department of External Affairs, the possibility of undertaking a research project on the subject of my father, George Lennon, former Commanding Officer of the West Waterford Flying Column, Irish Republican Army (I.R.A.) was raised. Married the subsequent year and with the birth, in the early 1970’s, of daughter Kristin Maureen and son Colin Michael the matter was put, to use an Irish expression, “on the long finger.” However, developments in the 1980’s led me to belatedly delve into the matter. Initially there was the publication of a work by Sean and Sile Murphy in which my father’s central role in the independence struggle in West Waterford was not dealt with fully. Secondly, in 1984, along with receipt of a replacement Black and Tan Medal, I received a copy of my father’s 1935 pension application which detailed his whereabouts from Easter Week 1916 to 1 August 1922. In 1987, thanks to neighbour and Rochester City Manager Peter Korn, my wife and I journeyed to Ireland as members of the first Rochester Sisters Cities delegation to our “twin” city of Waterford (Portlairge). At that time a visit was made to the Burgery, Dungarvan home of Mick Mansfield, an old I.R.A. comrade of my father’s. Conspicuously missing at the Burgery ambush site was the bullet-scarred gate, which had so impressed me as a youth in 1950 and 1954. Over the years I accumulated some thirteen “scrapbooks” of material regarding my family in Ireland from pre Norman (1170 A.D.) times to reluctant emigration. In 2002 I donated some of that material (e.g., Trauma in Time by George Lennon) to the Waterford County Museum in Dungarvan. Posted on the Museum’s web site, it drew the attention, along with an article on the Lennon –Hickey nexus in the Waterford paper, of military historian Terence O’Reilly. He subsequently published, in September of 2009, Rebel Heart: George Lennon Flying Column Commander. Seeking an underlying thread in the material I had collected, I wrote of the matter in a 2009 work entitled Ulster to the Deise: Lennons in Time. It was only upon completion of that work, in the spring of 2009, that I realized the significance of that long since removed gate: i.e., in a sense a metaphor for the seemingly forgotten I.R.A. Commandant and the West Waterford I.R.A. guerrillas. As a youth of thirteen, George Lennon drilled Dungarvan youngsters “up and down the street using their hurleys as mock rifles.” During the Easter Week Rebellion of 1916, at 270 age fifteen, he undertook a futile search for armaments from an ambushed train. He left the Abbeyside National School before his sixteenth birthday to devote himself to the “physical force” struggle for an independent Irish Republic. He was incarcerated at age seventeen in Waterford for stealing a rifle from a British soldier. On another charge, (illegal drilling etc.) he celebrated his nineteenth birthday in Cork Male Jail. He was released prematurely, perhaps suffering from “Spanish Influenza” a contagion that killed untold millions from 1918 to 1919. After a highly successful attack on a police barracks in Kilmallock, County Limerick, he served with the men of the East Limerick Flying Column, the first active service unit composed of men “on the run.” Having trained under Ernie O’Malley and Liam Lynch, he returned to West Waterford where he served as the youngest commanding officer (O/C) of the active service unit of the West Waterford I.R.A. Brigade. Additionally, he was Vice Commanding Officer of the Brigade. Under his leadership the guerrilla fighters made West Waterford “ungovernable.” His pension application listed seventeen engagements against British forces, the Royal Irish Constabulary and the Black and Tans. Not listed were gunrunning activities, arms seizures and planned ambushes, which never came to fruition. Disillusionment began with what he viewed as a “premature” truce declared 11 July 1921. Entering Waterford City in March of 1922 his men, dismissed by some as “Irregulars,” claimed the city, for the first time in 750 years, in the name of the Irish nation. A significance apparently not appreciated by the generally less than receptive citizenry. In the ensuing battle against the Irish Free State forces under Prout and friend Paddy Paul, his men fired the first and last shots from their redoubt at Ballybricken Prison. Retreating westward he realized “we were not going to live off the good country people again.” He duly resigned as Vice Commanding Officer of the West Waterford Brigade on or about 1 August 1922. Having being “on the run” from the authorities since age seventeen, he lacked the educational background to pursue a profession. The closing of the family run Dungarvan Gas Works having precluded a career as a third generation participant in that enterprise. His revolutionary idealism shattered by the truce, an” unmentionable” Civil War, a Jansenist Church and a conservative Free State Government, he emigrated to the United States along with other embittered comrades. Residing for ten years (1927-1936) in New York City, he served with brother in law George Sherwood and editor Joseph Campbell, as “business manager” of the Irish Review , a short lived “magazine of Irish expression.” Returning to Ireland in 1936 he represented County Waterford on the executive of the “All Ireland Old I.R.A. Men’s Association” in Dublin. After his marriage to Eveline May Sibbald, Secretary to Government Minister Sean MacEntee and sister in law of the 271 deputy editor of An Phoblacht, he secured employment with the Irish Tourist Board (I.T.B.). Under he oversaw the issuance of the “Irish Topographical Survey,” noted as “one of the most important and lasting national projects carried out at that time.” It “involved the compilation of historical, geographical and other information relating to every county in the Free State.” His return to Ireland in was fictionalized in a 1938 novel, Dead Star’s Light written by Una Troy under the nom de plume of “Elizabeth Connor.” While the book was not banned, as was an earlier work, it nonetheless elicited a less than enthusiastic response from the Irish Roman Catholic Church, which, per the Constitution of 1937, occupied a “special position” in Ireland. Reportedly viewed by some as a “communist, an anti-cleric, an agitator, a gun –man” his decade long sojourn in Ireland ended with a booking on one of the earliest civilian flights out of post World War II Europe. Nearly two years later, his wife and son joined him in New York City. This was the same year that the book was adapted for the Abbey stage as The Dark Road. Originally titled Tyger,Tyger alluding to the William Blake poem of the same name. The ultimate title perhaps referencing “an botharin dorcha” (the dark road) adjacent to the execution site of Sergeant Hickey In America George was attracted to the pacifist tenets of the Society of Friends (Quakers). With Chet Carlson, inventor of “Xerography,” he became a founding member of the Rochester Zen Center. His views were set forth in a short memoir Trauma in Time and a play, Down by the Glen Side, both unpublished. The latter work dealt with the issue of a captured enemy combatant; a matter with which he had dealt with personally when faced with the necessity of executing childhood acquaintance and member of the armed Royal Irish Constabulary, Sergeant Hickey. Upon his 1991 death in Rochester, N.Y., he was cremated, per his wishes, without ceremony. In 2009, the author sought to have George’s ashes dispersed, alongside his comrades, at the I.R.A. Republican Plot in Kilrossanty, County Waterford. Curiously, the local I.R.A. Memorial Association refused permission and the Irish Department of Defence denied a military presence. A possible ceremony at the family’s parish church in Dungarvan was complicated by an inability to locate the remains of his parents, although newspaper accounts note their presence at St. Mary’s Roman Catholic cemetery. Accordingly, a plaque was mounted on the Church wall in 2014 noting the presence of George’s grandparents (James Lennon and Mary Anne Crolly Lennon) and his parents (George Crolly Lennon and Nellie Shanahan Lennon). Also mentioned on the plaque are George and his wife (Eveline May Sibbald Lennon). May’s remains are located at the southern end of Rochester’s historic Mt. Hope Cemetery. George was cremated. It also came to light in 2009,in apparent ignorance of George’s later pacifism, that an Irish Republican Sinn Fein (RSF) Cumann (organization) in Waterford had seen fit to name itself after George Lennon. His name was removed at my request. 272 Belated recognition was to occur under the auspices of the Waterford County Museum when a talk and exhibition, entitled “The Road to Independence” was held on 19 September 2009 in the old Dungarvan Town Hall. Prominently featured by speakers Ivan Lennon, Sean Murphy and Terence O’Reilly was the not insignificant role played by George Lennon in securing a measure of Irish national independence. A Nemeton Irish language documentary, directed by Cormac Morel, (“From War to Peace: The Life of George Lennon”) was shown on Irish television TG4 and in Dungarvan in 2011. The Dungarvan Dramatic Club presented Muiris O’Keeffe’s “Days of Our Youth” over four days in November 2012. The author’s PowerPoint presentation “IRA Rebel to Zen Pacifist” has been shown at Rochester’s St. John Fisher College, during Tramore’s Heritage Week and at Rochester Institute of Technology’s OSHER Institute. A number of books have also been published including Terence O’Reilly’s 2009 work, Rebel Heart: George Lennon Flying Column Commander, Dr. Pat McCarthy’s Waterford, Eamon Cowan’s The Siege of Waterford and Tommy Mooney’s exhaustive Cry of the Curlew. All preceded in 1983 by Sean and Sile Murphy’s The Comeraghs: Refuge of Rebels, subsequently expanded, with original material on George Lennon, in the 2003 publication The Comeraghs: Gunfire and Civil War. 273 Appendix G PLAYS THE DARK ROAD (May 1947): An Abbey Theatre presentation as adapted by Una Troy Walsh from her 1938 novel DEAD STAR’S LIGHT. “John Davern” (George Lennon) is a returned and disillusioned former revolutionary. DOWN BY THE GLEN SIDE (unpublished, circa 1960’s): By George Lennon in which the protagonist (“Henry Rogan”) ultimately eschews the path of Irish Republican “physical force.” “I and Thou” (late 1960’s): A one-act play as contained in George Lennon’s unpublished memoir TRAUMA IN TIME which briefly describes the court martial and execution of childhood acquaintance R.I.C. Sergeant Michael Joseph Hickey. The title is taken from the 1923 Martin Buber book of the same name in which Buber dealt with the meaningfulness of relationships. DAYS OF OUR YOUTH (November, 2012): A Muiris O’Keeffe play presented by the Dungarvan Dramatic Club in the old Town Hall. The subject is George’s life as a youthful revolutionary idealist impacted by events during the War of Independence. 274 APPENDIX H ESCAPES Kilkenny (February 1918) - Arms delivery with Nipper McCarthy en route from Dublin Co. Waterford (18 April 1918 - March 1919) - “On the run” from authorities Fermoy, Co. Cork (9 September 1919) - Returns on foot to Dungarvan with Mick Mansfield Kilmacthomas (Spring 1920) - Black and Tan raid at home of “Mother Kent” Cappoquin (27 November 1920) – Walsh’s Hotel shooting of Constable Quirk Ballyhooly, Cork/Cappagh Train Stations (March 1921)– Visit with Liam Lynch Grawn (19 May 1921) – British ambush after the Kilrossanty funeral of Pat Keating Waterford City (21 July 1922) – Evacuation of Ballybricken Prison redoubt Barnakill, Kilrossanty (July 1922) – Free State ambush 275 APPENDIX I “LAST MONDAY” A Poem in Honour of George Lennon The doors of the jail are again thrown wide And once more with bearing of conscious pride Not in sorrow or tears, but with sunny smile Our little soldier has left us a while Fearless in the court he stood today A child ‘gainst the power of a tyrant’s sway Facing the minions of England’s might Caring only for honour and Ireland’s right And now alone in his narrow cell He fights for the cause he loved so well In the gloom of a prison dark and drear Without the help of his comrade near Without the grasp of a kindly hand He has answered the call of the motherland For the fire of a patriot’s love may glow In the heart of a child if God wills it so But we who are left to do and dare Though his burden of sorrow we may not share We will work for the cause with a fiercer joy To show we are proud of our soldier boy As our Captain has told us – Fall in today! 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