Tom Barry (46 page)

Jack (Doheny) Lynch recalled being ‘on the run' with Barry in 1933. ‘We were all members of headquarters staff, and were inside in this house in Morehampton Road. We had no money, nothing much, and Barry always loved to have a bet on a horse. He loved horse racing; if he had money even in later years he'd go to the Curragh. Anyway he said to us, “There are two horses going here today and I think they should win.” I don't think I had two shillings. Eventually we made up ten shillings between us. He wrote the docket and gave it to me. I had to steal out.

‘The
Echo
came in. The two horses had won, and we got something like £30. That time you'd nearly buy a public house for £30. We hadn't had a drink for months, and never thought of it. So Barry rubbed his hands and said, “We'll go out tonight!”

‘We got ready, put our guns inside our pockets, put on our coats and went off. We were in this pub, a swanky pub. Barry never asked us what we'd have. He sat down and called for a drink – brandies all round. We got the brandies and the lad was all, “Yes, sir! No, sir!” Must have thought that anyone calling brandies was very well off! And as he was going away from the table, Barry called, “Give me a packet of Woodbines now please”.

‘“Jasus,” says I. “You made a right mess of it, brandy and Woodbines!” Well he got a fit of laughing.

‘Shortly before he died he reminded me of this incident, and the tears of laughter rolled down his cheeks, “Me and my tupenny packet of Woodbines. Jack, didn't I always like my Woodbines!”'

Invariably, Barry talked with an air of confidence about his native county of Cork. ‘When we were up in Dublin and we'd hear about something which had happened, he'd give me a slap on the back; “Jasus, they wouldn't do that down below with us, Jack!” He thought Cork was the greatest. He had this type of individual pride and collective pride, and I feel it was this coupled with honour that pushed him forward in such a way as not to let down his own county and in fact gain for them a certain prestige.'
[47]

When De Valera gave Col Eamonn Broy the task of recruiting men for an armed auxiliary force (Broy Harriers) to support the garda siochána, there was disquiet among republicans. Because many were former IRA men with ‘good records', Barry declared them as ‘the greatest menace'. Conscious of a gradual acceptance of partition, Barry wanted action. ‘We should rely on what we can do, not what we can say', he told a March 1934 IRA convention.
[48]

On 2 May Barry, now described as ‘one of the most famed and colourful guerrilla fighters of the Anglo-Irish war' was arrested and sentenced to jail for a year for possession of arms. He refused to recognise the court and attacked Fianna Fáil for its attitude to the Republic and its betrayal of the IRA.

He was released at Christmas. Deciding you couldn't put a good man down he struck off for Tralee on 6 January 1935, full of fighting spirit. To an assembled audience he lacerated the government, advocating military action.

In September 1934 Frank Edwards had been warned not to go to the Republican congress. Then in January Bishop Kinnane issued a rescript condemning him. He was sacked from his teaching post in Mount Sion, Waterford in January 1935. The IRA issued a statement saying that he wasn't a member. Barry organised a protest group from Cork and with Moss Twomey and Pádraig MacLogan held a protest meeting. ‘Despite a statement read in all the churches forbidding attendance, over 5,000 attended.' But as the Catholic clergy continued to denounce Barry from the altar, he continued in turn to ignore their utterances.
[49]

In March 1935 at a general army convention Seán MacBride introduced the issue of the formation of a political party, but it received no enthusiasm. Instead Tom Barry called on the members to support action within the six counties, within six months. Though consensus prevailed, the proposal was put on hold, when Moss Twomey alluded to the lack of resources.

A tram strike in Dublin, which paralysed the city, presented an opportunity for action. When the government enlisted the army to fulfil the tram workers duties, the IRA stepped in to assist the workers. As tyres were sniped and police were fired upon, the police in a swoop on 26 March detained 43.

That evening when Barry returned home to his wife Leslie in Dublin the gardaí came to the door and arrested him. He was charged for the ‘seditious utterances' that he had made in January in Tralee.

Prior to Leslie's visit to ‘The Glasshouse' on 24 April he wrote a note while he was ‘waiting waiting'. He hoped to slip the note to her ‘despite the military police', because his trial was due next day and he wanted her to be there. He complimented her on her Limerick lecture – a report of which he read in the newspaper:

It was very good and I felt proud of you. Still when I get out you will have something else to do and that will be to love me all the time.

I have no idea how long our sentences will be. However long, please remember that I shall go through in flying colours and be back to you strong, fit and unchanged. Through all the time I will be in, I shall think always of you and love you all the time. Not love you more than I do now because that would be impossible ... Au revoir my sweetheart. I shall love you while I live and afterwards if it is possible for humans to do so. I shall be longing to get back to you and there we shall be so happy again. I send you all my kisses and all my love … My Leslie

Your sweetheart,

Tom.
[50]

Next day 25 April he was tried by a military tribunal at Collins' Barracks on the charge of ‘sedition, unlawful association, refusal to answer questions and contempt'; he received an eighteen months jail sentence.
[51]
But he was out on parole by early June.
[52]

However, while still in ‘the Glasshouse' Frank Aiken, minister for defence accompanied by Vivion de Valera, was at a ceilidh in Dundalk on 13 May. Because of government policy against the IRA, the audience was in a militant mood. When Aiken got on the stage, shouts of, ‘Remember the 77' and, ‘Up Tom Barry' burst forth. When he began to speak he was again interrupted with cries for Tom Barry. He said ‘he did not wish to refer to Tom Barry'. But as the cheers of interruption continued the minister said, ‘to those interrupters if they knew the part Tom Barry had taken in the Civil War they would not say very much about him.' After further interruptions Mr Aiken said, ‘when the IRA were fighting and men were being executed, Tom Barry was running around the country trying to make peace.' The shout from the gallery of ‘We must fight' ended Mr Aiken's appearance on stage.
[53]

Barry's anger is evident in his response. In early June (out on parole) he sent a letter to all the Irish newspapers. In it he described Mr Aiken's remarks as of ‘the meanest kind as he merely suggests to his audience, without definitely stating so, that I was guilty of some dishonourable conduct during the “Civil” War. I demand that Mr Aiken should give details or else publicly withdraw his malicious innuendo.

‘Clearly, he attempts to convey to the public that (a) I did not fight in the Civil War … I leave judgement on that issue as to whether I fought or not to the Volunteers who were on active service with me in Cork, Tipperary and other parts of Ireland during the “Civil War”. “The Old IRA” of Cork city and county, many of them supporters of Mr Aiken's party have already refuted Mr Aiken's allegations … I challenge Mr Aiken to give the name of the person or persons with whom I negotiated or attempted to negotiate [peace]. Should he fail to do so, I demand the public withdrawal of his statement.' Barry elaborates his involvement ‘as courier' for intermediary Fr Duggan in February 1923 ‘of copies of certain proposals addressed to individual members of the army executive, including Mr Aiken and myself,' which were ultimately rejected. Then ‘further proposals' of March led to the ‘Cease Fire and Dump Arms Orders'. Barry elucidates in detail the plight of men in jails at that time ‘awaiting murder having already been notified.' Furthermore, ‘I must stress here the fact that my election' to the executive and army council ‘in the “last” week of the Civil War was unanimous and that Mr Aiken actually supported it.

‘I deeply regret I am forced into a public controversy over matters which have hitherto been regarded as confidential. I have no intention of emulating Mr Aiken's descent to false innuendoes.' The records of the period should help establish ‘our respective opinions', he wrote. ‘I resigned from the army executive owing to the adoption by the majority of that body of a policy which permitted the general hunger-strike … Mr Aiken was strongest in the appeals to me to reconsider my decision. Mr Aiken's attack now (12 years afterwards) does not arise out of the Civil War period, but out of present day circumstances.'
[54]
In his statement Barry stresses that he ‘has publicly told younger volunteers that ‘two phases' of the war have been fought; ‘they will experience defeat' again but they should not give up until ‘the connection' with England is broken. (This latter part was only, it appears, published in the
Cork Examiner
.)
[55]

Frank Aiken said he had ‘no intention of referring to Mr Barry in Dundalk. The remark I made was only drawn from me after long provocation.' In referring again to Barry's ‘personal peace offer' and his ‘unauthorised activities' Aiken said that Barry ‘was not satisfied' with the Cease Fire and Dump Arms because he also wanted the arms ‘destroyed'. He turned Barry's words and actions around, saying that it was he who ‘forced' Barry to resign as Barry ‘would not give an undertaking not to decide for himself when to make war and peace.' While he ‘never disputed the fact that he fought courageously in the Black and Tan and Civil Wars' he was asking ‘why he postponed resumption of military activities until Fianna Fáil became the government.'
[56]

Whether it was to appease Tom Barry or to dampen the military enthusiasm of the young IRA men, his parole from the Curragh was extended for a further week.
[57]

Barry in a letter to all the Irish dailies (7 June) wrote, ‘I wish to protest at the fact that you did not publish my reply to Mr Aiken in full ...I must ask that in ordinary fairness this letter will not be censored by you for publication.' In the letter he states that Mr Aiken ‘has extended his attack on me … I emphatically deny the charges which Mr Aiken makes against me in his letter today. There is but one satisfactory way of dealing with Mr Aiken's charges … that is, that a committee of inquiry be set up to investigate all allegations, to receive evidence and publish their findings together with the evidence. I now propose this procedure to Mr Aiken and I am willing to submit to the judgement of the inquiry. There will be no difficulty in getting three or five impartial men who served as officers in the army at that period.'

He sets out a list with which ‘the committee' should deal. Among them the fact that ‘Mr Aiken joined the Provisional F/S forces in 1922,' drew his pay from the army, up to the Four Courts' attack, returned to Dundalk, became ‘neutral' was arrested, escaped and avoided ‘the scene' of ‘fighting' during the Civil War ‘except on one occasion'. That ‘he travelled to executive meetings unarmed and thus helped to demoralise the Volunteers who expected a leader to be armed … his wobbling attitudes, indecisions and refusal to take part in armed operations, was mainly responsible for Republican defeat at that time.'
[58]

Frank Aiken responded and gave his own record of his actions and again challenged Tom Barry on his record. He asks if Barry, who wanted the destruction of arms in 1923, waited to renew ‘his military activities after Fianna Fáil became government, now advocates re-arming and preparation for another civil war.' Aiken wrote that he, himself, was against the army convention in March 1922, and ‘stood against the destruction of arms while the oath remained.'
[59]
‘I will have no further dealings with Tom Barry', Aiken declared.
[60]

Barry in his response expressed his disappointment with Aiken for refusing his offer of ‘an impartial committee' to referee charges that he refuses ‘to substantiate'. Barry mentions Col David Reynolds, ‘Free State GOC of Cork on February 1923' and other officers who could prove that ‘at no time' did he ‘make an offer of peace to the Free State forces.' He castigates Aiken for incorrectly and ‘indecently' using ‘the honoured name' of Liam Lynch to ‘bolster up his attack on me.' Barry writes that, ‘he was conscious of saving the remnants of the army' and ‘saving the lives of the men awaiting execution', as this dictated his priority and the stance he had taken at the time. But now, because ‘Mr Aiken so vilely attacked me', he wrote, ‘I had no option but to take up the charges', and he asked him either to withdraw ‘or prove his charges'.
[61]

Tom Crofts, army executive officer, in a letter to the Irish dailies stated that in February 1923, 36 men ‘in Cork gaol were sentenced to death and awaiting execution.' A number of Cork and Kerry officers including Tom Barry and himself met a deputation sent out by ‘fellow prisoners'. Fr Duggan ‘interviewed the GOC Cork command, with a view to preventing these executions, but he (Fr Duggan) assures me he was not authorised by either Tom Barry or any other officers to make a peace offer on their behalf.'
[62]

Three IRA – James Donovan, Seán Coughlan, Seán MacSwiney – wrote to the daily newspapers contradicting Aiken's statement of Barry's military inactivity ‘until the advent' of the Fianna Fáil government:

We the undersigned, who were officers on the staff of Cork 1 Brigade, Irish Republican army, during that period, record the fact that Mr Barry was attached to this brigade from the time of his return to Cork in 1927, and further that he carried out all duties assigned to him during that time.
[63]