British Voices (12 page)

Roads

The main roads between the towns are fairly good and suitable for all traffic: some of the country roads, however, are very rough and in many places the inclines are very steep; they are nearly passable for HT and light lorries, but not for 3-ton lorries. Thus the main convoy lorry routes were very restricted.

Railways

There is one main railway the Cork, Bandon, and South Coast, which runs westward from Cork to Bantry, branch lines run southward from this to Kinsale, Clonakilty and Skibbereen.

Rivers

The Bandon River rises in the hills north-east of Bantry, and after flowing due east through Bandon, turns sharply south till it reaches the sea at Kinsale; the few bridges which exist over this river very much restrict the choice of alternative routes when moving from one locality to another. The country is intersected by a number of small streams, which, though in themselves no obstacle, necessitate a large number of bridges which facilitate the blocking of the roads.

The Population

The inhabitants of this country were clearly divided into different parties, whose sympathies and interests were diametrically opposed.

The Old Landlords

Only a few of these remained, the majority of them living in large houses with only a little land attached, the rest of their property having passed to the tenant farmers under the Wyndham Land Act. As will be seen later, they were, however, an important factor in the situation.They had English sympathy but avoided active participation.

The Protestant Element

Chiefly large farmers and shop-keepers. They were practically unanimously in favour of a continuation of English control in the south, but they had no organisation of their own, and were not armed; they were, therefore, powerless against the attacks of Sinn Féin. A few, but not many, were brave enough to assist Crown Forces with information.

The Priests

The Catholic priests could be divided into two categories – the elderly men, who had formally been the leaders of the people, but had recently lost all control, and the young priests who had passed through Maynooth College and were thoroughly imbued with Republican principles; the latter were almost without exception heart and soul in the Sinn Féin movement.

The Catholic Population

Finally there was the Catholic population, the large majority of which, if not active Sinn Féins, were sympathic to the Sinn Féin movement. The extent of their activity usually varied in the inverse ratio to their financial interest in the country – they were, for instance, the farmers and large shopkeepers who disliked disturbances, and the farmers' sons and corner boys, who had no stake in the country and preferred earning a living by plunder and murder than by doing an honest day's work. There were a large number of this latter class owing to the failure of the British Government to enforce conscription in Southern Ireland during the war, and they nearly all had an exaggerated idea of their own importance. It was of these men that the Republican Army was mainly composed.

Sinn Féin

The Sinn Féin movement, which started in 1905 was originally moderate
in character, aiming at the commercial prosperity of Ireland, and the regaining of political independence. Later it got into the hands of extremists, such as the Irish Republican Brotherhood and when the war broke out began the plot with Germany. It received a setback in 1916, when the Dublin rebellion was stamped out, but quickly set to work to collect money again, which was plentiful in the country owing to the boom in farming during the latter part of the war. After their victory at the General Election in 1918, the Sinn Féin extremists worked steadily with one end in view, viz: the formation of an Independent Republic.This they did by filling the Local Government, Councils etc. with their own members, setting up their own courts, and enforcing their will by means of the Irish Republican Army.

The point I want to make here is that the rebel campaign in Ireland was a national movement backed by a large proportion of the population and was not conducted by a few hired assassins as was often supposed.

The Irish Republican Army

The organisation of the Irish Republican Army was much more complete than was generally known; it was organised on a Territorial basis with the Brigade the highest formation, Division only been formed at a later date. A Bde. Consisted of from four to seven Battalions and a Battalion of any number of COs up to ten. Generally speaking each village or townland provided a CO, this arrangement facilitating training and circulation of orders, etc. The strength of the COs varied considerably, but 50-60 could be taken as a general average.

The officers were generally selected from the most desperate men of the neighbourhood, the rank and file consisting chiefly of labourers and young recruits.

A few of the officers had uniforms, but these were only worn when they did not expect to come in contact with the Crown Forces. There were, however, secret signs in the IRA by which an officer could be distinguished; for instance, they usually wore brown leggings while the rank and file wore black ones, etc. There was, however, outwardly nothing to distinguish a member of the IRA from any ordinary member of the community. This of course assisted them enormously in their operations as they could at any moment convert themselves from an armed soldier into a peaceful civilian, whose identity it would be exceedingly difficult to establish.

The arms in possession of the IRA were of a very mixed assortment, ranging from old fashioned shot guns firing slugs, to the modern Thompson Light Automatic with a rate of fire of 700 rounds a minute. On an average a Company would have six or seven service rifles, ten or twelve revolvers, a number of shotguns and occasionally a Light Automatic Weapon. Their ammunition supply for this varied assortment of weapons was, of course, very difficult and their plans had to be laid in accordance with the amount of ammunition available.This was one the reasons why they relied almost entirely on surprise action – ambushes etc. – rather that on larger engagements. They appeared, however, to get a fairly regular supply of Government pattern SAA .303. Some of this was captured by them in successful ambushes, while some was doubtless secretly imported from England.

The training of the IRA was carried out entirely in secret, Company parades often taking place in some isolated spot on Sunday afternoons. On these occasions the surrounding hills would be carefully picquetted with scouts, which made it very difficult for the Crown Forces to approach the ‘parade ground' unseen.

The IRA Intelligence Service was, of course, easy owing to the majority of the population being friendly, but nevertheless it reached a very high standard of efficiency, and every movement, and very often every intended movement, of the Crown Forces was known; information was passed about in an uncanny sort of way without any organisation being apparent on the surface.

In consequence of this, it was essential for the utmost secrecy to be maintained in the preparation of plans for military operation and especially in the arrangements for the movements either of troops or of individuals. I found from personal experience that it was fatal to issue orders for any operation more than an hour or two before the troops were due to start, and then the plan should be known only to one or two necessary officers before the troops actually paraded. It is impossible in work of this kind to prevent soldiers and very often even officers, from prejudicing the chances of success of a whole operation by one or two unguarded remarks.

Communications

Owing to the constant searches carried out by the Crown Forces, it was exceedingly difficult for the IRA to issue anything in the way of written orders, but they did succeed, in spite of these difficulties, in an extraordinary way of getting their orders circulated. This they did largely by verbal instructions issued at fixed meeting places – often in selected farmhouses, public houses, etc. and it was these meeting places which it was one of our main objects to find out and surprise.

Operations were discussed and planned at a meeting of the Brigade Council, which was usually held fortnightly, the meeting place being changed each time. At the meeting battalion commanders were present and received their instructions for forthcoming operation.

Women were employed largely for carrying messages and orders about, and as these could only be searched by ‘women searchers', who were not often available when required, it will be seen that the IRA ‘Lines of communications' were not at all vulnerable.

The Crown Forces

I will now attempt to outline briefly the organisation of the Crown Forces during the period under review:

(a) The RIC

The Royal Irish Constabulary was organised by ‘Districts' and
‘Counties' with an officer or Inspector in charge of each. The ‘County' included a number of ‘Districts' and a ‘District' usually consisted of a ‘District Headquaters', where the DI lived, and a number of outlying barracks, where about eight to twelve policemen lived under a Sergeant. Their duty was primarily the maintenance of law and order in their locality and it is clear that in these isolated posts, which were often eight or ten miles apart, they were not in a position to carry out offensive operations against the rebels. Previous to 1920 their ‘moral' had been high, but owing to the continuous activities of the IRA against them during that year, and the lack of proper support, their morale, with very few exceptions, gave way and thereafter they were of little assistance except to act as local guides.