Massacre in West Cork (29 page)

2
National Library of Ireland, Ms. 27,458. Alice Stopford’s niece recalls: ‘After tea, with great stealth and secrecy, the coronet was produced for our admiration and placed on my head. I was glad to get rid of it – it weighed a ton, all gilt and red velvet. I suppose Lord Bandon had to get another one for the next coronation.’

3
For example, in 1911, including the 19 military in barracks, 65 of Bandon’s Protestant population of 641 had been born in England.

4
The English-born population of Cork county increased from 8,451 in 1861 to 13,861 (+64 per cent) in 1911 before dropping to 6,258 (-55 per cent) in 1926. The Cork-born population declined by 152,157 (-37 per cent) from 1861 to 1926. Census of Ireland, 1926, vol. 3, part. 2, p. 163:
http://www.cso.ie/en/census/historicalreports/census1926reports/census1926volume3-religionandbirthplaces/
(accessed 18 July 2013).

5
For example, Thomas Murphy literally walked off with 5,000 rounds of .303 ammunition after a train loaded with military supplies stopped in Blackpool in Cork city and he opened an unguarded carriage: BMH WS 109, Thomas Murphy, p. 2. Edmond Twomey was a major supplier of British ammunition and gelignite according to his statement, BMH WS 44.

6
Pattison (2010). Patrols raided these areas and IRA members were captured, but the areas became impassable in wet weather. Part of the truculence in de Valera’s correspondence with Lloyd George was to draw it out until the autumn to benefit the IRA in the event of a breakdown in negotiations; see BMH WS 873, Charles Brown, pp. 14–15.

7
The phrase was long used by both the British and Irish to suggest that the Irish were ungovernable.

8
This may appear silly, but according to BMH WS 1297, Michael O’Driscoll, p. 10, it worked between Bantry and Coomhola, eleven kilometres away, where the IRA flying column was headquartered just before the Truce. See Borgonovo, J., 2010, ‘The guerrilla infrastructure: I.R.A. Special Services in the Cork Number One Brigade, 1917–1921’, The Irish Sword XXVII, no. 108, p. 208 (the BMH reference is incorrectly transposed as WS 1279). See also BMH WS 505, Seán Moylan.

9
BMH WS 832, William Desmond, p. 33; Deasy, L., 1973,
Towards Ireland Free: the West Cork Brigade in the War of Independence, 1917–1921
(Cork, Mercier Press). Deasy notes that these raids increased after the Kilmichael ambush and had such a demoralising effect on the Manch Bridge and Dunmanway IRA companies that Tom Barry had to meet with them to restore morale.

10
University College Cork, Boole Library and Archives, CO 904/114 ‘Confidential monthly reports Bandon/Cork West Riding, Cork City-East Riding and Mallow/Cork North’. He was unstinting in his praise of the Auxiliaries in the January report and wanted more units sent to West Cork.

11
Mulcahy, R., 1921,
Dáil Debates
, vol. T. 9, col. 143, 22 December. This famous quote is taken out of context.
http://oireachtasdebates.oireachtas.ie/debates%20authoring/DebatesWebPack.nsf/takes/dail1921122200003?opendocument
(accessed 13 June 2013).

12
BMH WS 1275, Timothy Warren, p. 8; BMH WS 1255, William McCarthy, p. 14; BMH WS 1640, James Doyle, p. 24; BMH WS 1234, Jack Hennessy, p. 13.

13
British Army Field Manual
(2009); Kardahji, M., 2007, ‘A Measure of Restraint: the Palestinian Police and the end of the British Mandate’, MPhil thesis, Oxford University. Available at:
http://users.ox.ac.uk/~metheses/KardahjiThesis.pdf
(accessed 13 June 2013). See also Khalidi, R., 2001, ‘The Palestinians and 1948: the Root Causes of Failure’, in Rogan, E. L. and Shlaim, A. (eds),
The War for Palestine: rewriting the history of 1948
(New York, Cambridge University Press), pp. 12–36; Cahill, R.A., 2009, ‘“Going Berserk”: “Black and Tans” in Palestine’,
Jerusalem Quarterly
38, pp. 59–68.

14
BMH WS 400, Richard Walsh, pp. 65–7.

15
Ainsworth, J. S., 2001, ‘The Black & Tans and Auxiliaries in Ireland, 1920–1921: their origins, roles and legacy’:
http://eprints.qut.edu.au/9/
(accessed 22 August 2013); Leeson, D., 2011,
The Black and Tans: British Police and Auxiliaries in the Irish War of Independence, 1920–1921
(Oxford, Oxford University Press).

16
According to the Tom Barry papers in the Cork City and County Archive, Barry was the third choice for commandant as Charlie Hurley and Ted O’Sullivan had both turned it down, CCCAU016/1/1, pp. 39–40.

17
The phrase appears regularly in the BMH statements. ‘Sometimes they were posted in R.I.C. barracks with the remnant of the old R.I.C. But they never got on well with these “allies” of theirs’, BMH WS 1770, Kevin R. O’Sheil, p. 1099.

18
BMH WS 1532, Daniel Harrington, p. 5.

19
Ainsworth, J. S., 2000, B
ritish Security Policy in Ireland, 1920–1921: a desperate attempt by the Crown to maintain Anglo-Irish unity by force
(Perth, Centre for Irish Studies, Murdoch University), pp. 2–3. Available at:
http://eprints.qut.edu.au/6/
(accessed 17 July 2013).

20
There were occasional convictions. Two Auxiliaries from Beggar’s Bush Barracks in Dublin were convicted of stealing twenty watches from a jeweller in Balbriggan, eight bottles of spirits from a pub in ‘Cloughran’ (Cloghran), and a brooch and £4 from a lady in Swords, during raids on 10 and 11 March 1921:
The Irish Times
, 9 June 1921.

21
See Rast, M., 2011, ‘Tactics, Politics, and Propaganda in the Irish War of Independence, 1917–1921’, PhD thesis, Georgia State University, p. 93; ‘Blame Cork Fires on Military Alone’,
The New York Times
, 19 January 1921. Available at:
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9C04E5D9153CE533A25753C2A9679C946095D6CF
 (accessed 12 December 2012). See also National Library of Australia, Trove Archive, 1920, ‘Chaos in Cork’,
Recorder
(Port Pirie, South Australia: 1919–1954), 15 December, p. 1:
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article95394972
(accessed 21 February 2013).

22
To simplify matters in this book Auxiliaries also include the Black and Tans, but they were two separate forces; Kautt, W. H., 2003, ‘Militarising Policemen: the various members of the RIC and their response to IRA violence in Ireland, 1919–21’. Available at:
http://www.academia.edu/1686881/The_Auxies_Black_and_Tans_and_the_RIC_and_their_response_to_IRA_violence_in_Ireland_1919-21
(accessed 18 July 2013), which is part of an extensive and well-argued series of books and articles published by him on the War of Independence.

23
Limerick Leader
, 20 April 1921.

24
Lord Parmoor’s brother had gone to Ireland with his wife on their annual fishing holiday as if there was no risk. The BMH statements are littered with British officers and establishment figures being captured while fishing, which suggests a degree of innocence, arrogance or perceived invincibility.

25
House of Lords debate, 26 April 1921, vol. 45, cols 15–41, Castleconnell Shooting,
http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/lords/1921/apr/26/castleconnell-shooting
(accessed 18 July 2013).

26
National Archives, Kew, CAB 24/139, ‘Situation in Ireland, report by Major Whittaker’, 19 September 1922.

27
Irish Labour Party and Trade Union Congress, 1921,
Who Burnt Cork City
?
A tale of arson, loot, and murder: the evidence of over seventy witnesses
(Dublin, Irish Labour Party and Trade Union Congress). Available at
http://archive.org/details/whoburntcorkcity00dubl
 (accessed 20 December 2012). This is an essential primary source for many of the incidents covered in this book, including the shooting of Canon Magner, the Delaney Brothers, the Dillon’s Cross ambush, and of course the burning of Cork.

28
See National Archives, Kew, CAB 23/24, ‘Cabinet conclusions’, 14 February 1921; also meeting about the burning of Cork, 15 February 1921, in the same document, which places the blame on seven ringleaders in K Company who were under arrest for incidents in Dunmanway. Six of the seven were: Baster, charged with passing forged cheques; Coates, Carr, Fitzgerald and Quinn, charged with attempted bank robbery; and Hart, charged with double murder. See also the House of Commons debate, ‘King’s speech for the opening of Parliament’, 15 February 1921, vol. 138, col. 44, where Lloyd George blamed the poor of the city for some of the fires: 
http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1921/feb/15/debate-on-the-address
(accessed 26 July 2013).

29
See H. A. Robinson’s report, which states, ‘It has been acknowledged by the Government that in a few cases such as Balbriggan and Cork, the Government Forces … got out of hand, and the property of loyal subjects, who had no sympathy with Sinn Féin was destroyed in the confusion and excitement of the reprisals’, National Archives, Kew, CAB 24/120/37; other evidence suggests that it was intended that Cork be burned in retaliation for the kidnapping of British spy Gerard Horgan; ‘Irish Incidents’,
The Mail
(Adelaide, South Australia), 11 December 1920:
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/page/5314316?zoomLevel=1
 (accessed 16 December 2012).

30
Tadg was a member of the IRA. Hart’s name has been spelled Harte by many commentators (including me), but both the 1901 and the 1911 census show that he spelled it Hart. National Archives, Kew, WO 339/69178, Vernon Anwyl Hart; Auxiliary Service no. 500; born in Lancashire; emigrated to Canada and then Tasmania but returned to the UK; recorded in the 1911 census in St German’s, Cornwall, with his wife and family. After release from the asylum he moved to South Africa, where he died in the late 1930s. ‘The Auxiliary Division of the RIC’ (online), 
http://theauxiliaries.com/men-alphabetical/men-h/hart/hart.html
(accessed 18 March 2012), provides an enormous amount of information about his life. It is usually suggested that the Auxiliaries were on their way to the funeral of those shot at Kilmichael, but this took place on 2 December.

31
Brady had motor transport difficulties throughout 1920. In September he was held up by three masked men and his motor cycle stolen. He was not best pleased and warned all and sundry that he would deal with the thieves,
Southern Star
, 11 September 1920.

32
There are many versions of the sequence of events; O’Mahony, N., 2010, ‘The life & death of Canon Magner’,
Times Past: Journal of the Muskerry Local History Society 9
(2010–11), pp. 59–61.