The Squad (34 page)

‘Charlie Byrne and I got instructions to report to Collins at the Gresham hotel where he had his office at the time,’ Dolan said. ‘Collins explained to me what he wanted done. We were told to get in touch with a man named Paddy Daly, who was one of the Liverpool Irish Volunteers, that he would show us where to go to find the men who we were to shoot, and that he would give us the assistance of whatever number of Liverpool Irish Volunteers as we might consider necessary.’

They met Daly as arranged and then went by train to Man chester. ‘I undertook the shooting of Ellis, and six or seven of the Liverpool men came along with me,’ Dolan continued. Byrne went after the hangman’s assistant, William Willis, with some of the Man chester Volunteers. Willis lived in Accrington and they went by car.

‘We went by train to Rochdale where Ellis lived, and some of the Liverpool Volunteers conducted me to the house and pointed it out to me. I walked up to the door alone and knocked at the door, which was opened by Mrs Ellis. At this stage I noticed that the other fellows had all disappeared, but I decided to go ahead with the job on my own. Mrs Ellis informed me that her husband was not in, that he had gone to Ireland, but as I did not believe her at the time, I forced my way into the house and looked around. There was no one there and I had to accept her assurance that he had left already for Ireland. Our boats had probably crossed.’

Charlie Byrne’s mission had also proved abortive. Their car broke down. Byrne wanted to commandeer a car, but the others would not hear of it. So he too came up empty handed. Willis had probably already left for Ireland anyway.

In the early 1950s Dolan caused a sensation by disclosing that in June 1922 Collins had been behind the killing of Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson in London. This was the incident that had essentially ignited the Civil War in Ireland. The British thought that republican forces occupying the Four Courts were responsible and they warned that if Collins did not clear out the Four Courts without delay, they would do so. In fact, General Sir Nevil Macready was ordered to clear out the Four Courts, but he delayed in the hope that Collins would eventually do so, which he did the following day.

Dolan was not involved in the shooting of Wilson, who was killed outside his London home by Reggie Dunne, the officer commanding the London IRA, and one of his men, Joe O’Sullivan, who had lost a leg in the war. There was also believed to have been a third man driving a getaway car, but he apparently fled when the two were chased and captured by people at the scene.

‘I was then a Staff Captain in the National Army attached to the military intelligence branch at Oriel House,’ Dolan recalled. ‘Naturally, we all discussed the shooting, or the report of it that had appeared in the newspapers, but I don’t think I spoke to anyone who knew any more about it than I did at the time.’ Before Dunne and O’Sullivan went on trial Collins summoned Dolan to his office in Portobello barracks.

‘Collins was a man who wasted no words; he always spoke snappily and to the point,’ Dolan said. ‘Having mentioned the shooting of Sir Henry Wilson, he immediately came to the point by saying that he wanted to effect a rescue of Dunne and O’Sullivan if at all possible. He said he wanted me to change into civilian attire immediately, report to Sam Maguire in London and there to see what could be done towards effecting a rescue at all costs. The idea was not that I should attempt to rescue immediately but that I should explore the possibilities and report back to Collins without delay.’

‘I left for London by the mail boat that evening and reported to Sam Maguire as arranged,’ Dolan continued. ‘The rendezvous with Maguire was at Peel’s public house in Fetter Lane, which is off Fleet St. That was the usual place where Maguire could be contacted. When I met Maguire, I discussed my mission with him, and I gathered from him that he already knew of the rescue project. He called over another man who was there at the time – Seán Golden, whom I already knew – and told me that Golden would show me the same pub but had not been in Maguire’s company when I came along, and he was instructed by Maguire to show me the way around and assist me to explore the likely places where a rescue might be attempted.’

Dolan concluded there might be an opportunity of rescuing Dunne and O’Sullivan as they travelled between the prison and the court. Some three days later he reported to Collins, but then became involved in the Civil War, which had already begun. Afterwards Sam Maguire told Dolan that Collins had sent T o m Cullen to check on Dolan’s suggestions, and apparently ruled out any rescue.

‘There is nothing more I can say from my personal knowledge on this incident except to express my firm belief that Collins did instruct Dunne to carry out the execution of Wilson,’ Dolan added. ‘The Belfast pogrom was still going on and we all knew that Wilson was one of the chief forces at the back of it. Before the Truce it would have been perfectly legitimate to have Wilson executed, but perhaps it was only after the Truce that his responsibility in this matter was identified and his activities had not ceased with the Truce.’

These were not the actions of someone committed to a democratic constitutional process. Whether Collins would ever have adapted to a role in civilian government must be open to question in view of his efforts in trying to kill the British hangman and his assistant, as well as the subsequent murder of Sir Henry Wilson. There is little doubt that some of his men were not able to make the transition after Collins was killed at Béalnabláth on 22 August 1922.

Major General Paddy O’Daly was in charge of the Free State’s soldiers in Kerry who committed the worst atrocities of the Civil War, and he presided over the subsequent army inquiry, which was a proverbial whitewash. Liam Tobin, Charlie Dalton and Frank Thornton were leading figures in the Army Mutiny of 1924. Eoin O’Duffy became commissioner of the garda siochána during the 1920s, but he tried to organise a coup d’état to prevent Fianna Fáil coming to power in 1932, while David Neligan, the head of the special branch, stood idly by. O’Duffy and Neligan were ousted the following year. Ned Broy became garda commissioner and loyally served the de Valera government.

Most of those closest to Collins were unable to make the adjustment to civilian authority. They were virtually leaderless without him. They tried to live up to his ideals, but as the Big Fellow was such a secretive individual, nobody was ever quite sure where he really stood.

Manuscript Sources

Robert Barton Papers, TCD

Michael Collins Papers, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Michael Collins Papers, Liam Collins, Clonakilty

Richard Mulcahy Papers, UCD

Ernie O’Malley Papers, UCD

Austin Stack Papers, Nanette Barrett, Tralee

Bureau of Military History Statements, National Archives

Ahern, Maurice, WS 483

Archer, Liam, WS 819

Barton, Robert, WS 979

Beaumont, Seán, WS 709

Berry, Patrick J., WS 942

Bolger, John C., WS 1,745

Broy, Eamon, WS 1,280

WS 1,284, WS 1,285

Byrne, Bernard C., WS 631

Byrne, Joseph, WS 461

Byrne, Vincent, WS 423

Coghlan, Francis X., WS 1,760

Culhane, Seán, WS 746

Dalton, Charles, WS 434

Dalton, Emmet, WS 641

Dolan, Joe, WS 663, WS 900

Doyle, Gerald, WS 1,511

Duffy, Thomas, WS 1,409

Fitzgerald, George, WS 684

Fox, Thomas, WS 365

Gay, Thomas B. WS 780

Harpur, James, WS 536

Hyland, Joe WS 644

Kelliher, Edward J., WS 477

Kelly, Paddy, WS 726

Kennedy, Patrick, WS 499

Kennedy, Tadgh, WS 135, 1413

Kenny, James, WS 174

Knightly, Mike, WS 833

Lawless, Sr Eitne (Eibhlín),

WS 410

Lawson, Patrick, WS 667

Leonard, Joseph, WS 547

MacNeill, Hugo, WS 1,377

Mannix, Patrick, WS 502

McCorley, Roger, WS 389

McCrae, Patrick, WS 413

McDonnell, Daniel, WS 486

McDonnell, Michael, WS 225

McElligott, T. J., WS 472

McGarry, Seán, WS 368

McGuinness, Joseph, WS 607

McMahon, Liam, WS 274

Mernin, Lily, WS 441

Mullen, Patrick J., WS 621

Neligan, David WS 380

Newell, Thomas ‘Sweeney’

WS 572, WS 698

Nunan, Seán, WS 1,744

O’Connor, Mrs Batt, WS 330

O’Connor, Patrick J., WS 608

O’Daly, Patrick, WS 220, WS 368

O’Donoghue, Florence, WS 554

O’Donoghue, Patrick, WS 847

O’Donovan, Daniel, WS 1,480

O’Hegarty, Seán, WS 54

O’Keeffe, Patrick, WS 1,725

O’Reilly, Michael W. , WS 886

Peppard, Thomas J., WS 1,3991

Saurin, Frank, WS 715

Slattery, Jim, WS 445

Stafford, Jack, WS 818

Stapleton, W. James, WS 822

Thornton, Frank, WS 510, WS 615

Tobin, Liam, WS 1,753

Traynor, Oscar, WS 340

Tully, James, WS 626

White, George, WS 956

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