It followed the War of Independence when the once unified IRA split into pro and anti-treaty factions, those standing against the treaty were in the majority within the IRA. However, the pro treaty side won a vote on the “terms of the agreement” (referring to the agreement reached in London 6th December 1921) in the Dail, 7th January 1922, with 64 votes in favour of acceptance to 57 against.
The terms of the agreement were accepted thus making the terms a formal treaty between the British Government and Sinn Fein representatives or between the British Empire and the Irish Free State, as the 26 counties became known. The anti-treaty TDs walked out refusing to accept the vote declaring the treaty as a betrayal of the republic of 1916 and ratified by the First Dail on 21st January 1919.
The events which followed were horrific by any standards including the recent conflict against the British.
Atrocities were committed by both sides across the country but no more so than County Kerry. It was the forces of the free state government, now constituted as the “National Army” who arguably carried out the most numerous and barbarous of these atrocities. Owen O’Shea gives the student of Irish history a graphic insight into the Civil War in Kerry detailed vividly in his book, No Middle Path: the Civil War in Kerry. The government troops under Major General Paddy O’Daly formerly of Michael Collins “Squad” sometimes called the “twelve apostles” was later joined by another former apostle, Colonel David Neligan, one time Intelligence Officer and spy in Dublin Castle now “Free State Army” officer. Neligan, like O’Daly was a sadistic man as the irregulars - as the IRA were termed - were to discover. It must be remembered these two opposing factions were, only a few months previous, comrades on the same side fighting the Black and Tans, Auxiliaries and the Royal Irish Constabulary as well as British regular troops. They were now bitter enemies.
Though the government troops committed by far the most and worst of these war crimes the IRA could not walk away with clean hands as they too had their moments of criminality but on a lesser scale. The anti-treaty side perhaps failed to gain the hearts and minds of a population generally sympathetic to their cause due to some of their bullish behaviour towards civilians. The actions of the Free State troops negated these arrogant attitudes of the IRA to a large extent.
Relying on various sources of information, not least the BBC documentary, Ireland: A Television History (1980) written and presented by the late Robert Kee and was an excellent source of information, O’Shea gives a graphic account of some of the worst atrocities imaginable. In 1980 Kee interviewed Stephen Fuller, who died in 1984, the only man to survive the Ballyseedy Massacre which occurred on 6th March 1923. This horrific event was a reprisal by O’Daly and Neligan for the deaths of five Free State soldiers at Knocknagoshel on the same date. Eight government troops acting on a phony tip off by the IRA went to what they were led to believe was an irregular arms dump. It was in fact a booby trap bomb which was detonated by the IRA killing five of the eight government troops. In retaliation for this O’Daly ordered eight republican prisoners be taken from Tralee Gaol to dismantle a barricade which the Free Staters had mined. Stephen Fuller was the only survivor albeit with terrible injuries of what is known as the Ballyseedy Massacre. The account in No Middle Path of this and many other incidents in the civil war period in Kerry is graphic and well researched.
Owen O’Shea covers many incidents none of them nice which occurred in County Kerry during those eleven months of hostilities, all of them well researched and collated. He concentrates on events in Kerry because it was here the lions share of the Irish Civil War horrors took place.
The eleven months of the Irish Civil War perhaps opened up many old personal wounds and was used by some to perhaps settle old scores. This again is highlighted in the book and one could be forgiven for wondering how these men fought together in the War of Independence which raged from January 1919 to July 1921! Nevertheless they did, and forced the British Government to the negotiating table signing the terms of agreement on 6th December 1921.
It was this agreement, becoming a treaty, which gave rise to the outbreak of the Irish Civil War. In the early days of the conflict some of the old unified IRA comradeship did surface. After a long gunbattle in Listowel, Co. Kerry, on 30th June 1922 which was won by the republicans a young Free State Army private, Ned Sheehy, was killed. The captured staters who had been disarmed by the republican army were allowed their rifles in order they could attend their fallen comrade’s funeral and fire a volley of shots over the young private's grave. IRA commander in the area, Humphrey Murphy was still perhaps hopeful a peaceful resolution could still be found? Moments such as these were few and far between and as August came were all but a memory, not perhaps dissimilar to the ‘Christmas truce’ in the trenches in 1914.
The Cork and Kerry landings by government troops in these counties was well documented and recalled in the work. On 2nd August 1922 a local of Fenit, Johnny Sheehan, looked out to sea and could make out a strange vessel nearing. It was the Lady Wicklow and was carrying the Dublin Guards, the Free State Army elite under the command of Major General Paddy O’Daly accompanied by Colonel David Neligan. These were the troops ordered by Michael Collins to take the so-called ‘Munster Republic’ by sea landings.
As the war intensified abuses by both sides increased more so by the Free State Army. They abused women and under the title ‘A Couple of Tarts Getting a Few Lashes’ chapter 10 the abuse of the daughters of a Dr MacCarthy by government troops is described by Owen O’Shea. The soldiers came knocking at the doctor's door in the very early hours of 1st June 1923, when the Civil War was officially over. They abused the doctor’s daughters horrifically which shows the bitterness still held by the staters. The girls dressed only in their pyjamas were taken into the garden and stood on by the masked troops who were fully dressed wearing heavy boots.
This book is essential reading for any student of Irish history and particularly the civil war period. It perhaps supersedes all previous works and uses for research purposes Dorothy Macardle’s Tragedies of Kerry, published in 1924 and provides O’Shea with some useful pointers which to work on and expand.
If the book has any minor deficiencies, it is perhaps can be a little confusing as to which side committed which atrocities. This is in all probability due to the intensity of research, and the student may have to recap. I found the work very interesting and an eye opener to a period which expanded my knowledge.
Owen O'Shea, 2022, No Middle Path: The Civil War in Kerry. Merrion Press. ISBN-13: 978-1785374333
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Caoimhin O’Muraile is Independent Socialist Republican and Marxist |
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