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The Irish Civil War. Seán Enright
Читать онлайн.Название The Irish Civil War
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isbn 9781785372551
Автор произведения Seán Enright
Издательство Ingram
Another prisoner killed in custody was Jerry Buckley after an ambush on the road from Macroom to Kerry. A National Army convoy stopped to defuse the landmine in the road and thought they had made it safe, but this was a ‘trip mine’ and the detonation mortally wounded Commandant Tom Keogh and killed six of his men.31 Tom Keogh had been a long-time member of Collins’ Squad during the War of Independence. In the aftermath of the explosion, a group of Dublin officers also from Collins’ old Squad went looking for revenge. There had been extensive fighting around Macroom that day, but only a single man had been captured: 41-year-old Jerry Buckley, a no-rank prisoner.32 Buckley was seized, shot and tossed into the crater made by the explosion.
The local National Army commander wrote to General Emmet Dalton at HQ: ‘The shooting of a prisoner here in the operations has caused considerable contempt among the garrison here … They have paraded before me and gave me to understand that they would not go out on the hills anymore.’ The incident, he told his commander, had resonated for fifteen miles in every direction and brought the National Army into disrepute with local people. Dalton wrote to Commander in Chief Mulcahy about the killing:
This shooting was the work of the Squad. Now I personally approve of the action, but the men I have in my command are of such a temperament that they can look at seven of their companions being blown to atoms by a murderous trick without feeling annoyed, but an enemy is found with a rifle and ammn. They will mutiny if he is shot. On this account I think it would be better if you kept the ‘squad’ out of my area.
It may be taken that General Mulcahy understood all of the nuances; he did not ask questions but replied: ‘You are at perfect liberty to return here any officer you think well of so returning …’33 Afterwards, Dalton returned all the officers responsible to Dublin.34 No questions were asked by General Mulcahy about the identity of the killers or the steps taken to enforce discipline within the National Army.
That same week another letter arrived at National Army headquarters, sent by David Robinson, then a staff officer on the anti-Treaty side.35 Robinson, from Wicklow, was an ex-British Army tank officer who had been much decorated during the Great War where he had lost an eye and almost his legs. Tall and lanky, ‘Dead Eye’ had taken part in the War of Independence and went with the anti-Treaty side after the split. He was still hanging onto an old-fashioned sense of decency and expecting others to do the same. He wrote to his counterpart in the National Army headquarters asking him to raise the question of the killing of prisoners: ‘I cannot believe that Mulcahy would tolerate it for a moment.’36 Robinson also raised a concern about another prisoner, ‘a boy called Murphy’, who had been killed after capture.
The ‘boy called Murphy’ was 17-year-old Bartholemew Murphy from Castleisland. The National Army later maintained that Murphy had been a prisoner on an army lorry and was fatally wounded in an anti-Treaty ambush at Brennan’s Glen. He was in fact a prisoner of the National Army at their makeshift barracks at the Great Southern Hotel in Killarney where he had been in custody for some days and had been used to clear barricades laid in the road. The day of his death there was an ambush at Brennan’s Glen where a Dublin Guard convoy lost three men. Afterwards, there was a commotion at the barracks and Murphy was picked on because he was from that area and was thought to know who might be responsible. He was thrown down the steps by an officer and shot to death with a revolver.37 The allegations were specific, detailed and contemporaneous and having regard to what is now known about the activities of the Dublin Guard there is no reason to doubt that this young man was put to death in custody. David Robinson wrote: ‘The number of bullet wounds alone would make you suspicious.’
None of this came out at the inquest which was held the next day under the County Coroner William O’Sullivan and a jury. The local National Army commander, Brigadier Paddy O’Daly, gave evidence in uniform: a man of compact build and of slightly more than average height, he had a curiously cherubic appearance. He looked across the room at the mother of the dead youth: Julia Murphy, a widow with two children who ran a dressmakers shop on the Main Street in Castleisland.38 O’Daly related that her son had been killed while on a National Army lorry when the lorry had been ambushed and two soldiers were killed and nine others were wounded: ‘under no circumstances do we permit our political prisoners to be ill-treated’. O’Daly looked across the court to the bereaved mother: ‘I sympathise with you … I really do.’39 It may have been difficult for her to express a contrary view or to call witnesses. The Coroner’s Court had been convened at army headquarters at the Great Southern Hotel in Killarney, the very place where her son had been killed. It became a pattern in Kerry. The Dublin Guard killed prisoners and Brigadier O’Daly would go to the inquest to cover up for his men or limit the fall out.40
David Robinson also raised the killing of another prisoner, Jack Galvin, who had been captured by National Army forces in an attack on Killorglin. It seems he was suspected of having killed a National Army Officer, Captain Burke, who had been a friend of the colonel of the First Westerns. At least one National Army officer recognised the threat to Galvin and placed him at the centre of a group of prisoners clearing trees. Galvin was unfit to work because of a broken arm and soon became separated from the prisoners and was found shot dead soon after. David Robinson finished his request with a comment that resonates through the ages: ‘You may imagine what the result will be if this goes on.’ The killing of Jack Galvin raised a bit of a storm among National Army troops and the colonel of the Kerry 1st Brigade wrote to General Mulcahy and threatened to resign unless a full inquiry took place to vindicate ‘the honour’ of the National Army. He added that if these incidents were allowed to continue, ‘We would soon find ourselves in arms against a hostile population.’
The General Officer Commanding (GOC) in Kerry was W.R.E. Murphy. A photo of the time shows a tall scrawny officer with a small moustache. He was from Wexford, but like many of his generation, he had served with distinction in the British Army during the Great War and went back to his old career as a school teacher until he was recruited to the National Army. W.R.E. Murphy also wrote to Mulcahy about Galvin’s death but advised against any inquiry: ‘This scoundrel shot capt Burke. Signed a form and got out and took up arms again. He was the terror of the countryside.’ Therefore, the GOC wrote: ‘I will not sacrifice any officer or man of the 1st Western Division (a splendid lot of troops).’41
There was no army inquiry into the death of Galvin or Bertie Murphy and their deaths became part of a pattern that was already taking shape. Sean Moriarty from Tralee was killed the month before. He had been removed from his home late at night by armed men. He and another man, Healy, were taken to waste ground outside Tralee where they were questioned about their involvement in attacks on National Army troops. Moriarty was shot dead and although Healy was riddled with bullets, he recovered consciousness and crawled off to get help. He later told the full story at the inquest into the death of his companion.42 Some historians have described these events as part of ‘a ruthless counter insurgency campaign’.43 It is hardly an accurate description. Even in the extreme circumstances that existed, the law provided no special dispensation for soldiers or policemen.
There was one last organised effort to hold the government to account for killing suspects in custody. It was the inquest into the killing of three teenagers who had been posting anti-Treaty leaflets. The leaflets laid the blame for the recent spate of killings on CID officers attached to Oriel House and army intelligence and in turn, incited the murder of those officers. These young men were picked up by National Army men late one night and the following morning the bodies of two were found dumped by the roadside near the village of Red Cow. The bodies were still warm and it seemed they had been killed around dawn. The trajectory of the bullet wounds suggested they had been shot while lying down. The third had run for his life and was discovered in the quarry, lying in a clump of nettles riddled with bullets.
Witnesses soon came forward identifying Charles Dalton, a National Army officer, as having arrested the youths the night before. Dalton lived a