Con Colbert by John O'Callaghan

Author:John O'Callaghan [O'Callaghan, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, Historical, Military, Political, History, Europe, Great Britain, General, Ireland, Modern, 20th Century
ISBN: 9781847177476
Google: VvueBgAAQBAJ
Publisher: The O'Brien Press
Published: 2015-03-16T02:50:42+00:00

Chapter 6

Court Martial and Execution

On Monday morning, 1 May, the prisoners were assembled in the gymnasium of Richmond barracks for what was essentially an identification parade. They were screened for trial, deportation or release. ‘G Men’ – detectives from the G Branch political surveillance unit of the Dublin Metropolitan Police – scrutinised the rebels and pinpointed certain individuals. Colbert was one of those whom the detectives specified for closer attention. The leaders were isolated. Before they were taken away, Ceannt ‘strode up and down … looking very much like a caged lion. Sean McDermott and Colbert smiled and nodded cheerily across to each one of us in turn’.361 Their good humour aside, ‘they looked very tired and worn out’.362

The staff of the 4th Battalion were Commandant Éamonn Ceannt, Vice-Commandant Cathal Brugha, Adjutant Seamus Murphy, Quartermaster Seamus Kenny, and Assistant Quartermaster Phil Cosgrave (the last three having been in Jameson’s). There were another half-a-dozen staff officers. All of these men held higher ranks than Colbert. The captains of the other five companies in the battalion held an equal rank to Colbert (these included Adjutant Murphy of A Company and Patrick Pearse of E Company, nominally part of the 4th Battalion but attached primarily to GHQ). Seamus Murphy was in the same batch of prisoners as Colbert and in full uniform, but he was not picked out. There was a very simple and straightforward reason for that – he was not familiar to the G Men:

The question of Colbert taking Murphy’s place does not arise at all, it was just that good luck favoured Murphy and he was deported … Colbert and Murphy did not, and could not, exchange uniforms, as Colbert was a very small sized man and Murphy was very tall and well-built.

In Christy Byrne’s opinion, ‘Murphy was a very manly fellow and certainly would not shirk facing a court-martial and its sentence had he been picked out for it’. Byrne made the convincing case that

… what saved Murphy’s life was the fact that he was not very prominent before the Rising and was not, as far as I know, known to the police. Against this, Colbert made himself very prominent during the anti-recruiting campaign for the British army that was then in full swing before the Rising. He wore kilts and frequently pulled down Union Jacks and recruiting posters and helped to break up meetings. He also drilled the Fianna in the open.363

The circumstances of the confirmation of Colbert’s death sentence support Byrne’s contention.

Britain had customarily deployed martial law in its colonies when insurrection could not be subdued by troops acting for the civil administration. It usually involved the establishment of military courts to try and, if expedient, to execute prisoners. The primary limit to the exercise of power by the army in these circumstances was no more or less than the judgment of senior officers. The immediate legal response of the authorities in Easter week was the declaration of martial law by the head of the Irish executive, Baron Wimborne, the Lord Lieutenant and Governor General.

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