Dan Breen and the IRA by Joe Ambrose

Author:Joe Ambrose [Ambrose, Joe]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General, Europe, Ireland, Political Science, History, Revolutionary, Political, Biography & Autobiography, Revolutionaries, Biography
ISBN: 9781856355063
Publisher: Mercier Press
Published: 2011-07-12T09:51:23+00:00

14 – Ending the Tan War

We crossed the pleasant valleys and the hilltops green

Where we met with Dinny Lacey, Seán Hogan and Dan Breen

Seán Moylan and his gallant band they kept the flag flying high

Farewell to Tipperary said the Galtee Mountain Boy.

In 1921, the Third Tipperary Brigade both unravelled and consolidated. Dan Breen got married, Dinny Lacey emerged as a de facto Tipperary leader and Eamon O’Duibhir grew alienated from the war. Two flying columns absorbed the top IRA men in the county.

The myth of the Big Four disintegrated. Séamus Robinson, isolated at the brigade’s new Rosegreen HQ, was now ignored by the Volunteers in the field. Seán Hogan led a flying column, but there were substantial murmurings of discontent about his stewardship. Breen became the inheritor of the Big Four’s mantle. Despite huge personal setbacks, he remained a major organiser and, more importantly, a valiant source of inspiration to younger Volunteers wherever he went.

The death of Seán Treacy had inadvertently brought to public attention a split which had been building up in south Tipperary for some time: a letter critical of the ongoing campaign, written by Eamon O’Duibhir, was found in Treacy’s pocket.

Earlier in 1920, O’Duibhir had contacted GHQ to complain about what he saw as IRA disorder and incompetence. He was also disturbed by the organisation’s failure to protect the ordinary people of Tipperary who were really suffering at the hands of the Black and Tans.

GHQ asked Robinson to investigate O’Duibhir’s misgivings and Robinson reported that he found little of substance in his old mentor’s complaints: ‘Eamon O’Dwyer is acting brigade QM and is the best man for the job that we know. He is a man who can form opinions of his own and who will speak them when he thinks they will receive attention. I would ask GHQ to take his integrity and sincerity for granted and to ask him for a full statement of whatever case he has.’

Frank Drohan, commandant of the Clonmel battalion, became another prominent dissident. He’d been complaining since 1919 that unauthorised activities by the Big Four were ‘creating disturbances’. Drohan came in for somewhat rougher treatment than O’Duibhir. In May 1921, when he tried to get selected as a candidate for the next general election, Ernie O’Malley left him in no doubt that he was considered an inappropriate nominee: ‘Our point of view is that of the IRA. As an officer you are unsuitable. You had not the necessary drive and initiative for guerrilla warfare. Your area, though possessing good material, was the slackest from the point of view of organisation and offensive action. I did not nor do doubt your intentions. You are fit for civic honour but as a fighting man I do not respect you. I think that active members of the IRA are the most suitable men at present for the TD position, men whom the youth can look to for their fighting record.’

The O’Duibhir letter found on Treacy’s body, in which he expressed qualms about IRA

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