Every Dark Hour by Niamh O'Sullivan

Author:Niamh O'Sullivan [O'Sullivan, Niamh]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Social History, Europe, Ireland, Social Science, Penology, Criminology
ISBN: 9781909718074
Google: vp8HBAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Liberties Press
Published: 2007-06-30T03:17:51+00:00

The following day, O’Malley was brought to a different part of Kilmainham – the old West Wing, where he wrote of not knowing any of the other prisoners. Despite frequently yelled shouts of ‘No talking!’ he began to communicate with his fellow inmates, and spent time reading in his cell. He was still known to his guards only as Bernard Stewart. He describes, in this ‘half-world of bone-cold’, the endless scrubbing of cells and passages, and the latrine buckets clattering on the floors at night. He thought of wild plans of attack, and lived with the constant fear of being recognised. Slowly, he began to get to know the other prisoners, and learned from them that the West Wing was called ‘Murder Wing’ by the soldiers. Some of the prisoners themselves called it ‘Murderers’ Gallery’.

Patrick Moran, who had a cell on the same passageway as O’Malley, was awaiting trial after being accused of taking part in the Bloody Sunday assassinations of British intelligence officers, as was Tommie Whelan. Frank Teeling had already been sentenced to death for his involvement in the assassinations.

Gradually, the strict discipline of the regime began to weaken. The prisoners could spend longer periods chatting amongst themselves when coming or going from their cells. O’Malley reasoned that the soldiers slowly learned to distinguish their charges from the images of anonymous, depraved murderers they carried in their minds, and were able to relax when they observed their prisoners doing nothing more violent than talking, teasing, singing, and sharing their food parcels with each other. Doors were left open at mealtimes, and the prisoners began to mingle with each other in their cells, sharing cigarettes.

Cell doors were unlocked for longer and longer periods, then closed when officers were expected. Each side taught the other their songs, and each side changed the wording in jest. This lighter atmosphere could darken instantly, for example on those occasions when prisoners were brought to the jail yards for possible identification by informers hiding behind makeshift screens with slits cut at eye level. Ernie O’Malley’s mugshot was taken while he was in Kilmainham.

The men were always alert to the fact that some of the prisoners amongst them could have been planted for intelligence purposes, and maintained a high level of care. One senior and highly trusted man that Ernie O’Malley did recognise was Rory O’Connor, later executed by Irish Free State forces in Mountjoy Prison during the Civil War, which followed so swiftly on the ending of the War of Independence. O’Connor was held in a different section of the jail, and the two could only meet at Mass in the Catholic Chapel on Sundays.

Other prisoners who were held in Kilmainham at that time included Frank Flood, Thomas Bryan, Bernard Ryan, Patrick Doyle and seventeen-year-old Dermot (Diarmuid) O’Sullivan. These men had been involved in an aborted ambush on a military lorry of RIC men in Drumcondra on 21 January 1921. A large force of Auxiliaries appeared almost immediately on the scene, and the five were arrested.

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