Arming the Irish Revolution by W. H. Kautt

Author:W. H. Kautt [W. H. Kautt]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780700632275
Publisher: UP of Kansas
Published: 2021-09-11T00:00:00+00:00

Arm Centers’ Handling of Monies

This organizational-political drama demonstrated that the systems were not foolproof; due primarily to financial inexperience, the arms centers were continuously short of operating funds. On many occasions, Collins had to send additional funds to them to make up the deficits. For instance, in mid-1920, he sent a bank draft of £100 to IRB man Steve Lanigan in Liverpool with instructions that it was payable under an assumed name and anyone could endorse it. The same month (July) he sent £500 in Irish notes to Glasgow because “it is difficult to get English ones here at short notice.”27 Although the arms center heads were successful arms smugglers, they were dreadful accountants, and Collins continuously tried to get them to keep records, which they did only haphazardly. These cash-flow problems hampered their abilities to acquire arms, which was why Collins usually sent relief quickly.28 He

felt that if they had kept proper accounts, such disbursements would be unnecessary.

There were also real problems with funds in Scotland, as Noonan has uncovered. About the time Vize was arrested in October 1920, Collins received reports that an agent he sent to Glasgow named McCabe was using funds for personal maintenance. He spent “‘money lavishly’” on clothing and drink, “and his recent wedding had cost at least £100.”29 This must have been on his mind when Brugha’s accusations came forward just a few months later, but the problems of funding did not end with de Valera’s meeting in the spring of 1921 and after the truce; Germany came to the fore with Dowling’s incompetence, as mentioned in the previous chapter. Sean Beaumont said that Charles McGuinness used funds to pay for a good time in a notorious Berlin night club.30 Further, there were also MacBride’s suspicions about Briscoe’s dealings with the dummy corporation. In the smugglers’ defense, the world they were working in was fraught with dangers, not the least of which was the class of people with whom they were dealing.

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