Terror in Ireland 1916–1923 by David Fitzpatrick

Author:David Fitzpatrick
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781843513179
Publisher: The Lilliput Press
Published: 2013-11-13T00:00:00+00:00

III

Five days later, nine victims (seven officers and two Auxiliary Cadets) received state funerals in London. The choreography of this event enabled the British public to grieve for individuals rather than a symbolic figure, such as the Unknown Warrior whose remains had been taken on the same gun carriage to Westminster Abbey a fortnight earlier. Cardinal Francis Bourne ruled that the funerals of Catholic victims in Westminster Cathedral should be an occasion for mourning all Catholic members of the forces killed in Ireland,115 so counterbalancing Bishop Peter Emmanuel Amigo’s recent homage to Terence MacSwiney at Southwark cathedral.116

While MacLean and Fitzgerald were buried with full military and police honours, the other Dublin funerals were private. The graves of nine serving officers (including MacLean’s plot at Grangegorman cemetery in Dublin) subsequently came under the care of the CWGC.

In Ireland, though in memoriam notices appeared for a couple of years, family commemorations were muted. Aphasia, a useful designation for the suppression of public Irish remembrance of the Great War, may likewise be applied to the Irish legacy of Bloody Sunday morning. Though a nephew recalled that ‘Uncle Jack’ Fitzgerald was included in bedtime prayers when he was a child, he knew only that his uncle had died young in Ireland. Yet, at Blackrock, his memory endured. A Holy Ghost priest had officiated at his funeral, and until the 1990s a private Mass was offered for Jack on each anniversary of Bloody Sunday.117

In addition to the four victims born in Ireland, several had close family ties there. Seven of the fifteen were born in England, and two left next-of-kin in the United States. Most were in their late 20s or early 30s, their ages at death ranging between 22 and 47. No fewer than six were Catholic, the remainder being Anglican. Most were educated at English or Irish public schools and two were university graduates, but three had only primary schooling. Nine were married, six were fathers, and two were engaged.

Of the fourteen who served in the Great War, mostly on the Western Front, all but two were pre-war regulars, Territorials, or early volunteers. By the Armistice, all were officers, of junior rank with the exception of Montgomery. Only two served with Irish regiments. Three were decorated for gallantry and a couple of others were mentioned in despatches.

Twelve members of the Crown forces died: eight serving army officers, a GHQ staff officer on secondment from the Admiralty, and three policemen. Two others were civilians, while Wilde defies confident classification. The army officers comprised six deployed on intelligence duties and two CMOS. Apart from Montgomery, the officers had served in Ireland only since the summer, while the two Auxiliaries had only just reached Dublin.

The six intelligence officers had previously served in Europe and Russia, but not Egypt. If there was a ‘Cairo Gang’, as republicans retrospectively claimed, and if this term denotes where intelligence skills were honed rather than where agents enjoyed a coffee (allegedly the Café Cairo in Grafton Street),118 then these men were not in it.

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