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ABSTRACT
This article assesses the extent, geography and nature of ‘forced disappearances’ carried out by the Irish Republican Army during the Irish Revolution of 1919–1923. The victims were either Irish civilians suspected of being spies and informers working for British intelligence, or members of the British army and Royal Irish Constabulary. It reveals the scale of these secret killings as a phenomenon that developed in the context of the IRA’s military strategy during the Irish War of Independence. Disappearances continued at a far lower level during the Truce (largely in Co. Cork), and almost ceased during the Irish Civil War of 1922–1923. The study found that rather than being a nationwide military strategy forced disappearances were the initiative of local IRA units, with those in Co. Cork (notably Cork 1 Brigade), displaying a more ruthless attitude to this tactic than elsewhere. Civilian targets (the majority of whom were ex-soldiers) were usually assumed by the IRA to be dangerous British intelligence assets. This was also the case with many crown force targets, but others were simply opportunistic killings.
Acknowledgments
In particular, we would like to fully acknowledge the very significant contribution of Prof. James Donnelly Jnr to the development of The Cork Fatality Index, from which it has been possible to identify most of those disappeared in Co Cork. We would like to acknowledge useful suggestions from an anonymous referee. We would also like to thank Jim Fitzgerald for bringing us to Martin Corry’s farm and Kilquane graveyard.
Disclosure statement
We wish to confirm there is no conflict of interest in publishing this article.
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Notes
1. Preston, The Spanish Holocaust; Newsweek 30/8/2017. See for example Radden Keefe, Say Nothing.
2. Borgonovo, Spies and informers, 20–33.
3. Murphy, The year of disappearances, 173, 187, 250, 256, 275–83. Mention should also be made of Jim Fitzgerald, Knockraha, Foras Feasa Na Paroiste Cnoc Ratha History and Folklore (Knockraha, 1977) which gathered important oral testimony on events of this period.
4. Hart, The IRA & its enemies.
5. O’Halpin, “Problematic killing,” 317–48.
6. Cork Examiner,16/7/1921; BMH, Tadgh O’Sullivan, WS 792, p. 5; MA CP, A/0535. IRA executions in 1920. For a summary of debate on ex-soldiers see Paul Taylor, Heroes or traitors?
7. MA/MSPC/A/1(E) 1; Brigade Activity Reports, E. co, 1st Bat, Cork 1; BMH, Joseph O’Shea, WS 1675, 12.
8. BMH Jerimiah Keating WS 1657, p. 6; UCDA, RMP P7/A/24.
9. UCDA, EOMN, Connie Neenan, P17b/112. MA A/0535 CP correspondence regarding O’Callaghan.
10. Cork Examiner, 7/9/1920, UCDA EOMN, Mick Leahy, P17b/108.
11. WO 35 151B Military inquests into Rutherford and Brown; UCDA, EOMN, Charlie Brown P17b/112.
12. WO 35 151B, Military inquest into Green Chambers and Watts; MSP34REF55794, Pension claim Josephine O’Donoghue; MA/MSPC/A/1(c)2, Brigade Activity Reports, C Co, 2nd Bat, Cork 1; MA, A/0434 CP; Official British reports 1920, Kidnapping of Green, Chambers Watts.
13. MA, A/0909, CP; British forces missing. Barry, Guerilla days, 52–5.
14. BMH Sean Healy, WS 1479, 31–3; Abbott, Police Casualties, 313.
15. An auxiliary memoir with a number of factual inaccuracies recalls two Macroom intelligence officers disappeared at this time, but on different days within a week of each other. Gleeson, Bloody Sunday, 69. This implies that Agnew and/or Mitchell had an intelligence role. The IRA certainly believed so. Cork Examiner, 5/11/21.
16. BMH Charles Brown WS 873 29–30; National Archives JUS/2019/58/5.
17. MA/MSPC/A/1(A); WS 1479, Sean Healy; MA CP A/0535 IRA Executions in 1920.
18. Cork Examiner, 27/11/1920; Borgonovo, Spies and informers.
19. UCDA, EOMN, Neenan.
20. MA/MSPC/A/1(C)2; Brigade Activity reports for C Co., 2nd Bat. Cork 1; BMH Michael Murphy, WS 1547; Borgonovo, 2007, 170; Military Archives; CP A/0535 Correspondence re Blemens.
21. Cork Examiner, 10 December 1920; MA; CP A/0535 IRA Executions in 1920.
22. MA; CP A/0535 IRA Executions in 1920; Ó Ruairc, The men will talk, 204–7; Shanahan; Eoin Telling tales; and Shanahan, The hand that held the gun.
23. Richard Abbott, Police Casualties, 398; MA; CP A/0535 IRA Executions in 1920; BMH Edward Lynch WS 1333, 13.
24. Ó Comhraí, Revolution in Connacht, 72–73, 99; Hopkinson, Sturgis Diaries, 79. Ó Ruairc, “Britain’s Disappeared.”
25. Abbott, Police Casualties, 312–3; National Archives, Dublin; JUS/H/257/13 Letter to Whiskard April 1926. We have classified him as a civilian.
26. CP A/0649 IRA executions in 1921; O’Mahony, Maritime Gateway, 104; Cork Examiner, 13/1/1922.
27. MA/A/0649 CP correspondence regarding Nagle.
28. Correspondence from the headquarters of the Cork 1 Brigade implied (improbably) that by 15 March 1921 Clarke had been already shot and Mrs Lindsay was in a dying condition and she was too old to be deported and the battalion commandant proposed to hold her until she died, seeking approval for this. In fact they were shot at the same time and buried in the same grave. A. Bielenberg, ‘Female fatalities in Co Cork.
29. NLI, OMP, MS 44,045 Noble and Lindsay may not have been the only women disappeared in the Cork area. In a letter to the Minister for Home Affairs dated 9 May 1924 the Lindsay investigations suggested that two women had been shot at Reinslaugh, east Cork.
30. BMH Denis Dwyer, ws 713 p. 4; Cairogang website citing the Police Gazette notes he deserted at Donoghmore. He was subsequently listed as missing and assumed dead in a British Army Memorial Service list of 21 November 1922 held at Kilmainham, Dublin.
31. National Archives, Dublin, JUS/H/257/13; Pre-truce Absentees from British Troops in Ireland MA, A/07304 CP.
32. MA/CP/5/2/6 (xxix) Correspondence from HQ 1st Southern Division 21 March 1922 to Director of intelligence, GHQ; Irish Times, 22/8/1921.
33. Hansard, HC Debate, 1 June 1921, vol. 142, 1046–7; MA, CP, A/0848; IE/MA/HS/A/848. Times 2/6/1921; UCDA, Earnie O’Malley notebooks, interview with Frank Busteed, P17b112. Smith’s badly decomposed remains were retrieved in 1926 and sent to Cork city awaiting instructions. But his former wife did not wish to accept the remains, which were then handed over by the National Army to a British steam launch which took the coffin to Fort Carlisle where it was reinterred in a small military graveyard.
34. UCDA, RMP, P7/A/20; BMH Timothy Sexton, WS 1565, 6–7.
35. Cork Examiner, 5/11/1921; MA/MSPC/A/1(H)2; Brigade Activity Report, H. Co., 2nd Bat, Cork 1; BMH, Daniel Healy, WS 1656, 14. His widow only learnt that he had been shot 3 weeks later and the location of his burial have only recently become apparent.
36. Cork Examiner, 14/1/1922.
37. O’Halpin, “Problematic killing,” 326; MA; CP, A/0649 IRA executions in 1921.
38. MA/MSPC/A/1(3) Brigade Activity Reports, C and D Co, 3rd Bat, Cork 1; MA/MSPC/A1(H) H. Co, 1st Bat, Cork 1; National Archives London, CO 905/15 Registration of Compensation Commission (Ireland) cases of private persons; Cork Examiner, 14/1/1922; Irish Independent, 18/2/1922.
39. MA/CP/5/2/6 (Lxxxiv) Correspondence HQ 1st Southern Division to i/o GHQ 17 July 1921.
40. Cork Weekly News, 23/7/1921; Irish Independent, 8/3/1922.
41. Police Gazette, 4/7/1921; Cork Examiner, 26/5/1921; D’Arcy, Remembering the War Dead, 50–1; BMH Michael Geary et al, WS 754.
42. NLI, Florence O’ Donoghue papers, MS 31,421 (11); National Archives, Dublin, JUS/H/257/13.
43. UCDA, EOMN, Edmond Desmond P17b/112; National Archives, London, WO 329/1765.
44. MA/MSPC/A/1(E)2; Brigade Activity Reports; E. Co, 2nd Bat. Cork 1; RIC Monthly Report, Cork city and East Riding July 1921 CO 904/116.
45. BMH William Barry, WS 1708, 11; MA A/07360, CP.
46. Two alleged spies, Brian Bradley and Patrick Keelan, were disappeared by the IRA in Meath in 1921. There was a third disappearance in the county, Thomas Smyth, a Catholic ex-soldier from Kilmessan, abducted on 26 June 1921 and drowned in the River Boyne. His death is not recorded in any contemporary IRA documentation or testimony. He had fallen foul of both the IRA and RIC. The RIC County Inspector’s report simply described Smyth’s disappearance as ‘murder’ and did not ascribe a political motive. The motive has never been established and it may have been the result of a personal or agrarian dispute. The allegation that Smyth was killed by the IRA was recorded in 1938 as part of the Schools Collection of the Irish Folklore Commission. Given this uncertainty he has not been listed here.
47. Abbott, Police Casualties, 310; Ernie O’Malley notebooks UCDA P17b/109; Toomey, War of Independence in Limerick, 515.
48. Kathleen Hegarty Thorne, They Put the Flag A Flying, 87–8.
49. UCDA, EOMN, John Joe Rice, P17b/102; The story of John Watts in The Shadow of Carron Hill, Sligo: Manorhamilton Publishing, 1997.
50. Meath Chronicle, 4/6/1921; Sunday Independent, 20/5/2018; Clare People, 22/5/2018.
51. CO 762/83/11 IGC application of Kate Devoy; BMH Patrick Cronin WS 710, 1–2.
52. CO 762/92/2 IGC application of Mary Cronin; C0 762/4/1 William Jagoe.
53. UCDA, EOMN, Charlie Brown, P17b/112; Limerick Leader, 4 November 1929.
54. MA/CP/4/11, MA/CP/5/2/6; correspondence on John Arthur Anderson.
55. National Archives Kew CO 762/170/21 IGC claim of Thomas Roycroft; Cork Constitution, 14/3/1922.
56. Murphy, Disappearances, 176–180.; UCDA, EOMN, Martin Corry, P17b/112.
57. MSPC34/REF59839 Pension claim Charles Cullinane. Murphy references a Crosshaven camper who went missing who was a YMCA member, Murphy, Disappearances, 311, 349. He was stated to be on a list of YMCA members in Murphy’s book (appendix x). Parsons is not on this list which implies the camper was somebody else. In any case we know that Parsons was abducted near his home on the south side of Cork city; not in Crosshaven.
58. National Archives, JUS/2007/56/11 File on Michael Williams.
59. Military Archives DOD series, A/7431; Letter from Minister of Defence to Secretary Executive Council, 18 July 1923; Letter from Colonel SJ Murphy, DAAG, Cork Command to Military Secretary, Ministry for Defence, 14 July 1923.
60. BMH, Michael Murphy, WS 1427. This was also corroborated by BMH Jeremiah Keating, WS 1657, p. 8, an intelligence officer for the 2nd Battalion, Cork 1 Brigade stated ‘He was executed (by shooting) by men of the 2nd Battalion.’ UCDA, EOMN, Mick Murphy, P17b/111.
61. Bielenberg, Borgonovo and Donnelly, “Something in the nature of a massacre,” 7–59.
62. Times, 12/12/1923; Southern Star, 15/12/1923; WO 35/180 c Kidnapping of mechanical transport officer and 3 officers. Their remains were located and exhumed on 11 December 1923 and returned to England.
63. See note 58 above.
64. UCDA, EOMN with Paddy Dwyer, UCDA P17b/119; BMH, Seamus Babington, WS 1595, 110–28; PMCILI on Bridget Dillon NAUK WO 35/149A; Michael Dillon, IGC Application, NAUK, CO/762/3.
65. Irish Times, 5/4/1923; John Ned Quinn interview with Fr. Louis O’Kane on 8 May 1966, LOK Box 3 0003.01. Lewis, Frank Aiken’s War, 160. Harenden, Bandit country-the IRA and South Armagh; Abbott, Police Casualties, 382.
66. Constable Duckham had been shot by the IRA in June 1921; his body was left on a road in the hope of using it as lure for an ambush – however it was subsequently hidden by civilians in Clashmaguire bog to avoid reprisals. Likewise, Private Williams, was killed as the result of IRA activity, but his body was hidden by a civilian fearing reprisals. Neither are counted here. Abbott, Police Casualties, 399; and D’Arcy Remembering the war dead, 51–2.
67. CP A/0649 IRA executions in 1921.
68. Jerome Davin, BMH, WS 1350, 16–17.
69. O’Halpin, “Problematic killing,” 341–3.
70. MA/MSPC/A/1(4) Brigade Activity Report, E. Co. 4th Bat. Cork 1; Southern Star, 17/4/1976. Taped interview of Martin Corry with Jim Fitzgerald, CA.
71. Taped interview of Martin Corry with Jim Fitzgerald, CA.
72. Murphy, Year of Disappearances, 167; MA, CP A/07304 British Colonial Office list of British Soldiers missing in Ireland 1922.
73. Taped interview of Corry with Jim Fitzgerald, CA.
74. MSPC34REF27648, Pension claim Edward Moloney.
75. Ibid.
76. Murphy, Year of Disappearances, 173.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Andy Bielenberg
Dr. Andy Bielenberg undertook a PhD at the LSE. He lectures in Irish economic and social history at UCC. In recent years he has been researching aspects of the Irish revolution. Publications include ‘Exodus; the emigration of southern Protestants during the War of Independence and Civil war’ Past and Present. ‘The Irish economy, 1815–1880; Agricultural Transition, the Communications Revolution and the limits of Industrialisation’ in James Kelly (ed.) The Cambridge History of Ireland vol. 3 1730–1880 (Cambridge University Press, 2018).
Pádraig Óg Ó Ruairc
Dr. Pádraig Óg Ó Ruairc was awarded a PhD in History from the University of Limerick for work on the War of Independence, and has since published a range of books on the Irish revolution, including Truce; murder, myth and last days of the Irish War of independence (Mercier Press, 2016). He is also a regular contributor to Irish radio and television on historical matters and contributed to the Atlas of the Irish revolution. In 2018 his research was utilised by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission to identify the body of Private George Chalmers-a British soldier disappeared by the IRA in Co Clare in 1921.