The day when an Irish national parliament in Dublin would be established, whose members would be elected by the people of Ireland, for the first time since the Act of Union was imminent. But in reality, in rural areas such as Camross, such news was greeted with mild apathy. What went on in the Palace of Westminster did not really concern the farmers and labourers of Camross. The centre of their political interest, mild and all as such interest was, was in Mountmellick where their representatives discussed the tangible aspects of their lives.
According to the 1911 Census of Ireland, Camross had a population of approximately 1,700 people. There were 148 Delaneys, 140 Phelans, 68 Dooleys, 60 Cuddys, and 48 Fitzpatricks. There were 171 more men than women. There was just under 1,500 Catholics, 223 members of the Church of Ireland, 18 Methodists, 15 members of the Church of England, 7 Presbyterians, 4 Quakers and a single Baptist. The vast majority of the people derived a meagre income from farming. 156 people described themselves as some form of labourer. Holders of different posts included;
- Mary Burke, Lacka, who was a seamstress
- John William Heyhirst, Anatrim, who managed the clog factory
- George Abbot, Killanure, the postman
- Hector Morrison, originally from Scotland, living in Larch Hill, who was a rabbit trapper
- Anne Delaney, Marymount, who was the midwife
- Theodore Verschoyle, Whitefields, and Richard Hyde, Rosnaclonagh, who both derived ‘income from rent’
- Fr. Michael Murphy, the Parish Priest
- Fr. Martin Kealy, the Curate
- Rev. John D. Cowen, Coolrain, and Rev. Henry Anderson, The Glebe, the Church of Ireland rectors
Camross was a typical rural area of the time. There was nothing that set it apart from any other parish in the area. All of Laois was satisfied with the work of the IPP and the people allowed them to get on with their work with little fuss or debate. Camross fell into the Queen’s County Ossory constituency and since 1900 William Delany had been re-elected unopposed. The rest of the county only saw a change in representation when Patrick A. Meehan was succeeded by his son, Patrick Joseph Meehan, after the former’s death in 1913. Other, more radical, strains of nationalism were largely derided. Seamus Miller, a leading Gaelic League organiser from Mountrath, said that there were a few in the county who were interested in the ideals of Arthur Griffith’s new Sinn Féin party, but ‘they were classed as cranks and soreheads’. Any tendencies towards physical force nationalism was largely the reserve of the Irish Republican Brotherhood which, albeit gaining some momentum around the country, represented a very small portion of the body politic. There was a small circle of the IRB in Mountrath in the early 1910s. Patrick O’Mahony, a senior organiser for the secret organisation used his new job as a survey officer for the postal service to travel the country organising IRB circles where he could. In 1910, after spending a week in Roscrea, O’Mahony moved on to Mountrath where he organised a circle around Tom Dunne and Sean Finn, who was a local school teacher at the time.[1]
The National Volunteers
However, as the clock ticked inexorably towards Home Rule, which would be enacted in the autumn of 1914, people on both sides of the political divide stirred into a level of action not seen in Ireland for over a century. The Ulster Volunteers had been established with the overt goal of blocking Home Rule by any means necessary, including, if required, armed resistance. The Irish Volunteers were established as a counterpoint to their Unionist opponents and their overt aim was to protect Home Rule at all costs.
The spread of Irish Volunteer corps across the south of Ireland was initially rather slow. The first few corps were established in and around Dublin. The first corps to be established outside of the capital was in Monaghan on 6 December 1913. A few days later, the students of Galway University followed suit. Indeed there was a corps established in Liverpool before the first sign of Volunteer activity in the midlands manifested; the establishment of the Tullamore Volunteers on 22 March 1914. The first corps established in Laois was in Abbeyleix on 27 April. Mountmellick followed suit and throughout May, the nationalists of Laois awoke from their slumber and began to catch up with the rest of the country. Camross Volunteers would have been initially catered for in the Mountrath, Borris-in-Ossory, or Castletown corps. However, sometime around June 1914, a corps called the ‘Upperwoods Volunteers’ became affiliated with the organisation. Its leading organiser was Dr. Eugene Francis Hogan of Larch Hill, Coolrain. Hogan, a Justice of the Peace, became a much respected member of the organisation in the county. He presided over the first meeting of the County Board of the Laois Volunteers and was nominated as the county vice-president, a position which he modestly chose to pass on to someone else.
But for all the esteem that Hogan was held in, his enthusiasm for the cause was not replicated in the wider Camross community. The ordinary farming class did not seem to take much interest in the organisation. Upperwoods was the only corps that sent a single delegate to the first County Board meeting, that being Hogan himself. The movement was apparently much stronger in the bordering areas of Ballaghmore and Killavilla. Both of these areas sent corps to a large Volunteer parade in Roscrea on 19 July. It is possible that the meteoric rise of the Volunteers simply passed the people of Camross by. The Laois RIC County Inspector, Charles Yeldham, stated in his monthly report to Dublin Castle in March 1914 that ‘farming operations are well advanced owing to the continuing nice weather. The people in this county appear on the whole prosperous and comfortable and there are signs everywhere of material improvement. Politically there is little or no excitement.’[2] It was clear that the good weather that was prevailing led the farming classes of Camross to concentrate on their work and reap the rewards of the soil rather than concern themselves with issues of high-politics.
By September, the Volunteer movement seemed to be at its most zealous phase in Mountrath, despite waning somewhat in other parts of the country. When the Home Rule bill was passed by parliament in London in September 1914, there were great celebrations all around the streets of the town. Most windows were illuminated with candles as bands paraded past. Those few windows that were not illuminated were smashed indicating a growing strength of feeling in the town.
The Great War
However, the Volunteer movement as it existed in the summer of 1914 was not to last. On 4 August 1914 the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland declared war on Germany. Merely days prior to this, it seemed that a bloody war was about to break out in Ireland. Crown Forces had attacked an innocent crowd of bystanders on Bachelor’s Walk in Dublin, killing four. Crown Forces were also plainly complicit in the importation of arms for the Ulster Volunteers in Larne in April 1914. Their military leaders had threatened to resign if any form of action was taken to curb the Unionists. Discussions in Buckingham Palace over Home Rule had broken down and the exclusion of Ulster from such legislation seemed inevitable. Two armed groups of Volunteers, diametrically opposed, stood opposite each other, both sides waiting for the other to blink. But events on the continent suddenly defused the tension. Attention shifted towards the plight of Belgium, whose neutrality was guaranteed by Britain by a so called ‘scrap of paper’ signed 75 years earlier.
In the first debate following the outbreak of the Great War in the House of Commons both John Redmond and Edward Carson, leaders of both sides of the Irish political divide, pledged their respective volunteers to the war effort. This pledge utterly changed the nationalist Volunteer movement. Across Ireland hundreds of thousands of young men, men who had previously been active and zealous volunteers, enlisted in the British army. Some may have been driven by an ideological opposition to German aggression in Europe, some may have been reassured by pledges to implement Home Rule once the war was over. But, more often than not, young men joined the army out of a sense of excitement and adventure, not to mention the prospect of a healthy wage which would otherwise have been unavailable to them. Immediately after the outbreak of the war, a distinctly different hue came upon the Volunteer movement. Picking up on this, following a large Volunteer meeting in August 1914 attended by John Redmond, Colonel Sir William Hutchinson Poe of Heywood and Captain Ralph Algernon Coote, of Ballyfin, CI Yeldham said ‘there was a strong desire after the outbreak of the war on the part of Unionists to support the movement’. Indeed, by October 1914, Yeldham stated that the Volunteer movement was effectively finished in the county due to the large numbers that had left to fight in the War.
However, Camross largely stood apart from the large scale recruitment to the British army, as it had done with the Volunteer movement. This was not untypical of a rural area. Trade in agricultural produce and horses was soaring; the agricultural wholesale price index rose by 60% between 1914 and 1916. All in all, things were going spectacularly well for the farming community. Historian L. M. Cullen stated that ‘the First World War, and especially the two years after it, was the most hectic period of agricultural prosperity in Ireland’s history, surpassing even the best years of the Napoleonic Wars. It has also been said that, in economic terms, the last years of the Union with Great Britain, were the best years.’[3]
But despite the likely apathy that many had for the war effort, a number of young men from the area did join the British army during the Great War. Joe Neil, Neilstown, joined the British Army leaving his prized horse ‘Captain’ behind him. Some months later he wrote home saying that he had been reacquainted with ‘Captain’ on the battlefields of Flanders, his family having cashed in on the soaring prices for healthy horses.
In Coolrain young men could enlist in the British Army in the RIC barracks. Within days of enlisting, one could find themselves swept away from the serenity of the Slieve Blooms to the trenches of the Western Front. One interesting case from the time shows how every member of society was welcome into the British army, and how many members of the recruit’s family would not have been happy at their decision. In January 1916, Patrick Touhy came to the RIC barracks in Coolrain and completed his enlistment forms for the army. The Sergeant in the barracks at the time was Sgt. Clarke and he gave Touhy a military warrant to travel on towards Maryborough where he would be formally recruited into the army. Touhy proceeded to Mountrath rail station to travel on to Maryborough. But at the station he was accosted by his cousins, Eliza Touhy and Molly McInerney. They physically held him until the train had left the station and brought Patrick back to the tent site where the Touhy and McInerney families were staying near the Pike of Rushall. The following day, Touhy heard that the police were looking for him so he travelled to Coolrain and gave himself up. He presumably then left for the Western Front with the Leinster Regiment. Meanwhile, Eliza and Molly were arrested in Ballybrophy. As they were being conveyed to custody the police were attacked by a large group of travellers who tried to unsuccessfully release the prisoners. Both women were charged with preventing enlistment and were given cautions by Mr. Butler R.M in Mountrath Petty Sessions court.[4]
When John Redmond offered the services of the Irish Volunteers for the war effort there were elements within the organisation who were very opposed to the idea of siding with the British army. The leader of this opposing rump was the founder of the Volunteers, Eoin McNeill. McNeill and a small minority of the provisional committee of the National Volunteers proposed a manifesto which stated that ‘Ireland cannot, with honour or safety, take part in foreign quarrels otherwise through the free action of a National Government of their own’. All across southern Ireland, in town halls and schoolhouses, volunteer corps met to discuss this manifesto, the recent passing of the Home Rule bill and Redmond’s control over the organisation. What is deemed historically to be a split in the volunteer movement in the wake of these discussions was in fact more akin to a slight splintering than a great schism. In Laois, there was warm praise for Redmond and his policies. The Rathdowney Volunteers pledged their ‘warmest support to the object for which the Volunteer movement was established’.[5] The Maryborough volunteers accepted ‘the policy laid down by Mr. Redmond for the future guidance of the Irish Volunteers’.[6] The Borris-in-Ossory Volunteers passed a resolution which stated that ‘we the committee and members of the Borris-in-Ossory Corps of the Irish National Volunteers, strongly condemn the action of the ‘unknowns’ on the Provisional Committee of the Irish Volunteers in issuing a manifesto with the object of creating dissention and division in the ranks of the Volunteers and we consider their action antagonistic to the organisation’.[7] By September 1914 what was left of the Upperwoods Volunteers were likely to have been subsumed by their Mountrath counterparts. According to Seamus Miller only three Mountrath delegates voted in favour of McNeill’s manifesto. The rest of the Mountrath Volunteers all supported Redmond.
The Easter Rising and the re-birth of the Volunteers
The genesis of the revolutionary movement that would emerge during the War of Independence in Laois had its origins in Ballyroan. When the fifty Volunteers of the Ballyroan corps met to discuss McNeill’s manifesto, they became the only corps in the county to vote in favour of Eoin MacNeill and denounce Redmond’s control of the Volunteers. This was largely down to the determination of the leading Volunteer in the area, Lar Brady. During the meeting, Brady successfully advocated the virtues of remaining loyal to the original founder of the organisation and the vote was carried with a majority of three to one.[8] The Ballyroan Volunteers were the only group from Laois not to attend the parade inspected by Redmond in Portlaoise in late September 1914. Brady and the rest of the Ballyroan Volunteers encountered strong intimidation from local IPP supporters, showing the extent to which the IPP still had influence over nationalism in the area. The secretary of the Ballyroan Volunteers was a supporter of Redmond and he deliberately withheld correspondence from Volunteer Headquarters with the effect that the corps fizzled out to dormancy.
However, Brady’s determination was not dented. He joined the Portlaoise circle of the IRB in January 1915 and helped recruit for a newly formed Irish Volunteer company in the town.[9]This Company was established by Patrick Ramsbottom and he assumed the role of Company Captain. Both Ramsbottom and Brady noted the difficulties they faced in recruiting men from both the general public and from existing members of the National Volunteers. Ramsbottom went as far as saying that ‘there was a strong pro-British element in [Portlaoise]’.[10] In Mountrath, there was also an effort to form a branch of the Irish Volunteers but there was little support. However, a small group of men, likely the same men who had formed an IRB circle in the town in 1910, kept the fledgling movement alive throughout 1915 and into early 1916.
On 27 March 1916, William Delany MP died in his home in Roskeen, outside Mountmellick. His death and the subsequent by-election was the main focus of attention in the county throughout April 1916. In the by-election, Mr. J Nulty presided over the polling station in Coolrain whilst votes were also cast in Mountrath, Mountmellick, Rathdowney and Borris-in-Ossory for the vacant Queen’s-Ossory seat. However, by the time the presiding officer in Mountrath Courthouse announced a victory for John Lalor-Fitzpatrick in early May, other, more drastic, events were on the minds of the people.
Direct communications between Dublin and the rest of Ireland were severed on Easter Monday 1916. The first signs in Laois that something dramatic was occurring on the east coast came with the stopping of the rail service to the capital in the mid-afternoon. Station conductors were ordered to halt all trains due to a military strike in Dublin city centre. The one train that did set off from Limerick in the direction of the capital was stopped at Ballybrophy and all passengers were asked to disembark. All motor cars travelling in the direction of Dublin were stopped by the military near Ballybrittas and were told that they could go no further. Over the following days news began to trickle through of a great tumult in the capital, although the details were not clear. Was it a Sinn Féin rebellion? Had the Germans invaded? Surely a British gun-boat had not sailed up the Liffey and flattened Dublin city centre?
To add to the confusion, and to the fear that there was in fact a nationwide rebellion taking place, a train had been derailed near Colt Wood following the deliberate destruction of part of the line by a group of Volunteers. Shots had also been fired in the same incident. Phone lines were also cut around Roscrea. But once the dust settled and the sheer scale of the damage to Dublin was realised there was a general feeling of disgust towards those who had led the rebellion. Certain elements of the public were quick to scorn the leaders of the Rising and demanded justice whilst others sought clemency. The opinion in Laois was quite divided and this was shown in a debate during a meeting of the Abbeyleix Poor Law Union. Resisting calls to include a mention of clemency in a proposal on the Rising, the Chairman of the meeting said that ‘this is a public body and the community looks to us to express our opinion on it. It is a question of being in favour of this rebellion or being against it. We know what the opinion of the country is and we should pass this resolution. We would be doing a service to the country generally.’ In the end, a sentence urging clemency for ‘those misguided fellows’ was eventually included in the proposal.[11] The tone of this debate is in remarkable contrast to the overwhelming feeling of sympathy which was generated for the Rising in the wake of the shootings of its leaders. There was a huge sea change of opinion as a direct result of the protracted executions carried out in Dublin, London (Roger Casement) and Cork (Thomas Kent).
In Camross, this great change in opinion was aided by the changing of school teachers in Camross National School. In an interview with Teddy Fennelly, Pat Dowling recalled the influence of Mr. Flynn who came to the school in 1916;
When I went to school in Camross there was nothing about Irish history, that is until the great Pearse came along, the great Pearse, he changed Ireland. He was the man who woke up the people and who got them to stand up for themselves. The Irish were the tools of the overlords for hundreds of years and they had been accepting that position until Pearse came along. When Pearse was executed the whole of Ireland changed. Around the time of the 1916 Rising we got a new teacher, a Mr. Flynn from Rathdowney. The old teachers were all servants of the Crown and taught us nothing of Ireland. The only things we learned were about ‘the sun never setting on the King’s dominions’, ‘the black hole of Calcutta’, and ‘the Irish picking tea in India’. My father knew nothing about Irish history, nor did my grandfather nor great grandfather. You could not blame the majority of Irish people then for being simply not interested in the Rising when it came. They were satisfied with the status quo. They didn’t realise they were eating the crumbs from the Englishman’s table. But Mr. Flynn was different. He was an admirer of Pearse and loved Ireland and knew its history. Fr. Dan Hyland … and myself were the only two pupils interested in history, and we found out everything we could.’[12]
The Easter Rising was the catalyst for a great change in the Irish political landscape. The IPP which had dominated Irish politics for a generation were to be wiped out by a resurgent Sinn Féin. The IPP were seen as an aging political entity not representative of the desires of a post-Rising Ireland. For instance, in a speech on 6 October 1916, John Redmond showed how out of touch he was with public opinion. He was quoted as saying ‘for the last ... two months ... I have been lying in the purple heather and trying to entice the wily trout out of the water, and trying to circumvent the still more wily grouse. I have really seen little of the newspapers’.[13] It is little wonder that this part time fisherman was wiped out in the polls, along with his party, two years later.
The re-organisation of the Irish Volunteers truly began with the release of Irish prisoners, court-martialled in the wake of the Easter Rising, from English and Welsh prisons. The majority of prisoners were being released throughout the summer of 1916 and in an act of goodwill by British authorities, designed to encourage the United States to join the Great War, the 569 remaining internees were released back to Ireland in time for Christmas.[14] Joost Augusteijn points to the feeling that many Volunteers had of having let their comrades in Dublin down by not mobilising during Easter. He points to the teasing that returning Volunteers in Tipperary received from British soldiers who sung at them their version of the ‘Soldiers Song’; ‘Soldiers are we, who nearly fought for Ireland’. Reorganisation of the Volunteers offered these men a second chance.
The basic structure of the Volunteers in the Midlands, which would continue on throughout the War of Independence, came about in 1917. Individuals who joined the Volunteers upon its inception in 1914 and those who remained loyal to MacNeill took the lead in re-organising existing companies and establishing new ones. In his Witness Statement to the Bureau of Military History, Lar Brady outlined the procedure of organising a company;
The work of organisation consisted of establishing companies, holding election of company and battalion staffs, administering the Volunteer oath of allegiance to the Republic, giving lectures on the duties of Volunteers and filling vacancies caused by continuous arrests.[15]
The Camross, Killanure and Coolrain IRA
In April 1917, following orders from Michael Collins, Adjutant General of the Irish Volunteers, 25 companies of Laois Volunteers were organised into five battalions. Shortly afterwards, a 6th battalion, centred on Mountrath, was added to the Brigade structure. The formation of the 6th Battalion took place at a meeting in Camross and was chaired by the Officer in Command of the Laois IRA, Lar Brady.[16]
The 6th Battalion of the Laois Brigade comprised of seven companies. The 202 members of the 6th Battalion were as follows;
Battalion Officers
|
Name |
Rank |
Place of origin |
|
Edward Brennan |
Officer in Command |
Cuddagh |
|
Pat Morris |
Vice-Officer in Command |
Mountrath |
|
James Dempsey |
Adjutant |
Mountrath |
|
John Delaney |
Quartermaster |
Ballinrally |
|
Joe Deegan |
Intelligence Officer |
Mountrath |
A Company – Mountrath
|
Name |
Rank |
Place of Origin |
|
Denis Deegan |
Captain |
Mountrath |
|
Daniel Ryan |
First Lieutenant |
Mountrath |
|
Patrick Breen |
Second Lieutenant |
Mountrath |
|
Michael Connor |
Quartermaster |
Cappagh |
|
Daniel Sheerin |
Volunteer |
Mountrath |
|
Daniel Costello |
Volunteer |
Mountrath |
|
James Phelan |
Volunteer |
Sconce |
|
Patrick Maher |
Volunteer |
Mountrath |
|
Patrick Maher |
Volunteer |
Mountrath |
|
Joseph Carrow |
Volunteer |
Mountrath |
|
Frank McKenna |
Volunteer |
Mountrath |
|
Timothy Maher |
Volunteer |
Mountrath |
|
Partick Ryan |
Volunteer |
Mountrath |
|
James Millar |
Volunteer |
Mountrath |
|
John Gillman |
Volunteer |
Mountrath |
|
Bernard Russell |
Volunteer |
Mountrath |
|
Denis Bennett |
Volunteer |
Clonard |
|
Joseph Deegan |
Volunteer |
Mountrath |
|
Joseph Connelly |
Volunteer |
Mountrath |
|
Patrick Morrin |
Volunteer |
Mountrath |
|
Patrick Walsh |
Volunteer |
Mountrath |
|
William Green |
Volunteer |
Mountrath |
A Company – Mountrath (Cappagh Squad)
|
|
|
|
|||
|
James Dunne |
Volunteer |
Roskelton |
|||
|
Thomas Fitzpatrick |
Volunteer |
Trumera |
|||
|
Laurence Fitzpatrick |
Volunteer |
Trumera |
|||
|
Richard Brophy |
Volunteer |
Trumera |
|||
|
Edward Delaney |
Volunteer |
Coolnareen |
|||
|
Thomas Synott |
Volunteer |
Cromogue |
|||
|
Martin Lahey |
Volunteer |
Derryough |
|||
|
Thomas Fitzpatrick |
Volunteer |
Cloncullen |
|||
|
John Dunne |
Volunteer |
Cappagh |
|||
|
Daniel Bergin |
Volunteer |
Redcastle |
|||
|
John Kennedy |
Volunteer |
Redcastle |
|||
|
Timothy Ryan |
Volunteer |
Mountrath |
|||
B Company – Castletown
|
Name |
Rank |
Place of origin |
|
Thomas Delaney |
Captain |
Crannagh |
|
William Butler |
First Lieutenant |
Aughavan |
|
Martin Gorman |
Second Lietenant |
Crannagh |
|
Edward Brennan |
Adjutant |
Rushall |
|
Edward P. Tarrant |
Quartermaster |
Castletown |
|
Patrick Hughes |
Volunteer |
Castletown |
|
Jeremiah Hughes |
Volunteer |
Castletown |
|
Dennis Gorman |
Volunteer |
Castletown |
|
William Doyle |
Volunteer |
Aughavan |
|
Edward Butler |
Volunteer |
Aughavan |
|
Patrick Brennan |
Volunteer |
Rushall |
|
William Tynan |
Volunteer |
Rushall |
|
William Grace |
Volunteer |
Castletown |
|
John Mullins |
Volunteer |
Castletown |
C Company – Camross
|
Name |
Rank |
Place of origin |
|
Patrick Neill |
Captain |
Neilstown |
|
William Bergin |
First Lieutenant |
Camross |
|
Joseph Bergin |
Second Lieutenant |
Glenconra |
|
John Gorman |
Adjutant |
Camross |
|
John Cuddy |
Quartemaster |
Aughduff |
|
James Corcoran |
Volunteer |
Borophuca |
|
Martin Connors |
Volunteer |
The Folly |
|
John Dooley |
Volunteer |
Stooagh |
|
John McLane |
Volunteer |
County Bounds |
|
Martin Scully |
Volunteer |
Garranbawn |
|
James Scully |
Volunteer |
Garranbawn |
|
Con Scully |
Volunteer |
Gurtlusky |
|
Patrick Bergin |
Volunteer |
Glenconra |
|
William Rielly |
Volunteer |
Ballinrally |
|
Jer Cuddy |
Volunteer |
Derrylahan |
|
James Moore |
Volunteer |
Carroagh |
|
Patrick Delaney |
Volunteer |
Camross |
|
Michael Breen |
Volunteer |
Camross |
|
Joseph Gleeson |
Volunteer |
Camross |
|
John Hipwell |
Volunteer |
Mount Salem |
|
John Dowling |
Volunteer |
Glenkitt |
|
Denis Delaney |
Volunteer |
Shrahane |
|
Denis Phelan |
Volunteer |
Shrahane |
|
Michael Lalor |
Volunteer |
Shrahane |
|
William Leahy |
Volunteer |
Derry |
|
Michael Conroy |
Volunteer |
Glenall |
D Company – Borris-in-Ossory
|
Name |
Rank |
Place of Origin |
|
George Hanrahan |
Captain |
Skirke |
|
Patrick Delaney |
First Lieutenant |
Skirke |
|
James Kelly |
Second Lieutenant |
Borris-in-Ossory |
|
Edward Bergin |
Quartermaster |
Skirke |
|
Thomas Whelan |
Adjutant |
Cahir |
|
James Bannan |
Volunteer |
Skirke |
|
Patrick Bergin |
Volunteer |
Skirke |
|
James Whelan |
Volunteer |
Skirke |
|
Patrick Cushen |
Volunteer |
Skirke |
|
James Downes |
Volunteer |
Skirke |
|
Joseph Delaney |
Volunteer |
Skirke |
|
Thomas Delaney |
Volunteer |
Skirke |
|
William Bergin Sr. |
Volunteer |
Skirke |
|
William Bergin Jr. |
Volunteer |
Skirke |
|
John Ryan |
Volunteer |
Borris-in-Ossory |
|
Patrick Ryan |
Volunteer |
Borris-in-Ossory |
|
Joseph Kelly |
Volunteer |
Borris-in-Ossory |
|
Michael Geoghegan |
Volunteer |
Borris-in-Ossory |
|
Michael Drennan |
Volunteer |
Borris-in-Ossory |
|
Michael O'Hara |
Volunteer |
Borris-in-Ossory |
|
James Crennan |
Volunteer |
Borris-in-Ossory |
|
Patrick Maher |
Volunteer |
Borris-in-Ossory |
|
Christopher Brien |
Volunteer |
Borris-in-Ossory |
|
John O'Hara |
Volunteer |
Borris-in-Ossory |
|
William Cassidy |
Volunteer |
Borris-in-Ossory |
|
William O'Dea |
Volunteer |
Borris-in-Ossory |
|
Joseph Dooley |
Volunteer |
Borris-in-Ossory |
|
John Dooley |
Volunteer |
Borris-in-Ossory |
|
Michael Dooley |
Volunteer |
Borris-in-Ossory |
|
James Fitzpatrick |
Volunteer |
Clononan |
|
Daniel Fitzpatrick |
Volunteer |
Clononan |
|
Martin Delaney |
Volunteer |
Mondrehid |
|
Thomas Whelan |
Volunteer |
Mondrehid |
|
William Grady |
Volunteer |
Mondrehid |
|
James Grady |
Volunteer |
Mondrehid |
|
Patrick Hyland |
Volunteer |
Mondrehid |
|
George Higgins |
Volunteer |
Mondrehid |
|
Thomas Carey |
Volunteer |
Garron |
|
Thomas Heffernan |
Volunteer |
Ballykelly |
|
Thomas Brown |
Volunteer |
Ballykelly |
|
Jeremiah Whelan |
Volunteer |
Borris-in-Ossory |
|
Michael Marnell |
Volunteer |
Borris-in-Ossory |
|
Thomas McGrath |
Volunteer |
Ballykelly |
|
Frank Fitzpatrick |
Quartermaster (up to May 1921) |
Borris-in-Ossory |
|
Denis Riordan |
Captain (up to May 1921) |
Borris-in-Ossory |
|
Peter Maher |
Captain (May 1921 - June 1921) |
Borris-in-Ossory |
|
James Bergin |
Adjutant (up to June 1921) |
Borris-in-Ossory |
E Company – Coolrain
|
Name |
Rank |
Place of Origin |
|
Thomas Dooley |
Captain |
Coolrain |
|
Thomas Coss |
First Lieutenant |
Derryduff |
|
James Doyle |
Second Lieutenant |
Windsor |
|
Martin Dooley |
Quartermaster |
Coolrain |
|
John Hyland |
Adjutant |
The Glebe |
|
George Higgins |
Volunteer |
Windsor |
|
Bernard Higgins |
Volunteer |
Windsor |
|
Michael Phelan |
Volunteer |
Derryduff |
|
Peter Dooley |
Volunteer |
Kildrenagh |
|
Patrick Glennon |
Volunteer |
Coolrain |
|
Christopher Fitzpatrick |
Volunteer |
Coolrain |
|
Thomas Fitzpatrick |
Volunteer |
Windsor |
|
Thomas Bennet |
Volunteer |
Pike of Rushall |
|
Patrick Wall |
Volunteer |
Windsor |
|
Fintan Fitzpatrick |
Volunteer |
Crannagh |
|
John Brophy |
Volunteer |
Derrynaseera |
|
Thomas Brophy |
Volunteer |
Derrynaseera |
|
Thomas Coss |
Volunteer |
Derryduff |
F Company – Killanure
|
Name |
Rank |
Place of Origin |
|
Fintan Breen |
Captain |
Inchanisky |
|
Patrick Phelan |
First Lieutenant |
Bacca |
|
Thomas Hickey |
Second Lieutenant |
Killanure |
|
Daniel Jackson |
Adjutant |
Killanure |
|
Patrick Ryan |
Quartermaser |
Whitefields |
|
Laurence Phelan |
Volunteer |
Bacca |
|
Joseph Phelan |
Volunteer |
Bacca |
|
John Delaney |
Volunteer |
Bacca |
|
Michael Delaney |
Volunteer |
Bacca |
|
Matthew Delaney |
Volunteer |
Bacca |
|
James Delaney |
Volunteer |
Killanure |
|
John Delaney |
Volunteer |
Killanure |
|
William Delaney |
Volunteer |
Killanure |
|
William Delaney |
Volunteer |
Castleconnor |
|
Kieran Delaney |
Volunteer |
Cardtown |
|
John Cuddy |
Volunteer |
Killanure |
|
John Carroll |
Volunteer |
Killanure |
|
John Burke |
Volunteer |
Killanure |
|
Fintan Delaney |
Volunteer |
Killanure |
|
Thomas Fitzpatrick |
Volunteer |
Derrycon |
|
Fintan Conroy |
Volunteer |
Garrafin |
|
John Conroy |
Volunteer |
Garrafin |
|
Joseph Moore |
Volunteer |
Garrafin |
|
Michael Moore |
Volunteer |
Garrafin |
|
Martin Moore |
Volunteer |
Cardtown |
|
John Moore |
Volunteer |
Glendine |
|
James Leahy |
Volunteer |
Cardtown |
|
Thomas Jackson |
Volunteer |
Killanure |
|
Patrick Byrne |
Volunteer |
Baureigh |
|
Patrick Jackson |
Volunteer |
Killanure |
|
Denis Byrne |
Volunteer |
Killanure |
|
James Hogan |
Volunteer |
Gurteen |
|
James Tully |
Volunteer |
Gurteen |
|
Laurence Breen |
Volunteer |
Bacca |
|
Denis Phelan |
Volunteer |
Bacca |
|
Michael Delaney |
Volunteer |
Killanure |
|
Joseph Drennan |
Volunteer |
Killanure |
|
Michael Dunphy |
Volunteer |
Johnsboro |
|
Joseph Phelan |
Volunteer |
Killanure |
|
Thomas Phelan |
Volunteer |
Killanure |
|
Sylvester Ryan |
Volunteer |
Killanure |
|
Bernard McNiff |
Volunteer |
Baureigh |
|
Edward Moore |
Volunteer |
Cardtown |
|
Michael Moore |
Volunteer |
Cardtown |
|
Denis Ryan |
Volunteer |
Whitefields |
G Company – Kyle/Ballaghmore
|
Name |
Rank |
Place of Origin |
|
John Egan |
Captain |
Ballaghmore |
|
Patrick Delaney |
First Lieutenant |
Ballaghmore |
|
Patrick Teehan |
Second Lieutenant |
Ballaghmore |
|
Fintan Egan |
Quartermaster |
Ballaghmore |
|
Arthur Maloney |
Adjutant |
Ballaghmore |
|
Joseph Carroll |
Volunteer |
Ballaghmore |
|
John Drennan |
Volunteer |
Ballaghmore |
|
James Maher |
Volunteer |
Ballaghmore |
|
Patrick Connors |
Volunteer |
Ballaghmore |
|
Timothy England |
Volunteer |
Ballaghmore |
|
Michael England |
Volunteer |
Ballaghmore |
|
John Rigney |
Volunteer |
Ballaghmore |
One of the greatest challenges for the Volunteers during the War of Independence once they managed to secure arms was hiding them safely from the authorities. The wilderness of the Slieve Blooms provided the ideal cover for arms ‘dumps’ where guns and ammunition could be hidden. One such dump was located in Neilstown.
Soon after the sitting of the first session of Dáil Éireann on 19 January 1919, the Irish Volunteers officially became the Irish Republican Army. One of the first tasks that Volunteers became involved with in Laois was the collection of the Dáil Loan. The proto-state was in urgent need of funds and following the monetary success of Eamonn De Valera’s tour of the United States, it was decided to seek loans from Irish citizens for the support of the War of Independence effort. The collection was an overwhelming success in Laois. Indeed, the £13,000 total raised in Laois was second in Leinster to only the amount raised in Dublin. Most of the funds were transported to Dublin by PJ Ramsbottom who was the chief organiser of the collection in the county.
IRA Volunteers faced the constant threat of interrogation or capture during the War. Company and battalion meetings were particularly risky due to the concentration of high profile officers in the same place at the same time. Innovative means of disguising these meetings as other social events were orchestrated but often times these ruses were not so successful and on one such occasion much of the leadership of the Borris-in-Ossory IRA were arrested in one fell swoop. The Officer in Command of the 6th Battalion, Edward Brennan, described the incident in his witness statement to the Bureau of Military History;
In 1921, about April, a Battalion meeting was held in Marnell's house, Springhill, Borris-in-Ossory. A dance was organised to cover the objects of the meeting, on a Sunday night. The Brigade Adjutant, (the later Chief Superintendent Martin Lynch, Garda Siochana), was present; also the Battalion 0/C, Battalion Quartermaster and I.R.A. men from Rorris-in-Ossory, Camross and Coolrain areas. At daybreak all visitors left with the exception of Martin Lynch, Brigade Adjutant; Frank Fitzpatrick, O/C local Company and Denis O'Riordan. The latter two were cleaning up the house when suddenly a raid was made on the place by Black and Tans. Lynch, Fitzpatrick, O'Riordan and Michael Marnell, owner of the house, were arrested and taken to the Curragh. After some days Marnell was released, but the other three men were interned until the general amnesty.[17]
The Camross and Coolrain Volunteers who were present in Marnell’s on that evening were lucky to get away before the Black and Tans arrived. However, other local Volunteers were not as lucky. Brennan describes how after a 6th Battalion meeting in Coolrain, John Delaney, who had been the Battalion Vice-Officer in Command, was arrested, and subsequently court-martialled and imprisoned in England until the truce. In a show of great solidarity with their comrade, about a hundred Volunteers, and people not involved in the IRA, rallied to Delaney’s aid and went to his turf bank and cut his turf for him. Others who were arrested during the War of Independence were John Carroll and Thomas Phelan from Killanure.
Brennan himself was remarkably lucky to evade arrest himself following an incident in Ballybrophy;
In the spring of 1921, I was cycling towards Rathdowney, adjacent to Ballybropby railway station, when I met Daniel Guidera, Borris-in-Ossory. We were talking for a couple of minutes when, suddenly, a Black and Tan lorry approached over the railway bridge. I was about to move away when another lorry came along with a District Inspector named Mooney in charge. Immediately he saw us he called a halt, ordered us to put up our hands and be searched closely.
When the searchers found nothing in our pockets, the District Inspector, who all this time was moving around us with a revolver in his hand, ordered our clothes to be taken off and searched, we were now standing naked on the road. Again they found nothing, but previous to this I had a document from G.H.Q. about increased attacks on Black and Tans etc. This document was to be read at Company meetings by me as Battalion O/C, but it was not to be given to any other Company or Battalion officer, and it was to be returned to Headquarters when it had been read to each Company in the Battalion. I had this document pinned inside my shirt for some time whilst I was attending all Company meetings.
On the night previous to the above hold-up, I dreamt I was raided and the document found, with the usual terrible consequences. Owing to my dream I hid the document before starting that morning and so escaped punishment.[18]
One of the first overt military missions undertaken by IRA Volunteers from the parish took place in April 1920. A boycott of the RIC, coupled with a shift in British tactics, led to the partial evacuation of multiple rural RIC barracks across the country. Amongst the partially evacuated barracks was the barracks in Coolrain. The RIC Sergeant stationed there at the time was Michael Finan. Finan, originally from Sligo and previously stationed in Durrow, lived in the barracks with his wife Bridget and their children. No other officers resided there due to the partial evacuation. On the evening of Easter Saturday, 3 April 1920, a number of Volunteers approached the barracks intent on its destruction. Bridget Finan was on her own in the building at the time and she was asked to leave. She duly abandoned her home and took refuge with a neighbour before the Volunteers set the barracks alight. The building was extensively damaged, but not entirely destroyed. Some of the adjoining living quarters were undamaged and Bridget Finan and her children returned there the following day.[19] Sergeant Finan, along with RIC officers in The Heath and Ballyroan sought a total of £1,978 in compensation from Dublin Castle for the destruction of personal property and a further £8 was sought for damage to the telegraph line infrastructure.[20] On the same evening the completely abandoned Castletown RIC Barracks was attacked although the damage was limited.[21]
At the height of the War of Independence there was a local election. This election, which took place on 1 June 1920, further cemented Sinn Féin’s mandate as they took the majority of seats available to them. In the Coolrain electoral district for the Mountmellick District Council two of the three available seats were won by Sinn Féin whilst the third seat was claimed by the Labour candidate. The result was as follows;
|
Electoral Area |
Top of Poll |
Second in Poll |
Third in Poll |
Unelected |
|
Coolrain |
Patrick Scully (81) Sinn Féin |
Thomas Brophy (75) Labour |
Martin Dooley (57) Sinn Féin |
Patrick Phelan (54) Sinn Féin |
Patrick Phelan, Sinn Féin candidate from Bacca, who narrowly missed out on the final seat was nominated to be co-opted on the council. Martin Dooley who defeated him by three votes seconded the nomination. A vote was taken and Phelan only received ten votes and did not gain a place on the council.
One of the most significant pieces of legislation implemented by councillors elected in the summer of 1920 was to officially abandon the colonial name of both the county and the county town that had been in place since the 16th Century. The old name of the county was Leix or Laoighis and in September 1920 the County Council passed a resolution officially changing the name of the county to Leix.[22] The name of the county town was changed from Maryborough to Portlaoise by the Town Commissioners although everyday use of Portlaoise would not come into place for a generation.
A key tenet of the dual goal of Sinn Féin and the IRA during the War of Independence was to supplant British authority with that of new Irish institutions. Part of this involved the establishment of a new judicial system which became known as the Sinn Féin courts where small issues such as land arbitrations could be dealt with. Lar Brady recalls attending one such Sinn Féin court in Camross.[23] Volunteers also stepped into the vacuum left by the evacuation of the RIC and assumed the role of the civil police. There are indications that members of the Rathdowney IRA aided the local Camross IRA in policing the Coolrain area following the departure of Finan following the attack on the RIC Barracks.[24]
Such efforts to replace British authority with that of an Irish equivalent were fraught with danger. The opposition of Crown Forces to such efforts was plainly shown in an incident in Borris-in-Ossory during the Truce, as described by the Leinster Express;