Michael Collins

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Tragedies of Kerry
by Doherty McArdle
Much of the story of what happened in Kerry in those years remains due to the efforts of Doherty McArdle, author of the Irish Republic, who broke the silence which surrounded official and unofficial state murders in Kerry in publishing her pamphlet 'Tragedies of Kerry' in 1924. It is still a much sought-after publication with many editions selling out within days of publishing.
Mirroring the tactics of Britain's Black and Tans in the previous two years, the new state undertook to terrorize the republican people of Kerry into submission (very few Kerry Volunteers of the Tan War period went with the Free State). For having the gall to challenge the legitimacy of the new state, many men in County Kerry and in other areas around Ireland were to pay with their lives.

Rather than try to tackle Kerry republicans head-on, the Free State soldiers, in a classic military maneuver, succeeded in landing 500 soldiers in Fenit behind the republican positions, thus encircling them on 2 August 1922. More landed a week later. Even though it was Liam Lynch's view on 17 September that "the development of the campaign has been more rapid and satisfactory in Kerry than anywhere else", and the fact that the IRA would succeed on several occasions in putting several hundred Volunteers in the field, the future did not auger well.

As other republican positions fell around the country, the IRA was fighting a rearguard action, heavily outnumbered, starved of funds, weaponry and equipment and in the main living on the run. The safe house they used previously and the people they depended on in the past were known to their former comrades who were trying to get them in their sights. It was only a matter of time before they had to withdraw from the field in the face of an army which was well-paid, equipped by the British and with orders from Michael Collins, Richard Mulcahy, Arthur Griffith and Kevin O'Higgins, to spare nobody and be as ruthless as required. The Free State soldiers involved in unofficial executions only mirrored the state policy of official execution, only they didn't bother going through the pretense of court cases.

With all the talk of apologies for Bloody Sunday, the Famine, the government in Dublin should be mindful that not only has there never been an apology for the state's execution of 77 prisoners in a period of six months, but there has never been an official admission that the state's soldiers were involved in summary executions across the country for the duration of what is now known as the Civil War.

In Kerry, the barbarity began 25 days after the Fenit landing. Sean Moriarty and James Healy were captured and marched through Tralee to Balloonagh Convent where both were shot. Healy survived, but Moriarty was riddled.

Seventeen-year-old Bertie Murphy was next to die. He had been captured with a rifle in his possession. For five days they used him as a shield to try to avoid attack from his IRA comrades and forced him to dismantle barricades in the area in case they were booby-trapped. On 19 September, while under guard in the Great Southern Hotel Killarney, word came in of an IRA ambush. Bertie was thrown down the steps of the hotel and shot dead by an officer. Officially he died in an ambush in Brennan's Glen.

Following the failure of republicans to recapture Killorglin the prisoners were to be transferred to Tralee. En route all the prisoners except one, Jack Galvin, were forced to remove felled trees from the road. When they returned to the trucks he was missing. Next day his body was found behind a tree in Ballyseedy Wood where the trucks had halted.

John Lawlor was unlucky to be captured wounded during an engagement in Ballyheighue. He was shot dead and dumped at the church gate on the morning of October 31.

On 2 November Michael O'Sullivan and Danny Connor held a party of 40 Free State soldiers under Captain 'Tiny' Lyons at bay for two hours outside Headford, before being wounded. Connor succeeded in making good his escape. Unarmed and wounded, O'Sullivan was executed.

On 11 November Patrick Lynch of Moyrisk was unarmed when he was shot dead at his house. At Currahane Sands beyond Ardfert a drunken raiding party succeeded in capturing Eugene Fitzgerald at his aunt's house. On the journey to Tralee jail his left leg was broken and crushed to a pulp and he was shot through the side in an attempt to get him to reveal the whereabouts of the local IRA column. He died from his wounds a few days later on 16 January 1923.

Under the hay in Mrs. Lyons' barn in the same area was where Michael Sinnot (1 Cool

and James O'Connor (19) had their dug-out. On 13 February a local lad and two others were arrested and beaten to inform on the whereabouts of the two in the dug-out. The young lad, Greer, broke and agreed to show the locations. The two Volunteers were riddled as they slept in their dug-out. Thomas O'Sullivan of Ballineanin was summarily executed while wounded on 18 February.

HORRIFIC
But for an accident what actually happened at Ballyseedy Cross, County Kerry, 75 years ago might never be known. Officially nine IRA prisoners were blown up by mines attached to barricades on the Killorglin Road. The truth was more horrific and the deaths at Ballyseedy Cross on 7 March came to symbolize the excesses of the new state.

The events of those dark days in Kerry can be summed up by the statement of the commander of the Free Staters in January 1923, Paddy Daly: "Nobody asked me to take any kid gloves to Kerry and I didn't take them".

Nine prisoners, Stephen Fuller, John Daly, George Shea, Timothy Twomey, Patrick Hartnett, James Connell, John O'Connor, Patrick Buckley and James Walsh, were taken from Tralee to be killed. It was concluded afterwards that the barbaric execution was a form of reprisal for the IRA's blowing up of a torturer Lieutenant O'Connor along with two captains and two privates at Knocknagashel earlier in March. Reprisals against republican prisoners, instituted by the Free State government in Mountjoy Jail in 8 December 1922 had become a systematic practice in their jails in the next few months.

John Daly was captured on 4 February and beaten so badly that his spine was irreparably damaged. Michael Connell was arrested at a local dance in the middle of February. James Walsh was a local IRA leader and Patrick Buckley was a former RIC man who handed the barracks over to the local IRA before the truce in 1921. George Shea, Tim Twomey, John Shanahan and Stephen Fuller were captured in a dug-out on 21 February and interrogated in Ballymullen Barracks, Tralee. 'Interrogation' involved being blind-folded, arms tied to the side and beaten about the head and back with a hammer by David Neligan, one of the many of Collins's Squad drafted into the area to exact revenge on republicans. When this failed, shots were fired close to their heads, Before their 'trial' Fuller was shown nine coffins in the barracks. Shanahan collapsed from his injuries and this saved him when his comrades were taken out.

The nine prisoners were put on a lorry with a heavy escort and driven along the Castleisland Road until they reached a log across the road. Here they were strapped to a mine at the log and this was detonated by the soldiers before they threw a few grenades and fired at the remains of the dead.

Miraculously, one man survived uninjured, through his clothes were burnt off him. His comrades had borne the brunt of the explosion and he had been thrown clear. His name appeared on one of the nine coffins containing what remains of a soldier scraped up and which the Free State released to the relatives. Such was the furor when they opened the coffins and they saw the mutilated remains of their loved ones that the Free State authorities issued the following proclamation on 21 March:

"Prisoners who die in military custody in the Kerry Command shall be interred by the troops in the area in which the death has taken place."

Stephen Fuller succeeded in getting to the IRA dug-out behind May Dalaigh's house at Cnocan and his account was given to the newspapers by John Joe Sheehy. Fuller's family were hounded for decades afterwards; he was never forgiven for surviving or for telling the truth.

BLOWN UP
On the same day at Countess Bridge in Killarney four prisoners from the Great Southern Hotel Barracks were blown up and machine-gunned; another, Tadhg Coffey, succeeded in escaping. The dead were Stephen Buckley of Rathdrinagh, Dan Donoghue of Lacca, Tim Murphy of Rathbrean and Jer Donoghue. Another man, the tailor in the barracks who had befriended the prisoners, Sugrue, was executed by the soldiers when they returned to the barracks.

Five days later, Dan Shea, John Sugrue, Willie Riordan, Eugene Dwyer and Mike Courtney, who had been arrested while attending a wake were brought from Bahaghs Workhouse Barracks, Cahirciveen and blown up by soldiers of Collins's Dublin Guards, who were responsible for many of the atrocities in the Kerry area.

One Free State officer, Lieutenant McCarthy, later gave an account of what occurred and resigned from the army. He said:

"There was no attempt to escape, as the prisoners were shot first and then put over a mine and blown up. It was a Free State mine, laid by themselves. It is a murder gang that is going around trying to keep on the war."

On 11 March Frank Grady was shot dead while under escort by Captain 'Tiny' Lyons. Two days later Seamus Taylor of Glencar who had been captured in his mother's house, was brought to Ballyseeedy Wood after a day's 'interrogation' and riddled. On 15 March, the day after Grady and Taylor were buried, John Kevins of Beaufort was wounded while buying cigarettes and died later being refused proper medical aid which had been proffered. Another Beaufort man, Jeremiah Casey was found dead having been lured to the barracks on some pretext.

Bob McCarthy of Monaree was burned in the Workhouse in Tralee the day after he was captured and brutalized on 25 March, Two days later James Walsh of Currow was another victim of the roadside execution at the cross of Glountrane. The next night Jack Fleming, who had been captured earlier, was taken from Ballymullen Barracks where he died. Two other unarmed Volunteers were gunned down after surrendering in the Derry na Feena area on 6 April, George Nagle and Conway O'Connor.

On 13 April John Linnane was shot in the face when emerging from a dug-out which was being searched by Free Staters. On the 24th Daniel Murphy was taken to a field near his home in Knocknagashel and executed.

The story of Aero Lyons and his five comrades and how they stood siege for three nights and three days in Clashmealcon Caves captures the determination of Kerry republicans and the barbarity of the Free State forces. Surrounded in Drumfort's Cave, named after a Fenian who hid there in 1867, seven Volunteers held off a huge Free State contingent. Two of the Volunteers, Tommy McGrath and Patrick O'Shea died when they fell into the sea as they were trying to get reinforcements.

Trapped in the cave the other Volunteers braved a barrage of fire bombs, grenades, and rifle fire as well as the Atlantic wind and the raging sea which was threatening to engulf their cave, before emerging to negotiate terms. A rope lowered to bring up 'Aero' Lyons was severed as he reached the cliff edge. When he hit the rocks below, he was riddled by the soldiers. The remaining four were taken up and three, Jim McEnery, Rudge Hathaway, and Edward Greaney were executed seven days after Aero died. The remaining one, Jimmy McGrath, who had been tortured before leading the soldiers to the caves was let go. Kerry republicans paid a heavy price for standing with the Republic against the barbarism of the Free State 75 years ago. Their deaths and the way they died shall not be forgotten, but remembered to show the extremes which the fledgling state would stoop to prop up herself and the determination of republicans to resist its illegal rule and to defend the ideals of the Republic.

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