Civil War atrocities in Kerry

I was in Tralee last weekend for the AGM of the Federation of Local History Societies of Ireland. This annual event, held in a different county each year, brings together local history society members from across Ireland, north and south. They are part of the many local history societies whose work is to record local history, thereby helping to make a contribution to our understanding of the past. In this, the centenary of the Civil War, I was interested in visiting again the magnificent monument at Ballyseedy to the anti-Treaty men (IRA) who were killed so savagely on the morning of 7th March 1923 by Free State soldiers. The killings were part of a series which started when anti-Treaty forces laid booby trap bombs in the village of Knocknagoshel which it was later claimed were intended to kill a Free State officer who was allegedly involved in torturing IRA prisoners. The Knocknagoshel bombs resulted in the killing of five Free State soldiers, including the officer who was targeted by the IRA. As Tom Doyle in his book, ‘The Civil War in Kerry’ explained the Knocknagoshel atrocity grew out of a row between neighbours involving a local farmer and some IRA men. It was claimed that the farmer informed on the local IRA, for which he was fined and having refused to pay the fine, the IRA seized some of his cattle. The farmer’s son, soon afterwards, joined the Free State army and it is claimed that in retaliation for what happened to his father he captured a number of local IRA men. The IRA laid mines and had a message sent to the army officer purporting to show where a republican arms dump was located. During a subsequent search the mines exploded, killing the army officer and four other soldiers, while a sixth soldier lost both his legs. The next day, March 7th, Free State soldiers, understood to be members of the Dublin Brigade, seeking revenge for what happened in Knocknagoshel, brought nine prisoners from Tralee to clear a road block at Ballyseedy which the Free Staters had mined. Eight IRA men were blown to pieces, but one man miraculously survived. Later that same day other Dublin Brigade soldiers brought five IRA prisoners to Countess Bridge, an isolated location outside Killarney, to clear another road blockage. This time the prisoners were set to work clearing the road when the Free State soldiers lobbed hand grenades towards them, as well as spraying them with machine gun fire. Four IRA men were killed and as it happened earlier that day in Ballyseedy, one man had a miraculous escape. Five days later Dublin Brigade soldiers collected five IRA prisoners from a workhouse in Caherciveen which was used to house Republican visitors. They were brought a short distance from the workhouse and were all shot in the legs before being placed on a mined barricade which was then exploded. The unfortunate men all died at the scene, the Dublin Brigade soldiers having ensured that unlike Ballyseedy and Countess Bridge there would be no survivors. The atrocities committed during the Civil War came from both sides – the anti-Treaty IRA and the Treaty Free Staters. It was President O’Higgins, who earlier this year called on all of us to remember the sacrifices made by both sides in the conflict with an inclusive commemoration involving an honest recognition of the facts of history. There are some amongst us who will not share an inclusive commemoration as evidenced by the destruction some few years ago of the Knocknagoshel memorial which was attacked and badly damaged. A marble plaque erected at Countess Bridge to the memory of the four IRA men killed in 1923 was torn down a few years after it was erected. The plaque was subsequently replaced, but the deliberate damaging of the memorial was a clear indication that animosities lingered long after the end of the Civil War. There are many monuments throughout the country to participants in the War of Independence and the Civil War. On a previous visit to Banna Strand and the Roger Casement monument located there I took note of a number of memorial crosses on the roadside leading to the strand. Each marked the location where IRA members were killed. Michael Sinnott killed 13th March 1923, James O’Connor killed 13th February 1923, Eugene Fitzgerald killed 16th January 1923, were three such memorials. Local memorials provide a focus for local remembrance and help to keep the story of those commemorated in the public eye. It’s in recording those stories and authenticating the facts surrounding events of the past that local history society members play an important role. On December 19, 1922, the single biggest executions during the Civil War took place at the Glass House military prison on the Curragh. Seven members of the Rathbride Column, Patrick Bagnall, Patrick Mangan, Fairgreen Kildare, Joseph Johnston, Station Road, Kildare, Bryan Moore, Patrick Nolan, Rathbride, Stephen White Abbey St, Kildare and James O’Connor, Bansha, Co. Tipperary, who had been captured in a dugout at a farmhouse in Mooresbridge on December 13th were summarily tried and sentenced to death. Their executions, coming only 11 days after the high-profile executions of anti-Treaty leaders Rory O’Connor, Liam Mellows, Richard Barret and Joe McKelvey on December 8th in Mountjoy Prison marked a further escalation in the Free State Government’s execution policy which would ultimately end with 83 official executions by the end of May 1923. The Rathbride Column was one of a number of Active Service Units (ASUs) set up by the anti-Treaty IRA in Co Kildare. The Column has been active on the northern fringes of the Curragh and had carried out a series of attacks on the rail network. On Tuesday, 18th October at 8pm in the Arts Centre on Woodstock Street, Des Dalton will give a talk on the arrest, trial and execution of the Rathbride men during the Civil War. The lecture, which is part of the Autumn/Winter Lecture Series organised by the Arts Centre, is free.