Fr Patrick Doyle and the story of an Irish prison break

Many years ago I came across a book of essays written by Fr. Patrick Doyle, the Parish Priest of Naas. 'Gleanings from Dawn to Dusk' was the title so far as I can remember, but unfortunately I cannot now find the book to confirm the title. It was not however the Naas pastor's only foray into book publishing. At the height of the War of Irish Independence a 36-page booklet was published with the somewhat lengthy title, 'In Maryboro and Mountjoy, the Prison Experience and Prison Breaking of an Irish Volunteer.' The author was not named, the only indication given was that it had been penned by 'an Irish priest'.

The booklet was printed by An t'Oglach, the official periodical of the Volunteers. It was only a few weeks on sale in some Dublin shops when a bookseller was imprisoned for three months for offering what the authorities regarded as seditious material for sale. The remaining copies of the booklet were seized and destroyed, which is why only a few rare copies of 'In Maryboro and Mountjoy' have survived to this day.

A second edition appeared in America sometime afterwards, this time under the title 'The Escape from Mountjoy' with the subtitle 'And Other Prison Experiences of an Irish Volunteer' and the author given as 'The Rector of an Irish College'. The Rector in question was Fr Patrick J Doyle and the college was Knockbeg College Carlow. The American edition, which I have before me, claims to be a first edition but in fact it followed the earlier Dublin edition. Reprinted by The Friends of Irish Freedom Inc. with an address at 280 Broadway, New York, the booklet dealt with the prison experiences of Laois man Padraic Fleming.

Fr Doyle in his statement made to the Bureau of Military History in 1952 explained how he first met Fleming. Knockbeg College was a safe haven for volunteers on the run and following a prison breakout from Mountjoy in March 1919 Fr. Doyle was advised to expect an important visitor. This is how he recalled the visitors arrival.

'About midday on that day I saw a car driving rapidly down the college avenue. I went down to the hall door to meet it and saw a lady stepping from the car. Before this I had not the pleasure of knowing this distinguished lady. While she was introducing herself to me as Mrs. Gavan Duffy I observed another lady in the back of the car attired in a luxurious fur coat, with fashionable toque and struggling desperately with a complication of rugs. Finally the rugs were cast aside and a tall gaunt figure stepped from the car, the upper part of which was wrapped in the fur coat and the rest in male attire and then I was introduced to the man who became one of my greatest friends, Padraic Fleming'.

Fleming was a native of the Swan, that part of Laois, which, during the War of Independence, came under the jurisdiction of the Kilkenny IRA Brigade. His brother Eamon who had been a pupil of Thomas McDonagh, one of the signatories of the 1916 Proclamation, was a captain in the Dublin Volunteers. It was Eamon Fleming who came down to Laois on Good Friday 1916 with a dispatch from Padraig Pearse asking the local volunteers to be ready for the Rising and to destroy the railway tracks at Colt so that British troops could not travel from the south to Dublin.

It is claimed that the first shots of the Easter Rebellion were in fact fired at Colt during that particular operation. Padraic Fleming was the commander of the 3rd Battalion of the Kilkenny Brigade which was centred on Castlecomer and included The Swan. Following the Easter Rebellion Fleming was questioned by the RIC and before long he was arrested at Kinsale in County Cork and court martialled. Charged with possession of seditious literature and attempting to procure arms he was convicted and sent to Maryboro Jail Prison for five years.

In September 1917 Irish Republican prisoners initiated a policy of agitating for treatment as political prisoners. Following Thomas Ashe's death on 25 September the prisoners' demands were largely met except in the case of Padraic Fleming and two other prisoners serving sentences of penal servitude in Maryboro Prison. Fleming thereafter refused to submit to the prison authorities and his subsequent degrading treatment was the subject of Fr. Doyle's booklet. After spending some time on hunger strike Fleming was released under the ‘Cat and Mouse’ Act on 20 November 1917. He continued his involvement with the Volunteers until he was re-arrested in May 1918, with many other leading Republicans during 'The German Plot' scare.

Imprisoned again in Maryboro Prison, the impasse between himself and the authorities continued, resulting in the Laois man being put into iron manacles and a body belt by which his manacled wrists and upper arms were tightly strapped to his body.

He again went on hunger strike and while he was hospitalised the prison authorities constructed a special cell to confine Fleming who was regarded as a most troublesome prisoner, and who although restrained still required two wardens to constantly monitor him 24 hours a day. Between periods in hospital, the punishment cell and the specially built cell Padraic Fleming spent 7 months in Maryboro Prison on this his second term of imprisonment, having spent 9 months there during his previous incarceration.

On 1 January 1919 Padraic Fleming was transferred to Mountjoy Jail where shortly afterwards he was elected Commandant of the Irish political prisoners. A campaign of non co-operation was again initiated under Fleming's leadership, while at the same time plans were put in place for a mass breakout from Mountjoy Jail. The escape took place on 29 March 1919 when twenty Irish Volunteers including Padraic Fleming and Piaras Beaslai escaped over the prison walls using a rope ladder. Soon thereafter Fleming arrived in Knockbeg College where he remained for several weeks, slowly regaining his health, thanks to Fr Doyle and his brother, Dr L Doyle of Carlow who took care of his medical needs.

Towards the end of the summer 1919 Michael Collins arranged for Padraic Fleming to join Eamon de Valera in America where he would spend almost the next two years organising branches of the American Association for the Recognition of the Irish Republic. He travelled to America via Wales where he spent some time with his sister who was married and living in Loyd George's country.

He was not long back in Ireland when the Treaty and the anti-Treaty split took place. He took the anti-Treaty side and was twice imprisoned in Kilkenny Jail, on each occasion managing to escape only to be recaptured and imprisoned in Kilmainham. He was eventually released under the General Amnesty of 1925. Interestingly his brother Eamon took the Treaty side.

In civilian life, Padraic Fleming worked as a director of the Irish Hospital Sweepstakes before setting up Flemings Fireclays at the Swan with his brothers. He married Marguerite Farrelly and was survived by his widow and four children, John Mitchell, Thomas Davis, Mary and Catherine when he died on 5 December 1952. His burial in the family plot at Clough was attended by President Sean T O’Ceallaigh and many leaders of Church and State. The graveside oration was given by Thomas O'Deirg, the Minister for Lands.

Fr Patrick Doyle who wrote of Padraic Fleming's prison exploits did so not only for their propaganda value, but also for their historical value. ' wrote Fr Doyle in 1952. ‘I went to Dublin and had a talk with Michael Collins about the matter. He said the story must be told and sI insisted that it was a national duty to put it on record, but Padraic pleaded his absolute incapacity to commit the story to writing'o the collaboration with Padraic Fleming began.’

Fr Doyle’s booklet is an important piece of historical work, detailing as it does the prison experiences of a man who Judge James Comerford of New York described in his own account of his Kilkenny IRA days published in 1978 as 'a man who left behind him in the annals of the IRA a record of personal courage, by his defiance of British Rule, that belongs to the classic struggle of people in all countries who have fought for their freedom.'

It was Fr Patrick Doyle, the parish priest whom once I regarded as austere and authoritarian, who recorded for posterity the prison exploits of Padraic Fleming. The austerity of old age successfully concealed the courage of the younger priest who did what he could to help the cause of Irish Freedom during the difficult years which ended with the Treaty.

Parish priest with a political pedigree

An old style Parish Priest, authoritarian if not out-right dictatorial in his dealings with the laity was the impression I had of Fr Patrick J Doyle. He was the parish priest of Naas when I arrived to work in the County Council Offices many years ago. Not that I had any personal dealings with the elderly priest, but his general demeanour was what one would expect of men appointed to take charges of Catholic parishes in those far off days. He was of the same mould as Fr Steen whom I remembered as parish priest of Athy around the same time. Neither men would strike one as friendly individuals with whom you could with ease have a conversation. Those were the views I held until recently but following some research in the Bureau of Military History I have reason to revisit my impressions of the late parish priest of Naas, Fr Patrick J Doyle.

What I now know of Fr Doyle creates for me an entirely different view of the man who in old age appeared so unapproachable. The future parish priest of the county town of Naas was in his younger days an active republican who befriended and knew many of the great Irish leaders of the day. In his contribution to the Bureau of Military History which he titled, An Anthology of Fugitive Memories, Fr Doyle, whose brother was a doctor practising in Carlow, recounted his memories of Michael Collins, Gearoid O’Sullivan, Kevin O’Higgins and Padraic Fleming, all of whom he counted among his friends.

When Rebellion broke out in Dublin in Easter 1916 Fr Doyle was Rector of Knockbeg College in Carlow. Gearoid O’Sullivan, a county Cork man who graduated with an MA from UCD in 1915, fought in the GPO the following year. He was interned in Frongoch and following his release was engaged by Fr Doyle to give Irish classes in the Carlow College. While there he continued his involvement with the Volunteers. Before long O’Sullivan was appointed OC of the 1st Battalion Carlow Kildare Brigade which was centred in Carlow town, but included also Bagenalstown and Leighlin-bridge. This, according to Fr Doyle, ‘entailed an enormous amount of work in enlisting and training volunteers in the area where there had been very little volunteer activity up to that time.’ The active co-operation of the college director Fr Doyle made it possible for O’Sullivan to be so involved in the local Volunteer movement. When O’Sullivan was subsequently tried for making a seditious speech in his hometown of Skibbereen Fr Doyle travelled south to give a character reference for him. It was to no avail however as O’Sullivan was found guilty and sent to prison. On his subsequent release he resumed his teaching job in Knockbeg College, all the time retaining an active involvement with the Volunteers until he was summoned to Dublin by Michael Collins to become the Adjutant General of the Volunteers. On creation of the National Army Gearoid O’Sullivan was appointed Adjutant General of the Irish Forces. At the same time Michael Collins wanted to appoint Fr Doyle as chaplain to the Army but the Kildare and Leighlin Bishop Dr Foley refused the request. It would appear that Dr Foley, a Redmondite, did not take kindly to the politics of Collins and his colleagues.

Two other men who were befriended by Fr Doyle while he was rector of Knockbeg College were Padraic Fleming of The Swan and Kevin O’Higgins of Stradbally. Both men would take opposite sides in the Civil War, but in 1919 they were on the run and each found refuge in Knockbeg College. Kevin O’Higgins had been a student at Knockbeg following his earlier removal from Maynooth College for breaking a no-smoking rule. As a newly elected TD for Laois he was involved in organising the National Loan initiated by Michael Collins as Minister for Finance. He travelled extensively on this promotion work, all the time attempting to evade the RIC and military who were on the lookout for him.

Knockbeg College became ‘a safe house’ for O’Higgins, with the active cooperation of Fr Patrick Doyle. It was while staying in the College that O’Higgins met his future wife Brigid Cole. At their wedding, attended by De Valera and many other of the leaders of the day at which Rory O’Connor was best man, Fr. Doyle gave the toast ‘The men of 1916 dead and living’ which he ended with the words, ‘to the long life and happiness of the beloved living and to the full culmination of their dearest wish, the liberty, the untrammelled liberty of Ireland.’

Kevin O’Higgins and Fr Doyle remained friends until the last, a friendship which was brought to a close when the young Stradbally man was assassinated on 10th July 1927. As Minister for Home Affairs Kevin O’Higgins had sanctioned the execution of his best man Rory O’Connor following the shooting dead of Sean Hales, a member of the Dail. He was the second member of the O’Higgins family of Stradbally to be assassinated.

During the Civil War his elderly father, a medical doctor practising in the Laois village, had been shot dead in his home in front of his wife by murderers who were never identified. Fr Doyle was summoned from Naas to attended the mortally wounded Kevin O’Higgins, but before he reached Dublin O’Higgins had died. The next morning the former College Rector celebrated requiem mass in the O’Higgins family home at Cross Avenue, Blackrock.

It was through Gearoid O’Sullivan that Fr Doyle became acquainted with Michael Collins. He met Collins on several occasions in Dublin and also in Naas. By now Fr Doyle had transferred to Naas where he would become part of the intelligent network working for Collins. One of the most important men in that network was Sergeant Jeremiah Maher, an RIG man who was secretary to the Naasbased RIG County Inspector. Maher passed extremely valuable intelligence to Michael Collins and occasionally Fr Doyle was the intermediary passing documents between Sergeant Maher and Michael Collins.

Fr Doyle played a small yet significant part in preventing an expected promulgation issuing from the Vatican condemning the Irish Liberation Movement. The British Foreign Office had apparently convinced the Vatican of the necessity of issuing the condemnation, but the unexpected arrival in Rome of Archbishop Mannix, the former President of Maynooth College when Fr Doyle was visiting the eternal city brought the two clerical Republicans together. Patrick Doyle was a student for the priesthood in Maynooth when Dr Mannix was the college president and so both knew each other quite well. Fr Doyle with George Gavin Duffy, the Dail representative in Rome, met Dr Mannix and at their urgings the Archbishop in a private audience with the Pope outlined to the Pontiff the true state of affairs in Ireland as a result of which the expected Vatican condemnation was withheld.

Fr Doyle took the Treaty side following the Treaty debate in Dail Eireann and invited Michael Collins, Kevin O’Higgins and others to speak at a public meeting in Naas on Easter Sunday 1921. Following the meeting a public banquet was held in the Town Hall where Fr Doyle and Collins were seated alongside each other. Collins and the Naas cleric last met when Collins was on a tour of army posts and following his inspection of Naas Military Barracks the Irish Army chief of staff called on Fr Doyle at his house in the Sallins Road.

Soon thereafter Michael Collins was killed and when his body was brought by boat to the North Wall. Fr Doyle was requested by the army authorities to be present to receive the remains. He was to have participated in the requiem mass in the Pro Cathedral as Deacon but the church authorities, for whatever reason, vetoed the army’s request for Fr Doyle’s involvement.

One of the other great friendships forged by Fr Patrick J Doyle during the War of Independence was with Padraic Fleming of The Swan.

Next week I will deal with the Laois man who escaped from Mountjoy and the part played by Fr Doyle, later parish priest of Naas, in publicising Fleming’s prison experiences.