Life
1897-1980; b. West Cork; son of RIC officer; ed. National School; served in Mesopotamia [Iraq] in
WWI; gassed in Basra; enrolled in business college; 3rd (West Cork) Brigade of IRA, 1919; commanded
West Cork IRA unit, and later flying column; ambushes at Kilmichael and
Crossbarry; opposed Treaty; arrested and imprisoned as a Republican, 1934; called for war against English,
1936; opposed IRA support for Republicans in Spanish Civil War; resigned
from Army Council, 1937; quit IRA, 1940; sent ironic telegram to Gen.
Perceval upon the surrender of Singapore, Perceval having previously acted
as ‘easily the most viciously anti-Irish of all serving British officers’;
unsuccessful candidate in Cork, 1946; latterly employed by Cork Harbour Commissioners; m. Leslie Price, a prominent member of Cumann na mBan and Irish Red Cross;issued Guerrilla Days in Ireland (1949) and The Reality of the Anglo-Irish War, 1919-21 (1974), a pamph. contesting Liam Deasy’s Towards Ireland Free. DIH
[ top ]
Works
Guerrilla Days in Ireland (1949; rep. Cork: Mercier 1955, 223pp.,
maps; rep. Dublin: Gill & Macmillan; NY: Roberts Rinehart 1995); with
Piaras Beaslaí, Dan Breen, et al., The Reality of the Anglo-Irish
War, 1919-21 (1974); The Red Path to Glory: With the IRA in the
Fight for Freedom, 1919 to the Truce (Tralee: The Kerryman [n.d.]
), 238pp.
Criticism
Meda Ryan, Tom Barry (Cork: Mercier Press 2003), 350pp.
[ top ]
Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)