Tipperary men and the Battle for Dublin during Ireland's Civil War

One hundred years ago, on the 5th July 1922, Dan O’Keeffe, alongside some of his Tipperary and Dublin IRA comrades, would emerge from the burning remains of the Block on Sackville (O’Connell) St. Dublin, writes Robert O'Keeffe. 

The Block was the Republican garrison in the city centre, commanded by Oscar Traynor, and was made up of a number of buildings, including the Gresham, Hammam and Granville hotels, through which holes were knocked and tunnels dug to allow access across each building. Positions around the city centre were occupied by Traynor’s forces from the 28th June, after the attack on the Four Counts had begun.

Liz Gillis’ research has noted that they occupied fourteen buildings on the east side of Sackville St and that there was roughly a hundred people in the garrison. Notable figures like Countess Markievicz, Eamonn De Valera, Nurse Linda Kearns and Cathal Brugha were in attendance here as well.

How then did Dan and a number of his Third Tipperary Brigade comrades end up in the middle of the Battle for Dublin? Dan had been active in the War of Independence and taken part in a number of ambushes, barracks attacks and other Volunteer work. He was forced to go on the run shortly after the Sologheadbeg ambush as he recounted in his pension application because he was under suspicion for it.

He was with Dinny Lacey’s column at the ambush at Thomastown and was an active member of the local Active Service Unit, under the command of his friend, Edmond (Ned) O’Reilly of Coolanga, Rossmore.

In March 1921, Dan was captured by the British when he was sent as a special messenger to General Headquarters in Dublin. He was interned for the rest of the war in the Rath Camp in Kildare and was released at Christmas 1921.

Following his release, he was ill for some weeks but was soon asked to serve again as a member of the Republican Police Force, set up to counter growing lawlessness in the locality. He comments in his pension application that,

“…then there were some dirty things happening in the area and they proclaimed martial law and I was called up and put in charge of my end of the area.” He further explained, “It was martial law, there was robbery by violence. There was a man shot there; at that particular time it was very bad”.

At some point in late June 1922, he again travelled to Dublin with a message, this time for his friend and commanding officer Ned O’Reilly.

O’Reilly was Vice-Commandant of the Third Battalion, Third Tipperary Brigade and was an extremely active figure, having taken part in a huge amount of attacks on British forces across West and South Tipperary and into Limerick. Ned had been mooted as the commander of the no. 1 Flying Column, but lost out to Dinny Lacey in a vote.

Dan and Ned reported to Oscar Traynor and were assigned to the Hammam Hotel under the command of Cathal Brugha. There they waited, while the battle for the Four Courts wound to a close. On the 30 June, the Four Courts garrison surrendered and the Free State forces began to concentrate their attention on the Sackville St area. They brought the artillery they had borrowed from the British army and used it to clear many of the smaller outposts in the locality. This was quickly achieved and they inched ever closer to the Block.

By Monday 3rd July, the Block was isolated from the other local positions. Artillery and machine guns were brought up to fire on the buildings from very close range. Dan’s former cell mate, Todd Andrews, in his autobiography, recalled that,

“When ultimately at midnight, we came under sustained barrage from at least two armoured cars plus several machine guns located in the Metropole and the re-occupied Ballast Office. I think we were all frightened by the mere noise. Bullets were raining through the building, sometimes penetrating the barricades of Tramway records with short bursts of flame”.

Conditions quickly became untenable and Traynor realised the hopelessness of the position. That evening, the bulk of Traynor’s forces broke out of the Block and made their escape. A rear-guard of less than 20 men was left behind, under the command of Cathal Brugha. Dan O’Keeffe, Ned Reilly, Patrick Ryan and Jack O’Meara, all from Tipperary were among this rear-guard. Also with them were several women including, Nurse Linda Kearns, Muriel McSwiney and Kathleen Barry (sister of Kevin Barry).

Kearns later recounted that,

“When the various groups were ordered out of the Gresham, some going with de Valera, and some with Madam Markievicz, there remained only 16 men with Cathal Brugha, Dr. Brennan, Art O'Connor, Kathy Barry, Muriel McSweeney and myself. We held the place for two days after the rest had gone.”

Those two days must have been hellish. They were under direct fire from all sides by an eighteen pounder gun, several machine guns, armoured cars and snipers. The buildings were on fire and visibility was limited. An Irish Times newspaper report from that week captured the scene,

“…the whole Eastern side of Sackville street, from the Parnell monument to the Tramways office, is a surging furnace of destruction… Away to the right, a sheet of crimson flame shrouds what was once a noble block of buildings. It is reflected brilliantly from the rain-swept roadway which looks as if it were a river of blood. Over the burning buildings there, the sky is lit up in lurid splendour”.

Thanks to Kathleen Barry, we get an insight into conditions inside the Block at this time. In a letter to her fiancé Jim Moloney, himself an active IRA member of a prominent Tipperary town Republican family, she tells him,

“Your attitude with regard to the Hammam is based really on a wrong impression. First of all, the men didn’t allow us to stay, we just stayed…I had to dodge Cathal all the time. He approved of me making tea and Bovril, but not of me filling sandbags in my leisure moments".

She also recounts how the other men were more welcoming,

“You may disapprove of me all you like for refusing to go when I was told but you mustn’t disapprove of the men. And you can ask Jack O’Meara or Ned Reilly or Dan Keeffe if we hindered the fight or kept them from holding out as long as they would otherwise have done. They were great – they were sports and let me do heaps of things.”

Heavy fire continued to rattle the Block, the front of the Hammam Hotel collapsed and the Gresham was on fire. The garrison was now centred around the Grenville hotel. The eighteen pounder gun was focused on it now and soon it too was in flames. Brugha, in order to save their lives, ordered his men to surrender. Stories handed down through the O’Keeffe family recall that Dan and Ned were among the last Volunteers to leave Brugha’s side. Ned Reilly, interviewed afterwards by Sceilg for his biography of Brugha remembered that Brugha shook hands with each man in turn and had an expression of seriousness as he ordered them to surrender.

Linda Kearns remembered,

“Then Cathal asked Art O'Connor to take out the 16 men, Kathy Barry and Muriel McSweeney. Art, who was not a soldier but a Red Cross man, took off his Red Cross badge and led them out. They were captured immediately outside the door. One boy refused to go and hid. He was brought before Cathal Brugha. Cathal asked him did he not know the punishment for a soldier who disobeyed orders on the field of battle. The boy replied: "I do, but I would rather be shot by you, Sir, than leave you". Cathal said: "Won't you go for love of me?" The boy saluted and left. I wish I knew that boy's name.”

Ned Reilly and another Volunteer tried to exit through the front door but couldn’t get it opened. As they hurried to try another door, they found themselves faced by a wall of fire. They jumped through the flames with their eyes closed. Trying blindly to find their way out, Ned struck his head badly against a wall. Thankfully, they got through the flames and a member of Cumann na mBan was waiting at a doorway to lead them out to where their comrades were waiting beside the tram stop.

The Irish Times provided the view from outside the building in an article on the following day,

“The last stronghold of the Irregulars became untenable about 7:30 p.m., owing to the incessant bombardment. The Irregulars, driven out by the flames and explosives managed to emerge safely through the back.

"They were led by Mr Arthur O’Connor, formerly the parliamentary representative of Kildare and Wicklow, waving a large white flag. Red Cross attendants close to the scene happened to get a glimpse of the party amid a torrent of crashing shells. One of them pluckily dashed down the lane and informed the investing troops of the surrender. Fire immediately ceased and a party of National soldiers ran down and took the group prisoner”.

Inside the burning building, Linda Kearns remained with Cathal Brugha,

“At that time we were alone and the place was burning all round us. It was the most poignant moment of my life. We kept moving back from the smoke until we reached the back door. We went out into the lane. Cathal had a revolver in each hand and he kept on shouting "No surrender". He was shot in the hip, the femoral artery being severed. I was beside him, but was not hit.”

Cathal was taken directly to the Mater Hospital and operated on but died two days later.

Dan O’Keeffe, Ned Reilly and Jack O’Meara were among the group taken prisoner that morning. The newspapers describe that,

“The prisoners, unkempt and unwashed, remained in the lane, and with them were three nurses who had been with them throughout their ordeal. A wounded prisoner lay on the ground while his wounds were being dressed. The prisoners, in all, about a dozen and some of them mere boys, were ordered to fall in by their leader. They then marched off to Amiens Street station under a heavy escort. “

It is thought they were initially imprisoned in Mountjoy jail, which would, at least, have been familiar territory for Dan, as he had jailed there under the British. Dan was to find himself interned again and he was moved to the prison camps in the Curragh. He would remain there until December 1923.

He was joined in early 1923 by his brother Con, who was captured near his home in Glenough. They would also be joined by a large number of their former comrades in the Third Tipperary Brigade who had overwhelmingly taken the Republican side.

Dan’s sisters, Nora and Helena, were also imprisoned in Kilmainham Jail and the remains of the family home at Glenough, which had already been blown up by the British, was subjected to frequent raids. Dan and his family would emerge from the prisons after the Civil War and try to go on to pick up the pieces of their lives.

The fight alongside Cathal Brugha would continue to be a great source of pride for all those Volunteers involved and for their families. We are proud today to remember the part played by the Tipperary contingent.