When Private James Harpur marched into Beggars Bush Barracks with the Dublin Guard in February 1922, surely he had no inkling it was the beginning of a thirty-eight year military career. Or that he would become the last survivor of that first Irish uniformed military unit. On retirement as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1960, he was the longest-serving member of the Defence Forces. Sadly he would not live much longer. But he did leave a highly informative Witness Statement as well as a family with many Old IRA, Cumann na mBan and Army connections.
Origins and Background
James Joseph, known as Jim, was born on 30 March 1902 at 21 James Dillon Street in Dublin’s Liberties. His parents were John Harpur, a General Labourer and his wife Johanna née Brothers (a widow, formerly Keogh) both originally from Co Wexford. He had three sisters – Johanna (Josie), Mary and Catherine (Kitty). They would all go on to join the Eamon Ceannt Branch, Cumann na mBan and actively assist the IRA during the Tan War and beyond. His only brother John (Jack) would serve with the National Army in 1922-23.
Dublin Brigade
Jim claimed to have become a member of C Coy, 4th Battalion, Dublin Brigade Volunteers in early 1917 while still attending school. He had also started work as a Flax Scutcher in Cork Street, later getting a job as a clerk.
Harpur’s Witness Statement (BMH.WS0536) says his first experience of using arms was when police raided his Coy’s location for drilling at the Sand Pits in Crumlin. He and a few others on guard opened fire to allow the rest of their comrades to get away safely, as the sentries did also. On Armistice Day, 11 November 1918, he and Jim Fulham were among the Volunteers detailed to patrol the route of the British military parade to prevent photos being taken. This was an effort to minimise publicity and reduce British prestige in local newspapers. Harpur tells how he and Fulham were beaten to the jump by two other comrades after spotting a cameraman at the junction of Parliament Street and the Quays. As they watched, an argument started and the uncooperative photographer and his camera were unceremoniously dumped in the Liffey. On that occasion Jim was armed with an old Spanish pistol and three rounds, showing the paucity of weapons then available.
He transferred to F Coy, 1st Battalion in 1918, rising to become a Section Leader and was soon elected 2nd Lieutenant. His O/C was Paddy Holahan, who would later become one of his brothers-in-law. Jim’s first operation was a raid for arms on a ship moored at Alexandra Basin, North Wall, directed by Charlie Dalton of Intelligence. A number of rifles, revolvers and possibly a Lewis machine gun were taken away.
Exploits with the Active Service Unit
When nominated for the full-time ASU in late 1920, Jim was assigned to No. 4 Section as he lived in its area of operations. It meant giving up his job and going full-time. He described how he was recruited and attending the ASU formation parade at Oriel Hall with forty to fifty others. Oscar Traynor, Brigade O/C, outlined their mission, thanked them for their patriotism in stepping forward, then gave them a stark vision of their future. He said he did not hold out much hope of them surviving, but that there would be more men to replace them. Stirring motivational stuff!
In Action
Harpur gives interesting operational details of the ASU approach to jobs, highlighting the level of intelligence and planning required. Detailed local knowledge of main streets, back streets, alleyways, cul de sacs etc was crucial – along with no little bravery. He says No. 3 Section did the intelligence work for the whole ASU and that his No. 4 Section’s HQ was at the Brick Works in Dolphin’s Barn, while ASU HQ was on Eustace Street, Temple Bar.
In action some of their escapades sound hair-raising, with ASU men taking amazing risks. And, as Traynor (who had conceived the ASU concept) had forecast, there were inevitably casualties too. Many of the men named by Jim Harpur in his Witness Statement were either killed, wounded or captured in action well before the Custom House attack. Indeed, his first Section Commander, Gus Murphy, was killed by a drunken British soldier not long after being appointed (And Murphy’s successor was later badly wounded).
Before that, Murphy had occasion to give Harpur a chewing-out over his participation in a 1st Battalion action. He had been invited – if free from ASU work – by his old 1st Battalion O/C to take part in an ambush at North Frederick Street. He agreed, it was a success and Harpur and the others all got away. When Gus Murphy heard about it he demanded that Jim to confine his activities solely to operations ordered by him.
ASU No. 4 Section was a highly active unit. Harpur took part in all their operations alongside comrades like Jim McGuinness, Paddy Rigney and Padraig O’Connor. The first, the ASU’s debut, was carried out by a combined force from all four Sections. They ambushed a convoy of Auxiliaries from various points along the north Liffey Quays, causing panic among their targets (and undoubtedly to civilians caught in the vicinity) who fired wildly in all direction. No casualties were suffered by the attackers.
Most of the jobs for No. 4 Section were street ambushes on British Military and Auxiliaries vehicles. But not all jobs came off. Jim outlines how one planned ambush on a regular British military vehicle run from Tallaght to the city was aborted several times. It was finally carried out at Yeates Half-Way-House in Crumlin. During this action, Section O/C Micky Sweeney was badly wounded when his own grenade rebounded from the lorry. He was eventually got away by bicycle – loaned by sympathetic tram workers passing by.
Harpur recounts another attack on a military car near Holles Street Hospital when ASU Intelligence man ‘Onion’ Quinn walked across the path of the vehicle and waved a white handkerchief as the attack signal to his comrades. As Jim sarcastically says, Quinn’s signal also alerted their quarry who opened heavy fire before the ASU could start shooting! Nevertheless, he says, they successfully disabled the car and occupants with grenades and gunfire before getting away unscathed.
Harpur was also on an attack on a staff car carrying suspected British court-martial officers in the ‘Dardenelles’ area during which Paddy Rigney was shot in the knee by one of their targets who, Harpur said “was a very brave man, as from the very beginning of the ambush he deliberately sighted each shot, firing from a parabellum and I am of the opinion that it was one of these shots that wounded Paddy Rigney“. Two of the British officers were also wounded.
The Harpur Safe House
Rigney, Sweeney, Harry Pender, Simon McInerney, Joe Byrne and Padraig O’Connor were among the wounded Volunteers treated and restored to health in the Harpurs’ home. Jim says his sisters Kitty and Mary were always standing-to there while actions were in progress (Josie was married and living elsewhere but helped when she could). Dr. John O’Flanagan, the ASU Medical Officer, was of necessity a regular attendee. Cilldara Cottage, of Dillon Place, John Dillon Street was a well-used IRA safe house and Dressing/First Aid Station which was never raided.
One one occasion a serious surgical operation was carried out in the house, the casualty being Padraig O’Connor, a future brother-in-law, who had been wounded by crown forces on Brown Street. Showing how dedicated the Harpur sisters were to the Cause, they stayed to assist, meaning they missed their brother Jack’s wedding on the same day, 13 April 1921. But Jim made it to the ceremony as Best Man.
Dangerous Streets – A Brush with the Igoe Gang
Another time Harpur says himself and comrade Johnny Wilson had a close shave with the notorious undercover Dublin Castle RIC group led by Head Constable Eugene Igoe, sometimes called the Nemo Gang. They patrolled the streets armed wearing civilian clothes watching out for IRA men and had a fearsome reputation for extra-judicial killings (deserved or not), being dubbed a Murder Gang. There seems little evidence to pin specific killings on Igoe’s men. But to be captured by them was not going to be good for any prisoner’s health. One famous case was Vol. Thomas Sweeney Newell‘s shooting in their custody. He never fully recovered from his wounds. And Custom House veteran Jimmy Gibbons believed he also suffered an assault at their hands. Despite great efforts, the IRA failed to get a grip on any of Igoe’s shadowy men. Their identities – apart from Igoe himself and a Sgt. Clarke – unsurprisingly remain unrevealed to this day.
Anyway, as described in Harpur’s Witness Statement (pages 11-13), he and Wilson were lucky to be released, shaken but unharmed, after being stopped, interrogated and threatened with shooting in a laneway and then detained for some time in the Castle.
Custom House Attack
However, neither man would escape from the Burning and both were arrested at the scene. While Johnny Wilson was hauled off by the Auxiliaries and ended up in Mountjoy Prison, Harpur was a little luckier. He had mingled with the civilians exiting the building. But he was left with other IRA men after officials identified their staff. He ended up interned in Kilmainham Gaol. His arrest meant the end of the Dillon Place Safe House as his home address was then known to his captors.
He appears in a couple of photos taken by the prisoners.
He was also included in Daly’s autograph book/photo album.
Jim shared Cell 9, Section C of the West Wing of Kilmainham with fellow Custom House Man Michael Murphy.
A sadly ironic note – Murphy and Harpur, calling themselves good pals at that stage, would be on opposing sides of the Civil War divide for the rest of their lives.
Freedom, National Army and Civil War
Jim was released with the General Amnesty on 8 December 1921. He went back to his unit which by then had been amalgamated with the Squad as the Dublin Guard. He attended training camps at Kilmore, Co Dublin and Celbridge Workhouse. After the IRA Split Jim Harpur remained with the pro-Treaty forces for the Civil War.
He was photographed at one training camp with a group of fellow pro-Treaty Volunteers before most of them had been issued with their uniforms. Diarmuid O’Connor reckons it could’ve been taken at Artane.
On 1 February 1922 Private Harpur was among the contingent who marched to take over Beggars Bush Barracks and appeared 8th from the left in the middle row of the famous panoramic photo taken there a few days later. Coincidentally, his face is slightly hidden by none other than Padraig O’Connor. Sean O’Connor is also in the picture, both would become brothers-in-law of Harpur. Jim was promoted to Sergeant fairly rapidly.
He took part in the Free State assault on the Republican post in Kilkenny Castle early in the Civil War. At the time of the Army Census, he was based at Mullingar, serving as a Captain with the Quarter-Master General’s Mid Western Division. He was later made O/C of A Coy, 18th Battalion. No further details are known of his Civil War experiences.
His brother Jack had also been with 4th Battalion. By 1922 he was married with a family and living on Lauderdale Terrace, New Row South in The Liberties. He enlisted in the National Army on 10 February 1922 and later served as a 1st Lieutenant with Paddy O’Daly‘s Kerry Command, based in Killarney when the Army Census was taken. Jack resigned from the Army in 1926 and returned to civilian life but became a widower in 1931. He remarried in 1934 and lived in Cabra, Dublin City until his death in 1979.
Marriage and Family
The month after hostilities ended, Jim was based in Emmet Barracks, Clonmel, Co Tipperary when he married Sarah Mary ‘Mae’ Wheatley from a well-known family in Athlone, Co Westmeath. The wedding took place on 27 June in her local St. Peter’s Church; and the Best Man was Sean O’Connor, Padraig’s brother and also a future brother-in-law. The first of several connections by marriage the Harpurs would make with other Old IRA families.
However, there were differing allegiances within the family as well. If there were any discussions about politics among the Harpurs, they must have been really interesting!
Jim’s sister Josie had married Paddy Holahan back in 1920. He was then O/C 1st Battalion, Dublin Brigade and would go on to take the anti-Treaty side in the Civil War. She remained with Cumann na mBan but her activities are not documented. She was widowed in 1946. Josie passed away in 1990, the last survivor of her generation of Harpurs.
Mary and Kitty stayed with the Republican Cumann na mBan after the Split. Kitty was interned in Kilmainham Gaol and North Dublin Union after being arrested at Ely Place, Dublin on 6 March 1923. The Harpurs’ home at Dillon Place had been brought back into use as a hideout and venue for meetings of anti-Treaty IRA 4th Battalion ASU. Kitty had played a part during the fighting at the Four Courts, 44 Parnell Square and Jenkinson’s, Capel Street, acting as courier for Frank Henderson. She also transported arms for the 4th Battalion Republican ASU, continuing her activities until captured. In 1939, Kitty got married to a clerk named Gerald Lowry. They lived with her mother Johanna on the Viking Streets near the Phoenix Park in Dublin. In 1948 Kitty suffered a double tragedy – she lost her husband and her mam. She lived on till 1973.
Her sister Mary had been with her during the fighting in Dublin, carried dispatches and arms between Republican outposts at the Hammam Hotel and Barry’s Hotel and dumped rifles after the Block fell. She remained active for the Republicans for the rest of the Civil War and avoided arrest. In 1928, anti-Treaty Mary married a pre-Truce 4th Battalion and pro-Treaty IRA man, a serving officer with the Defence forces – Sean O’Connor (A brother of Padraig). She said she resigned from Cumann na mBan at that point!
Mary and Sean lived in Galway. She was widowed in 1957 and passed away herself, in Cork, thirty years later.
The Harpurs’ father John had passed away in 1931 at home on Dillon Place. Their mother lived on at he her daughter Josie’s home until 1948.
Military Career Goes On
Meanwhile, Jim was all the while serving with the Defence Forces as the Emergency years came and passed. He was probably to busy with his military duties to attend the 1939 ASU reunions. In 1942 his son Dermot enlisted in the Army. In addition the Harpurs had three daughters, Mary Bernadette (Berna), Eithne and Aiveen.
Harpur did make it to the presentation of Active Service Certificates to surviving ASU members and families of deceased men, held on 2 December 1950. He is shown in uniform seated at front left.
Jim went on to be Quarter Master of Western Command; served with GHQ Plans and Operations staff; and his final posting was O/C McKee Barracks at the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. He retired aged 58 on health grounds in 1960 after 38 years continuous service. If we add the IRA period he was credited with for pension purposes, it comes to a remarkable 42 years of his life to that point. That must surely be a record never to be surpassed.
Sadly he did not live to enjoy a long retirement. He passed away at his home ‘Derbereth’ on Swords Road, Whitehall on 26 October 1962. He had suffered from heart problems which first arose during the Emergency and for which he received a Military Disability Benefit.
Lieutenant-Colonel James Harpur was buried in Deansgrange Cemetery (plot St. Patrick/N/216) with full military honours, his funeral attended by many high-ranking Army officers including several serving and former Major-Generals and Colonels. Also there was Major Vivian de Valera, Jim’s son Capt. Dermot Harpur, then serving in a logistics role with the Defence Forces UN Mission in Leopoldville, Congo and Comdt. P. Wheatley, a brother-in-law. In addition to his aforesaid son, he was survived by his widow Mae, and his daughters Berna Kernan, Eithne Connolly and Aiveen.
Obituaries were published in several national newspapers which outlined his long Old IRA and Defence Forces career.
Mrs Mae Harpur passed away in 1982, but not before she had experienced the grief over the loss of two of her children, Aiveen (aged 33) in 1976 and Comdt. Dermot (53) the following year.
That may have ended the outstanding record of the Harpur extended family in the military service of Ireland. But memory and pride still burns bright among Jim’s descendants like his granddaughter Cathy O’Driscoll and her husband Brian who kindly shared many of the photos above. We are delighted to pay this small tribute to their Custom House Fire Brigade Man.
Des White
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