Covering Paddy’s early life and entry to Republican circles, we look below at his increasing participation in the Independence Struggle up to the Truce in mid-1921. He left two extensive Witness Statements about this period – BMH.WS0220 (Up to 1916) and BMH.WS0387 (1917-1922). And to be fair, he provides credit where it is due to many others, rather than implying he did everything himself.
Origin and Background
Patrick Daly was a policeman’s son, born on 5 June 1888 at 70 Manor Street in Stoneybatter, on the northside of Dublin city. Situated between Phoenix Park and the Four Courts it is close enough to the former City Abattoir – all of which places would feature in Paddy’s future military career.
His father James was a Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP) Constable, based in Kingstown (now Dun Laoghaire) in 1877 when he married Mary Beahan from Dundrum, south Co. Dublin. The couple went on to have nine children of whom seven survived. Young Patrick had two older sisters and brothers as well as a younger brother and sister. Three of the lads would grow up to fight for Ireland; two, Paddy and Seamus would go pro-Treaty while Frank took the anti-Treaty position.
The family moved to Clontarf on the north shore of Dublin Bay before 1901. By that time Paddy’s father had retired from the DMP and he himself was going to school. Ten years later Paddy was a married carpenter living in Terenure, a suburb to the south of the city.
On 16 May 1910, Paddy had tied the knot with Margaret Colombia ‘Daisy’ Malcolm Gillies in Drumcondra Church. It was a double wedding also featuring his older brother and fellow IRB man James ‘Seamus’ marrying Daisy’s sister Nora. Both couples had met at a Gaelic League dance in Bolton Street in 1906.
The father of the brides was John Malcolm Gillies, a Scots Presbyterian, formerly general manager in the Freeman’s Journal newspaper whose wife was Alice Maud Nash, a Protestant English woman. Mr. Gillies was also a Lecturer in apiarism (bee-keeping) with the Department of Agriculture Training Institute and a successful businessman. Despite the religions of the Gillies parents, all but one of their children were baptised as Catholics.
Paddy and Daisy went to live with her brother Archibald’s large family on Eagle Hill Terrace, Terenure. Their first child, Patrick Gerard was born there in 1911 and his baptism record shows the first appearance of the O’Daly version of the surname. The family then moved to ‘Cluny’, a house in Clontarf where in 1913 O’Daly’s father-in-law passed away and a daughter Moira Theresa ‘Máire’ arrived. A second little girl Bridget ‘Brid’ was born in 1915 while Paddy and Daisy lived on Marino Avenue, Fairview. Her mother Alice Maud was to pass away in August 1916. But that was after Paddy had taken part in the Easter Rising and during his time in captivity in Britain.
Na Fianna and the Volunteers to 1916
As early as 1907, aged nineteen, O’Daly had been sworn in to the Fintan Lalor Branch of the I.R.B. by Paddy Ingoldsby (Pádraig Mac Giolla Íosa) of Fairview. Young Paddy was following in the footsteps of his older brothers Seamus and Frank. On the formation of the Volunteers in late 1913, O’Daly joined up while working in Tuam, Co. Galway. He also became a member of Na Fianna because they did drilling, route marches and other military-style training not then carried out by the Volunteers. Returning to Dublin in 1914 he joined B Coy, 2nd Battalion, Dublin Brigade and formed a Na Fianna Sluagh in his locality (Clontarf) while resuming his involvement with the I.R.B. O’Daly participated in the arms landing at Howth and was mobilised for distribution of the rifles from the later landing at Kilcoole, but not called out on that occasion.
When the Volunteers split in 1914, Paddy stayed with the Irish Volunteers having become greatly influenced by several of the future 1916 Signatories (Thomas MacDonagh his Battalion O/C, Tom Clarke, Sean MacDiarmada) and other leading figures like Arthur Griffith he had met through his extensive Separatist affiliations, particularly the I.R.B. “After the [Volunteer] split, training was intensified and we had a rifle range in Fr. Mathew Park [Fairview] where we all fired our course. We got lectures on street-fighting from Tom McDonagh and Capt. Monteith“.
The Magazine Fort
A couple of months before the Rising, he was asked to discuss the possibilities of action against the British Army Magazine Fort, Phoenix Park with MacDonagh, MacDiarmada and Clarke. O’Daly had become familiar with the facility’s layout, garrison, location of stores, keys, etc. from doing carpentry work there for his employers, Thompson’s Building Contractors of Fairview. He obtained other information requested by Sean MacDiarmada and, after inputs from James Connolly, by Palm Sunday they had a plan to attack the place using Na Fianna and Irish Citizen Army men disguised as footballers. O’Daly was commissioned as a Lieutenant and put in charge of the raiding party which included Sean Ford with tin-can bombs. Following cancellation of the Rising for Easter Sunday, early on the following morning at Liberty Hall, O’Daly was ordered to commence action on the dot of noon.
His party successfully overcame the guards and did their best to destroy the Fort with the bombs and paraffin. Unluckily, access could not be gained to the most powerful munitions as the key was held by an officer on leave. So, while the hope had been a large explosion to act as a signal for the Rising, damage was limited and the fires were extinguished by Dublin Fire Brigade. Paddy and his men scattered and all got away to join their various garrisons.
He went to the Four Courts where he fought until Wednesday when he was wounded. While with a party trying to set fire to a British position in the nearby Medical Mission, he was hit in the arm by a rifle bullet. Taken to the Richmond Hospital, he was later moved to the Castle Hospital until released on 4 June, his birthday. A few days later he was arrested, picked out at an identification parade in the Bridewell and sent to Kilmainham Gaol. He was subsequently included in the mass deportation to Frongoch.
He only mentions one notable episode in the camp – the prisoners’ refusal to do latrine duties for the soldier-warders and subsequent punishment in solitary confinement. The Irish response was a hunger strike. When O’Daly’s turn came, he ended up as the sole hunger striker, unaware the others had given up. He was therefore handed a 56-day stretch in Walton Prison in Liverpool. He seems to have used his charm with the sympathetic governor there to work separated from the criminal inmates. He ended up with lightweight gardening work unsupervised; and adds he was far better fed than in Frongoch. When he had done his time he was released into the custody of a military escort and returned to the dismal internment camp in Wales.
The Aftermath
Paddy was eventually released and arrived home on the morning of Christmas Eve, 1916. The following year was spent re-organising the unit, training and drilling and, as he said, during 1917-1919 nothing much took place apart from parades, drilling and minor raids for arms, raids on small Income Tax offices and the mails. O’Daly rose from Lieutenant to Captain of B Coy.
In family life, March 1917 brought happiness and pride when another son, Anthony arrived and was given the middle named Colbert in honour of the executed 1916 Commandant Con. But five months later came a bitter tragedy. Their eldest daughter Máire died from meningitis at just four-and-a-half. Apparently, there was not a coffin to be obtained in the city and O’Daly himself had to make one for his own little girl. This was the same child who he later fondly recalled as “deformed, she only had one hand“. He retold her mother Daisy’s account of little toddler Máire calling a DMP Superintendent “Traitor Winters” when he roughly intruded during an otherwise courteous military search on the detained O’Daly’s house after the Rising. Winters, a near-neighbour, had knocked little Máire to the ground before the enraged British officer had him bodily thrown out of the house. This incident would figure in a later lecture to O’Daly by Michael Collins.
A Widower
Worse was to follow early in 1919. Daisy’s health sadly declined due to the scourge of those times that was Tuberculosis (T.B.). She was admitted to the Hospice in Harold’s Cross while Paddy arranged for their youngsters to live in the care of family and friends, including Mick Love‘s family on Bessborough Avenue, North Strand. On 31 March 1919 Daisy died at the age of just thirty-four. O’Daly was left a widower with three children, scattered between Dollymount, Phibsborough and North Strand. To add to the trauma, he was a prisoner in Mountjoy Prison at the time and was granted a mere three hours parole to attend the funeral – and that was down to representations on his behalf by a senior clergyman.
He had been one of twelve B Coy Volunteers arrested at Clonliffe Hall on 1 February for “military training and drilling” (illegal under the DORA legislation) and sentenced to 6 months imprisonment. Among them was O’Daly’s close comrade and No. 2 Joe Leonard. As it transpired, on 29 March nine of the B Coy men escaped in a daylight mass breakout arranged by O’Daly with Dick Mulcahy and Peadar Clancy during a release on parole.
In all, twenty-one political prisoners (including two Sinn Féin M.P.’s) made their way to freedom over the wall using a rope ladder. But O’Daly himself deliberately did not join them. He needed to be able to visit his terminally ill wife in the hospice, via parole; whereas escaping risked probable arrest when he would go to see her. Notably, Joe Leonard also stayed put with him in the Joy. Those two, with four other prisoners, put on a convincing show of holding under control three warders – two sympathetic and one hostile – in the yard to allow their comrades make it out. As a result, they lost any remission and were not released till their six-months were up, on 2 August.
Incidentally, from the jail record we learn Paddy was 5 feet 9 inches tall, with brown hair, grey eyes and a fresh complexion. He weighed 159lbs (72kg) on admission and 166 on release, a gain of half-a-stone!
Back On Duty – The Squad
O’Daly rejoined his unit. When the Squad was formed on 19 September 1919, he says there were initially four members – Joe Leonard, Sean Doyle and Ben Barrett with himself in charge (Interestingly, he says Mick McDonnell was never in the Squad).
During his appointment interview, “Michael Collins then gave me a lecture on revenge and told me that the man who had revenge in his heart was not fit to be a Volunteer”… This arose from whispers that Paddy was out for vengeance against the police officer, Winters, who had maltreated his child in 1916. O’Daly insisted he had no such idea in mind and was duly put in command of the Squad.
In Action Again
O’Daly’s first job, accompanied by Leonard, was shooting DMP G-Division Detective Thomas Wharton on 10 November at the corner of Cuffe Street and St. Stephen’s Green. The policeman had brought several political prosecutions to court and had, like his colleagues, been warned by the IRA to back-off but ignored them. Wharton was badly wounded, the bullet actually passing through his body and striking a schoolgirl, Gertie O’Hanlon, a glancing blow on the head. She was treated in hospital and sent home. Wharton, originally from Co Kerry survived but his police career was finished. He was awarded £1,750 compensation in 1920; the little girl’s claim was dismissed. An innocent newsvendor, James Hurley, was wrongly convicted for the shooting and sentenced to fifteen years. O’Daly recounted the whole story in his second Witness Statement (BMH.WS0380 pages 12, 13).
The Ashtown Ambush
On 19 December, Paddy was with the attackers on Lord Lieutenant French. He had a narrow escape from the blast when Seamus Hogan dropped a live grenade under fire from French’s bodyguards. Afterwards O’Daly helped carry the body of Martin Savage off the road. Savage had pushed to come on the job to which O’Daly had agreed and of course later bitterly regretted. He then took the wounded Dan Breen away on his bicycle.
In January 1920, Paddy says, the Squad was expanded to eight with the addition of Tom Kehoe, Jim Slattery, Vinny Byrne and Mick O’Reilly. On the 21st of that month O’Daly was the shooter again when William Forbes Redmond, newly appointed to re-organise the DMP, was executed on Harcourt Street. O’Daly was next in charge of the futile attempted rescue of Sinn Féin M.P. Robert Barton from a prison van near Mountjoy Prison – Barton was not in the vehicle.
Attacks on key crown personnel and agents continued. When the spy Jameson (real name John Charles Byrne) was lured to the Albert College grounds near Ballymun, confronted with the IRA’s knowledge and accepted his fate, it was O’Daly who pulled the trigger (7 March). He recalled other assassinations in which he was not the executioner – Alan Bell, the financial expert targeting Sinn Féin funds, taken off a tram and shot (26 March). On 14 April DMP Const. Henry Kells was shot dead on Pleasant Street (by Joe Leonard and Hugo MacNeill); and six days later Detective Officer Laurence Dalton Dalton was executed (by Tom Kehoe) at the Black Church, St. Mary’s Place on his way to do surveillance for IRA suspects at Broadstone railway station. Frank Brooke, a railway director, land agent, judge, councillor to and friend of Lord French, was shot (by Tom Kehoe) in his office at Westland Row on 30 July. There were also failed attempts on Roberts of the RIC at Beresford Place and Det. Sgt. Richard Revell of G-Division who was seriously wounded at Phibsborough.
Carrying Out Orders
Daly’s Witness Statement comments on these jobs:
“When Alan Bell was shot I did not know why he was listed as a man to be eliminated. We knew in some cases, but In others we did not know. We were soldiers carrying out orders end so did not ask any questions”.
“As in the majority of the executions carried out, we were not aware of the reason for his elimination, we simply got orders to carry out the execution of Revell. The reasons did not concern us.”
A Rare Funny Incident
It wasn’t always killing. One job given to the Squad during the summer of 1920 was to hijack and confiscate a consignment of wine, spirits and liquors intended for the Auxies and distribute it to hospitals. The carrier’s horse and wagon was duly captured without any drama and the alcohol was being unloaded when, as O’Day says, “There was one very amusing incident which I think should be recorded. Paddy Griffin (deceased), who was a strict Teetotaller, asked Tom Kehoe if there were any minerals [non-alcoholic or soft drinks] amongst the captured wines. Tom, although he knew better, said ‘There is a Green Chartreuse there which tastes very sweet and I think you could take a drink of it’. Griffin got a cup, filled it with the Chartreuse and in a short time passed out completely.”
O’Daly added: “In fairness to the members of the Squad and the Intelligence Section, I should say that no man took advantage of the position on that occasion. Some of them were hard drinkers but they did not interfere with the wines in any way“. He later clarified – “[that statement] may convey the idea that some member of the Squad and Intelligence section were hard drinkers. This is not so; any of them who were not pioneers were very moderate drinkers.” Others, such as ASU man George White, had a different view.
Dark Days
On 14 October 1920 Sean Treacy from Tipperary was killed outside the Republican Outfitters on Talbot Street as O’Daly, Leonard and Kehoe of the Squad were searching for him to get him to a safe house. After the event, O’Daly recalled he spoke to Jane Boyle whom he knew from her work at the nearby Spiedel’s Pork Butchers. She warned him not to go near the shop as there had been much shooting there and offered to hide their guns. Ms. Boyle was unaware of the tragic results – Treacy, two innocent civilians and a British intelligence officer were dead and several others wounded. O’Daly was later shocked to hear of Treacy’s death from other contacts. He and a team from the Squad subsequently shot two RIC men sent up from Tipperary to identify Sean Treacy’s body. Sgt. Daniel Roche and his companion were pointed out by IRA spy David Neligan. Roche was killed by Slattery, Kehoe and Joe Dolan from Intelligence at the junction of Capel Street with the quays and his companion wounded after running away.
Bloody Sunday and Another Arrest
Much to his chagrin, O’Daly was not directly involved in any of the executions on Bloody Sunday, but was ordered to confine himself to arrangements pre- and post-operations. Paddy was based at the activist Byrne family home, 17 North Richmond Street to de-brief returning men and help any wounded. One Squad man was assigned to almost all the IRA groups.
The sole injured Volunteer, Billy McLean, was treated and they learned that some targets had been missed while Frank Teeling had been shot and captured. The bad news kept coming that day and the one following. The terrible news about Dick McKee and Peadar Clancy being murdered, along with Conor Clune, in the Castle was followed by reports of the slaughter at Croke Park where his acquaintance mentioned above, Jane Boyle (28), was among the fourteen fatalities. She was shot, then trampled on in the crush of panicking spectators. Jane had been due to get married the following Friday. Instead she was buried in her wedding dress.
A Hectic Existence…
At that stage Paddy was staying in Cecil Avenue, Clontarf, with one of his kids at his brother’s home in Dollymount, another in Phibsborough with his friends the Hollands and the third in Mick Love’s at North Strand. He was of course full-time with the IRA as well. The situation must surely have done nothing for O’Daly’s peace of mind, although the Loves helped out with accommodation and child-minding for his eldest lad Patrick; and Paddy spent much time there. But Mick Love was also an IRA man and known as such to the crown forces. They were fired up for action after the shock to their morale of Bloody Sunday. Over five hundred suspects would be rounded up within days.
…Gets More Complicated
Mick Love‘s name and address was on their list and he was taken away from home late one night. As ill-luck would have it, O’Daly was staying there at the time, avoiding British checkpoints in his own area. Then a second raiding party arrived looking for the same man and took O’Daly away despite him giving his name which was not on the arrest list. Amazingly he was not on the British radar as an active Volunteer. On the advice of a sympathetic DMP man from Clontarf with the raiders, O’Daly adopted the stance of denying his IRA connection. The policeman also sent word to Michael Collins about O’Daly’s arrest. After a brief stay in Portobello Barracks, O’Daly was sent to Arbour Hill before transfer to Mountjoy. He spent a while in Kilmainham under further interrogation before returning to Arbour Hill. Then he was put in a group transported by navy destroyer to Ballykinlar Camp, Co. Down. He described the hostility of loyalist mobs as they landed in Belfast en route and how the British military protected the prisoners.
A Plan for Freedom
Paddy would not remain too long behind the wire. GHQ decided too many Volunteers were in captivity and they needed him out. He was authorised to sign the required undertaking not to associate with the IRA. This was a controversial position to take as it was against IRA principles but he managed to get the IRA Camp Committee to allow his plan to proceed. After a review by a British board, he was released around 20 February 1921. O’Daly made his way back to Dublin to meet Michael Collins. He learned that Joe Leonard had been running the Squad in his absence and had increased its strength to twenty. While Leonard had been doing a good job, Collins wanted O’Daly to assume command again as he was devising plans to free Longford Flying Column Commandant Sean MacEoin from captivity.
Back to The Squad
Not long after his release, O’Daly watched an impressive demo of the first Thompson gun being test-fired in the company of Collins, Oscar Traynor and other senior IRA men. It was planned to use one in a military train derailment ambush at Killester. The IRA assembled, laid a mine on the track and settled down to wait. Bill Stapleton had the Tommy gun, while the other attackers had grenades and handguns. However, the plan fell though after one keyed-up man threw a grenade at the wrong train. It flew through a carriage and exploded harmlessly on the trackside. But that gave rise to an alarm and the approach of a strong British military patrol. The IRA had to withdraw.
Second Marriage
Somehow, at a peak of IRA activity in Dublin, O’Daly found time to marry again. His bride was Brigid Murtagh, a sister of Mick Love’s first wife Cissie, who had Cumann na mBan connections. It seems likely the couple met and hit it off during O’Daly’s time staying in the Love household. The date of the ceremony in Fairview Church was 12 April 1921. Paddy’s occupation was Builder and he gave his address as 10 Bessborough Avenue, North Strand (the Loves’ house).
O’Daly’s best man was his senior Squad comrade Tom Kehoe. This is noteworthy. Perhaps for just once in his life, Paddy was trying to be diplomatic? It has been said Kehoe and Jim Slattery were resentful, almost mutinous, when O’Daly was made Squad O/C over their heads. After all, they had shared the leadership role following the sudden departure of Mick McDonnell (Tom Kehoe’s half-brother). O’Daly by all accounts put an end to a supposed lax discipline and drink culture the two lads had allowed to creep in. But all seemed to sort itself out as the Squad under O’Daly continued to operate. Action for them was not as intense as it had been but they were still an elite force to be reckoned with.
The Armoured Car Job
This was illustrated again on 14 May 1921. An incredibly daring operation was undertaken under the command of O’Daly on the instructions of Michael Collins. With support from Intelligence and selected Dublin Brigade and Cumann na mBan members, an armoured car was captured by the Squad in an attempt to rescue the jailed Comdt. Sean MacEoin. It was a really well planned and executed job but ultimately futile. Through unlucky circumstances MacEoin was not in a pre-arranged location in the prison and could not be rescued that day by the armoured car and crew which made it into Mountjoy Prison. O’Daly and others were in support in the vicinity. All the republican participants got away safely, with just one Volunteer, Jack Walsh, suffering a minor hand wound. It was O’Daly who brought him away to safety and treatment on the back of his bicycle. The dramatic episode was an embarrassing blow to British prestige and a major propaganda coup for the IRA, widely reported internationally.
The Burning
Then came a relative disaster on 25 May 1921. No less than nine Squad men were among the hundred or so IRA arrested at the Custom House and two more were badly wounded while escaping. Jim Slattery survived but lost a hand, while Sean Doyle died of his wounds a few days later. The Squad had been detailed to keep watch on the entrances and guard the building’s occupants. Caught indoors, they had little option but to dump weapons and try to melt away. Only Vinny Byrne managed to talk his way out of arrest.
Paddy O’Daly had been outside with Brigade O/C Oscar Traynor observing the operation. Both managed to narrowly avoid ending up as prisoners or casualties thanks to the actions of a young Volunteer who lost his life. Their escape from Beresford Place is described in O’Daly’s second Witness Statement where he credits Dan Head with saving them.
As a result of the attack, O’Daly’s unit was severely depleted through arrests and casualties. He also had the sad duty to inform the wife of Sean Doyle that her husband had been badly wounded and was in hospital. O’Daly credited Elizabeth Doyle with great bravery and fortitude. He also had a high regard for Sean and his death not long afterwards must have been a bitter blow for Paddy.
A Short Breather
In July the Truce began and the IRA were stood down from action. The focus turned to rest, re-organisation and training. As the ranks of the Squad and ASU had been drastically thinned out by the arrests at the Custom House, it was decided by GHQ to amalgamate the two full-time units as the Dublin Guard and O’Daly was appointed to lead it.
It was not until December 1921 that the freed internees were to meet up with their comrades again at Celbridge Workhouse camp. Old frustrations surfaced, reinforced by negative experiences after the 25 May debacle. It seems to have rankled with at least some of the captured Squad that their leader had gotten clean away while they languished in Kilmainham Gaol for six months. Two leading lights, Slattery and Kehoe had suffered pain and ignominy while O’Daly, who they felt had “dropped them in it”, had escaped. Angry voices were raised and guns waved before the situation was defused. Interestingly, according to Padraig O’Connor, the ASU men among the Dublin Guard backed O’Daly up against the Squad lads.
But bad feeling persisted among several of the Squad men. They considered themselves an elite who did not need training. There were breaches of discipline and complaints of vandalism and petty theft of property in the camp. There is no mention of decisive action to stamp this out by the strict disciplinarian O’Daly.
That seems in stark contrast to one story concerning Joe ‘Moggy’ Murtagh, aka John O’Connor, related in Sleep Soldier Sleep, a memoir by Padraig O’Connor (no relation). A bit of a character and loose cannon who had been out as a Na Fianna lad in 1916, Murtagh cared little for Army – or indeed any – rules and regulations. In the newly-fledged National Army, Private Murtagh was charged with some minor offence and hauled before a tribunal consisting of Captain O’Daly and his Lieutenants, Joe Leonard and Padraig O’Connor.
O’Daly officiously summed up the evidence, gave a stormy reprimand and sentenced Moggy to seven days confined to barracks. Being marched out, Moggy blurted out “I’ll do that on my fucking ear”. O’Daly bristled, had Murtagh returned before him, gave a further bawling out and another seven days. Moggy retorted “I’ll do that on my other fucking ear!”. Even O’Daly had to give up at that stage.
On another occasion early in 1922, O’Daly was also involved in disciplining a group of soldiers over an armed attack on a British officer in Crumlin.
Among the renegades were Micky Sweeney and Paddy Rigney, former ASU men. Both would leave the National Army and serve with the anti-Treaty IRA for the Civil War. Sweeney, already lame from a Tan War wound, was later shot dead in controversial circumstances while under arrest, while Rigney survived several wounds and was spared a death sentence for being caught armed – thanks to his close pal Padraig O’Connor’s influence.
A Historic Parade
For the takeover of Beggars Bush Barracks at the end of January, a contingent of newly-equipped Dublin Guards accompanied by a pipe band marched through the city watched by cheering crowds. Captain O’Daly had the honour of heading the party assisted by Joe Leonard and Padraig O’Connor. But from the Squad, Company Quartermaster Vinny Byrne was the only other participant. We can perhaps imagine the other Squad hard-chaws’ cynical attitude to a route march in new boots carrying heavy rifles! O’Daly was presented with the Tricolour by Defence Minister Richard Mulcahy on the barrack square.
He had played a notable part in the struggle against the British in Dublin, having been involved in many key operations all the way through the Tan War – and that on top of his 1916 service.
But there would be no rest for O’Daly. IRA unity was already broken despite the public facade of ceremonial displays. As a Collins man, Paddy O’Daly would support the Treaty by force and play a memorable part in the hostilities to follow that summer.
Winning (Some) Hearts and Minds in Drogheda
In early May 1922, a Tan based in Gormanston was shot dead by a party of armed civilians near Stameen, Co. Meath while driving a car to pick up a clergyman for a service at the camp. This killing kicked off reprisals against the town of Drogheda, about a mile away, by lorries filled with Black and Tans. The local IRA anti-Treaty forces in Millmount Barracks felt unable to take any action to protect the locals and their property, so at the request of the mayor, GHQ sent a large force of troops with their lorries and an armoured car by train. Colonel-Commandants O’Daly, Frank Thornton and Comdt. Pat McCrea were in charge. They set up outposts at various locations, surrounded Millmount and gave the IRA an ultimatum to vacate – and also appealed to the locals to co-operate in the event of hostilities being necessary.
Negotiations failed to resolve the situation and a siege was mounted on the cut-off garrison. O’Daly was freed up to return to Dublin with most of his men. This softly-softly approach was typical during the uneasy truce between the factions (The anti-Treaty force would hold out in Drogheda until 29 July when the Free State attacked with artillery and cleared the barracks; one IRA man, Michael Leech, died in the firefight. The IRA would return in strength some weeks later to re-take Drogheda before the Free State eventually recovered the town).
A Big Wedding
There would be at least one pleasant interlude for many of the Squad before they went to war again. On 6 June there was a double wedding for the Byrne household on North Richmond Street mentioned above as strongly supportive of the IRA. Sisters Alice and Katie got married and among the guests were Paddy O’Daly and a host of famous names from the Tan War, wearing National Army uniforms. No doubt everyone involved had a good day. However, with some of the larger-than-life personalities and characters there, how peaceful the day went is not recorded…
Civil War
It began well for O’Daly, if such a notion can be voiced. He had rapidly risen in the ranks and as a Brigadier General was among the officers directing the National Army’s siege and eventual taking of the Four Courts from their former comrades with The Executive IRA. During a temporary ceasefire the day before the complex fell, Paddy exchanged remarks with Rory O’Connor. “When are you coming, Paddy?”. The ominous response from O’Daly was “Tomorrow – with bayonets” (See Note at end). During the assault, Paddy’s close buddy Joe Leonard was wounded in the knee which would not have done much for O’Daly’s humour. Almost inevitably, he was the man to take the surrender. In a towering rage over the massive explosion which incapacitated about seventy National Army men, he threatened to have the IRA prisoners shot on the spot but was luckily restrained by other officers. A first example that he had apparently forgotten his lecture on revenge from Michael Collins?
Brigadier General Paddy O’Daly was among the prominent Free State officers lauded in the press after the Battle for Dublin. The papers also reported him directing the distribution of food and other supplies to civilians forced from their homes after the destruction around O’Connell Street in the Battle for the Block. O’Daly had become something of a firefighter for the pro-Treaty GHQ and was getting his share of good publicity too.
However, things would change, darkly, not too long after Paddy headed on campaign to the South West of the country and created his lasting legacy familiar to people interested in Irish history. And still remembered with some bitterness in Co. Kerry. O’Daly also would leave us with one of the most memorable and chilling quotes from the Civil War.
To be continued…
Des White
Note: This quote is the title of a book on the Civil War in a series on the 1916-1923 period by Derek Molyneaux and Darren Kelly. Highly recommended.
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