The Killing of Kate Carroll

Introduction from Chronology

Kate Carroll, a 36-year-old Catholic woman, who lived near Duffy’s Cross, Tydavnet, Co. Monaghan is taken from her house by the IRA and shot dead. A sign saying spies and informers beware is attached to her body.

More Detail

In his book published in 2000, Dooley says that “In April 1921, a middle-aged Protestant spinster, Kate Carroll … was taken from her home near Castleblaney by a gang of men and murdered”. However, in Dooley (2017a) he states that while “contemporary papers stated that Carroll was a Protestant … she was in fact a Roman Catholic who had come to the IRA’s attention for illegal distilling [i.e. running a poitín still]”. Dooley notes that her execution was against an IRA general order which prohibited the killing of female spies – see Nov-09-20/6.

In a highly detailed analysis of the killing of Kate Carrol (available online here), Meehan disputes claims made by a number of historians around the reasons Kate Carroll was killed. Meehan points out that Dooley claimed that Kate Carroll was a Protestant in a number of articles (and that her killing was sectarian) before correctly noting that she was a Roman Catholic in later work (see above). Meehan also examines evidence, put forward by a number of historians, that Carroll was shot by the IRA because she ran a poitín still and finds the evidence wanting. In addition, he examines a number of other reasons put forward for her killing (such as that she was a social deviant, that she was pestering a local IRA man to marry him, that she was informing on other poitín makers, that she was of ‘feeble intellect’, etc.) and again finds the evidence wanting.

He then goes on to examine evidence from a number of men involved in the IRA in Monaghan and concludes that there was considerable IRA testimony available “to the effect that Kate Carroll had informed against the IRA” and had been warned to desist. In particular, Meehan refers to the testimony of Thomas Brennan who was an IRA intelligence officer. He quotes Brennan as saying that Carrol had written to the RIC giving the location of an IRA arms and the places where IRA men were staying at night. Brennan went on to say that “This person Kate Carroll wrote letters again and again to R.I.C. Scotstown wanting to know why these fellows were not arrested and their arms seized.” Meehan concludes “The evidence, properly scrutinised, shows that Kate Carroll is no longer a Protestant, feeble minded, spurned by a volunteer who dishonoured her, or a snit on fellow moonshine makers. She is someone … who became an informer, and who ignored warnings to desist. That does not mean that she should have been executed. But it is the reason that she was executed.”

However, as noted by Dooley above, the IRA’s GHQ had issued a General Order on the handling of Women Spies – see Nov-09-20/6. Meehan mentions this Order and says that the killing of Carroll “appears to be a violation of IRA ‘General Order No. 13’ in which ‘Women Spies’ should be warned and (if not Irish) deported”. However, according to Hughes, General Order No. 13 also states that “In ‘dangerous and insistent’ cases, commanders were ordered to seek instructions from GHQ” (Hughes (2016), pg 136). Meehan does not mention if any local commanders (in particular, O/C of the Monaghan Brigade of the IRA, Eoin O’Duffy) sought instructions from IRA GHQ in the Kate Carroll case. If the local commanders did not seek instructions from GHQ in the Kate Carroll case then the Monaghan IRA were not acting as a disciplined armed force but taking decisions into their own hands which were outside their authority.

The reason for the special treatment of ‘Women Spies’ was the position which women held in Irish society at this time and the bad publicity which would result from the execution of women who were alleged to be informers or spies. As O’Halpin (2012) notes, along with the other two women killed by the IRA as informers during the War of Independence (Bridget Noble – see Mar-04-21/3 – and Mary Lindsay – see cMar-21-21/4) “These killings caused acute embarrassment locally and at GHQ.”

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