The Killing of Joseph Howley and the Igoe Gang

Introduction from Chronology

IRA leader Joseph Howley from Oranmore, Co. Galway ((See Aug-21-20/3) is shot as he alights from a train in Broadstone Station in Dublin.

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McNamara says that, as he got off the train, Howley was approached by several men in plain clothes and shot. O’Halpin and Ó Corráin say two detectives challenged Howley as he left the train. The detectives claim that they told him to put his hands up and only shot him when they thought that he was going for his gun. However, O’Halpin and Ó Corráin go on to say that a man who accompanied Howley (called PJ Mullins) gave a very different version of the event. He said that they were shot at by four or five men from behind and that one shot hit Howley in the head.

Henry gives three alternative possible accounts of how Howley met his death. Along with two versions given by O’Halpin and Ó Corráin, Henry also gives a version where Howley and Paddy Mullins had left the train station and were heading to the city centre when they were shot at by a number of men who ran away. Howley was hit and soon after an ambulance arrived but, as Howley was being taken to hospital, a number of BA soldiers arrived in an armoured car. They surrounded the ambulance and placed Howley in the armoured car and took him to Dublin Castle. Eventually, he was taken to hospital and died there of gunshot wounds to the head and body. (Henry includes the report issued by Dublin Castle on the killing of Howley.) Molyneux and Kelly’s version includes the detail that, after Howley and Mullins were seen entering Galway train station, RIC Sergeant Healy was ordered to get on the train and follow them. They say that it was Healy who identified Howley to his killers at Broadstone station.

The IRA believed that Howley had been identified by an RIC man called Eugene Igoe (who was from Mayo but who had served in Galway). Igoe and a number of other RIC men had been brought from around the country by Winter to identify IRA men who had left their own area and were now operating in Dublin. This group of RIC men had considerable success and, in early January, Igoe was promoted to sergeant by Colonel Winter and put in charge of this group. Given their success, the IRA were very anxious to eliminate Igoe. Thomas Sweeney Newell was brought to Dublin from Galway to identify Igoe - See Jan-07-21/3.

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