December 8^th

Mountjoy Executions

Introduction from Chronology

Rory O'Connor (Monkstown, Co. Dublin); Liam Mellows (Wexford and Galway); Joe McKelvey (Stewardstown, Co. Tyrone) and Richard (Dick) Barrett (Ballineen, Co. Cork) are executed by pro-Treaty forces in Mountjoy after the cabinet had explicitly ordered the executions as a reprisal for the shootings on Ormond Quay the previous day.

More Detail

Why were these four men chosen? Mellows, O’Connor and McKelvey had been members of the anti-Treaty Army Executive, within which they were part of the ‘hard-line’ Four Courts faction. Barrett could have been selected for his part in the attempted breakout from Mountjoy on October 10^th in which three pro-Treaty soldiers were killed (see Oct-10-22/1). (The inquiry had named Barrett and Breslin as responsible for the deaths). There would seem to be little foundation in the oft-stated proposition that they were chosen to represent the four provinces.

Firing squad apparently commanded by Hugo O’Neill.

These executions were extra-judicial in that they were not carried out under the Public Safety Act (all four had been in custody since the attack on the Four Courts in late June).  The news appears in the evening paper along with an announcement that there was an assassination conspiracy.  Hopkinson notes that there were no further attempts to assassinate TDs by the anti-Treaty side.

The executions are condemned by Labour and others in the Dáil. However, O’Higgins on December 8^th says in the Dáil “There are no real rules of war. … When war breaks out they are more honoured in the breach than in the observance. … the safety and preservation of the people is the highest law”. In a division that followed the debate on the executions, the Free State government won by 39 votes to 14. 

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