Alan Bell’s ‘Star Chamber’
Introduction from Chronology
A command is issued by Dublin Castle to ten bank managers in Dublin to
appear before a commission enquiring into the whereabouts of the Dáil Loan
money. The command, personally delivered to each manager by a member of the
DMP, was signed by Resident Magistrate Alan Bell. The commission was a ‘Star Chamber’ – see
Dec-30-19/1.
More Detail
This commission starts its meetings on March 8th and they are
held in secret. Only three of the ten
bank managers summoned are actually called.
The three were Henry Campbell, manager of the Hibernian Bank on College
Green; Christopher Tierney, manager of the Hibernian Bank on O’Connell St and
Thomas Read, manager of the Hibernian Bank on Camden St. O’Sullivan Greene gives a detailed account of
the grilling all three got from Bell.
They were repeatedly asked about accounts in the names of prominent Sinn
Féin people and links to the Sinn Féin Bank but, due to confidentiality around
bank accounts, Bell did not make much progress.
After interviewing the three bank managers, Bell changed tact and
summoned James Davidson who was an accountant in the Dame St branch of the
Munster & Leinster Bank. From
Davidson, he got the name of Daithi O’Donoghue and
his address, 3 King Edward Terrace, Drumcondra.
O’Donoghue was Secretary to the Trustees of the Dáil Loan and the key
person responsible for setting up accounts in the names of trusted people - and
in some fictional names. Into these
accounts, money collected for the Dáil Loan was deposited. (It is not clear if Bell realised
O’Donoghue’s critical role.) Bell also got the names of people who were likely
to be front accounts for holding proceeds from the Dáil Loan. Bell’s progress
was slow but, with the interview of Davidson, he was starting to make inroads.
It is likely that Collins knew that he was getting closer.
Even though Bell’s ‘Star Chamber’ was held in secret, news of it leaked
to the media. There is a strong backlash
in the nationalist newspapers (such as the Freeman’s
Journal and Irish Independent)
against the inquiry. It would seem that
the secret nature of the inquiry and its vague nature gave rise to alarm in
Dublin business circles that it could be inquiring into tax evasion.
Critically, on March 13th, the Freeman’s
Journal had published a photograph of Alan Bell and identified him as
“conducting a Star Chamber Inquiry into the business of Irish banks”.
See Mar-26-20/1.