The Brunswick Street Gun Battle
Introduction from Chronology
After the executions in the Military Detention Barracks in Cork City
(see Feb-28-21/1), the Cork No.1 Brigade authorised the killing of BA soldiers
in Cork City (see Feb-28-21/2).
Similarly, after the hanging of the six men in Mountjoy Prison (see
Mar-14-21/1), the IRA in Dublin authorised the city and county battalions – and
the ASUs – to shoot Crown Forces in the city irrespective if they were armed or
not.
However, not wanting a repeat of Cork, the BA confined most of its
soldiers to barracks. Nevertheless,
there was a major gun battle in Brunswick St on the evening of March 14th
between the Auxiliaries and the IRA. This
shoot-out results in the deaths of eight people (two IRA, two Auxiliaries and
four civilians).
More Detail
As part of the IRA mobilisation, thirty- seven IRA men were deployed in
the Brunswick St (now Pearse St) area under Peadar
O’Mara. He divided his men into two
sections of 21 and 16 men. He took
charge of one section himself and delegated charge of the other section to Sean
O’Keefe. In turn, O’Keffe
divided his men into two sections – taking charge of one himself and delegating
charge of the other to 17-year-old Sean MacBride. O’Mara also divided his men into two sections
- he took charge of one section himself and delegated the charge of the other
section to Thomas Carass.
The O’Mara and Carass sections attack the
Brunswick St DMP station but this fails as a grenade rebounds
for the wall of the station and seriously injures IRA Volunteer Sean
Dolan. He subsequently has to get his
leg amputated. O’Mara decides to call
off any further action and report back to 3rd Battalion HQ which is in the St
Andrews Catholic Club, 144 Brunswick St., Dublin.
However, alerted by a report from the Brunswick St DMP station, an Auxiliary patrol – consisting of two lorries and an armoured
car under DI Crang – decided to raid the St Andrews
Club. When they pull up in front of St
Andrews, a major gun battle ensues with fire on the Auxiliary lorries and
armoured car coming from 114 Brunswick St and from the IRA men still out on the
street. The Auxiliary reply including
bringing the Vickers machine gun, mounted on the armoured car, into action.
In the shooting that follows, two IRA men are killed (Leo Fitzgerald
from 173 Brunswick St. and Bernard O’Hanlon originally from Dundalk) and two
Auxiliaries (Cadet Bernard Beard from Staffordshire in England and Cadet
Francis Farrell or O'Farrell from Dublin). Four civilians were also
killed. They were David Kelly who lived
in 132 Brunswick St; Stephen Clarke who lived at 2 Rostrevor Terrace, Lr Grand
Canal St; Thomas Asquith who lived in 111 Brunswick St and Mary Frances Morgan
of 43 Queen’s Sq who died on April 11th from
a hip wound. (Kelly was the manager and sole employee of the Sinn Féin
Bank. For background on Kelly – see
Jun-16-20/1. After his death, the Sinn
Féin Bank went into decline – see Aug-18-21/3.)
In addition, two IRA men are captured.
They were Tom Traynor and Jack Donnolly with Donnolly being badly wounded. Traynor is court martialled
on April 4th – see Apr-04-21/1.
Abbott says that Donnelly was also court martialled after he recovered
from his wounds. He says that he was
found guilty and would have been hung but for the Truce. However, Carey says that two IRA men
were captured and the other (i.e. not Traynor) was
wounded and subsequently died. However, no
other source confirms this death.