Bloody Sunday
Introduction from Chronology
On this Sunday morning, the IRA kill 15 people in Dublin – they were
British undercover military intelligence agents, court-martial officers, two
Auxiliaries and two civilians. (Abbott says 18 were killed, Gleeson &
Hopkinson say 14 but differ in details and Townshend says 12 British officers
and two Auxiliaries were killed. The BA
itself listed 13. In the most definitive list, Leonard says 15 were killed – 14
died on the morning and one more died from wounds about three weeks later. O’Halpin and Ó Corráin agree with
Leonard.
On Sunday afternoon, in retaliation, Crown Forces shoot at a crowd in
Croke Park attending a Dublin vs Tipperary football match. They kill or
mortally wound 14 people and wound many more.
Dick McKee, Peadar Clancy and Conor Clune are killed in Dublin Castle by
Crown Forces later in the evening.
Four or five other people were also to die from gunshot wounds in Dublin
on this day.
In the period immediately after Bloody Sunday, the Castle Authorities
restore internment and give orders for the arrest of all leaders of the IRA.
Over the next week 500 arrests are made. BA soldiers are ordered to live in
barracks and three hotels are commandeered for this purpose.
More Detail
1. The Morning
Cathal Brugha (as Minister of Defence),
Michael Collins (in his role as IRA Director of Intelligence) and other members
of IRA GHQ were involved in the initial planning. Liam Tobin, Frank Thornton and the IRA
Intelligence Section put together information on the British spies and others –
a key informant was Lily Merlin who worked as a typist in the BA’s Irish
HQ. Thornton complied an initial list of
sixty. With the help of the IRA’s
Intelligence Section and Dick McKee, this list was trimmed to forty-five. The dossiers on these were passed to Cathal Brugha who whittled in down to thirty. According to Thornton “If even a shred of
doubt existed about a suspect’s guilt, his name was removed”. These thirty names were presented to a joint
meeting of the Dáil Cabinet and IRA Army Council who approved the thirty
names. It was then delegated to the
Dublin Brigade of the IRA with Sean Russell (O/C of 2nd Battalion)
doing the detailed planning. He
mobilised the Squad and over 100 volunteers – he set up temporary HQ at 6 or 19
North Richmond St., off the North Circular Road – home of Peter and Catherine
Byrne.
Members of the British forces killed on Bloody Sunday morning were:
- 28/29 Upper Pembroke St: Col Hugh Ferguson Montgomery, Maj
Charles M. Cholmeley Dowling and Capt
Leonard Price. Col Wilfred Woodcock, Capt Keenlyside and Lt Randolph
Murray are wounded but survive. This
raid is led by Capt Paddy Flanagan of C Company, 3rd
Battalion with 20 IRA men. Andy Cooney,
James Doyle and Joseph O’Carroll also took part. Charlie Dalton was the designated IRA
Intelligence officer.
- 38 Upper Mount St: Lt Peter Ashmun Ames and Lt George
Bennett. This raid is carried out by 12
IRA men led by Vinny Byrne of the Squad and Capt Tom
Ennis of E Company, 2nd Battalion. IRA Intelligence Officer Frank
Saurin is also involved. Byrne claims to
have shot both men. A BA despatch rider
(Private Snelling) knocks on the door when this operation in taking place – he
is placed under guard but subsequently released. When they were exiting the raiders were fired
on by Major Carew and Private Lawrence who were residing across the road in 28
Upper Mount St. Paddy Moran is subsequently charged with the killing of Lt Ames
– see Feb-15-21/1.
- 22 Lower Mount St: Lt Henry James Angliss (alias Paddy
McMahon). The raid is led by Tom Keogh
and Jim Slattery of the Squad with men from E Company, 2nd
Battalion. Lt Charles Peel was also
targeted but managed to escape by barricading himself in his room. This raid is interrupted when a passing
truckload of Auxiliaries is alerted to what is going on inside No. 22. The Auxiliary in charge orders two of his men
to go back to Beggar’s Bush for reinforcements and the remainder attempt to
rush the building but are kept back. The Auxiliaries enter No. 21 and fire on
the fleeing raiders. One of the raiders,
Frank Teeling, is wounded and captured.
Teeling is convicted of the murder of Angliss but he escapes from prison
– see Feb-14-21/1. For the fate of the two Auxiliaries sent back – see in 116
Northumberland Road below.
- 119 Lr Baggot St: Capt
Geoffrey Thomas Baggallay. This raid is led by Capt Thomas Burke of C Company, 2nd
Battalion. Sean Lemass and Patrick
McCrae took part in this raid. Baggallay tried to
escape through a window but he was shot before he would reach it. A number of men are arrested for this killing
but only Thomas Whelan is convicted – see Feb-01-21/3.
- 91 or 92 Lr Baggot St: Capt William
Frederick Newberry. This raid is led by
Joe Leonard in charge of five men from 2nd Battalion including William
or Jim Stapleton, Hugo MacNeill and Jack Stafford. Newberry tried to climb through the front
window but was shot dead as he did do.
His wife was in the room.
- Gresham Hotel, Sackville St: Capt
Patrick MacCormack and Lt Alan or Leonard Wilde. This raid is carried out by men from D
Company, 2nd Battalion under Capt Paddy
Moran. Intelligence officer Paddy
Kennedy also involved. Others involved were William Hogan, Nicholas Leonard and
James Cahill.
- 117 Morehamption
Rd: Capt Donald Lewis MacLean and Thomas Herbert Smith. This raid is carried out by 20 IRA men from
the 3rd Battalion under Capt Laurence
Nugent. An Auxiliary, John Caldow, is also badly wounded in this raid. MacLean was an
Intelligence Officer and Smith was his landlord. See also Sep-19-20/3.
- Garryard House, 28 Earlsfort Terrace: RIC Sgt John Joseph Fitzgerald. This raid is led by Lt Paddy Byrne of A
Company, 3rd Battalion with Kit Farrell and Mick Kennedy also taking
part. Fitzgerald was in Dublin
recovering from injuries he received from the IRA in Co. Clare. RIC Sgt Fitzgerald is excluded from some
lists but included by Abbott, Leonard and O’Halpin
& Ó Corráin.
Perhaps this was because the target was Colonel or Lieutenant-Colonel
Clement Patrick Fitzpatrick (who left Ireland five days later).
- 16 Northumberland Road: Temp Cadets Frank Garniss and Cecil
Augustus Morris. These were the two Auxiliaries sent back to Beggar’s Bush
barracks – see 22 Lr Mount St above.
They were captured by the IRA under Capt
Francis Casey of D Company, 3rd Battalion. Casey and his men had taken over 16
Northumberland Road to provide scouting support for their comrades who were on
operation. They were taken to the back
garden of No. 16 and shot dead.
All above die on the Sunday morning
except Montgomery who was dies from his wounds on December 9th or 10th.
Above list contains 15 men killed.
Leonard gives biographical details on
each of the men shot. She concludes that
six were British Intelligence Officers (Ames, Angliss, Bennett, Dowling,
MacLean and Price), two were court-martial officers (Baggallay
and Newberry), two were civilians (MacCormack and Herbert), two were
Auxiliaries (Garniss and Morris), one was on secondment from the Admiralty to
the Army (Montgomery), one was an RIC Sergeant (Fitzgerald) and one was
unclassifiable (Wilde). Leonard says
that Baggallay was a court martial officer but he was
reported to be involved in the killing of Aloysius Lynch – see Sep-23-20/1.
McMahon
says eight were part of the Special Branch of the BA’s Dublin District (see May-1920/4) or belonged to
Winter’s intelligence department (See May-1920/1).
Targets missed included:
- Lt Col Thomas J. Jennings and Maj
Callaghan (Eastwood Hotel, 91/92 Lr Lesson St).
This raid was led by Capt Christopher Byrne of
F Company, 4th Battalion. Padraig (Paddy) O’Connor was a member of
this raiding party. He says that they
were looking for a “British major and Intelligence officer”. O’Connor recalled “The manager gave them the
number of the room but said that the major hadn’t come into the hotel that
night. We went to the room and found it
empty” (O’Connor and Connolly (2011), pg 30). Others involved in this raid were Edward
‘Ned’ Bennett; Jimmy McGuinness and Joe McGuinness.
- Capt Jocelyn Lee Hardy and Capt ‘Tiny’ King (Harcourt St) – however both were in
Dublin Castle involved in the interrogation of McKee and Clancy among
others.
- Temp Cadet William Noble (7 Ranelagh
Rd). This raid was led by Capt Francis Xavier Coughlan with men from E Company, 4th
Battalion. Joe Dolan and Dan McDonnell from Intelligence also take part in this
raid – they search for paper and put the house on fire which is put out by
members of the raiding party. Todd
Andrews was a member of the raiding party. He was one of the group of IRA men
who went to shoot Captain Noble (which Andrews says was a nom de guerre) in 7 Ranelagh Road.
When they burst into Noble’s room, “We found the room empty except for a
half-naked woman who sat up in the bed looking terror stricken”. Most of the men who took part were from
Andrew’s company but two were from “Collins’s squad and their object was to get
hold of Noble’s papers”. According to
Andrews they behaved like Black and Tans.
“In their search for papers they overturned furniture, pushing the
occupants of the house around, and either through carelessness or malice set
fire to a room in which there were children” (Andrews (1979), pg 153). Andrews and
members of his company had to form a bucket chain to put out the fire.
- Capt John S. Crawford of the RASC (Upr Fitzwilliam St or Sq) – it
would seem that the target was a Major Callaghan but he was not in the house;
- Temp Cadet Capt
Frederick Harper-Stove (St Andrew’s or Central Hotel, Exchequer St). The hotel registrar refused to hand over the
register so this operation was abandoned;
- Maj William Lorraine King (Shelbourne
Hotel, 27 Stephen’s Green North) - this operation had to be abandoned when an
IRA man shot at his own reflection in a mirror;
- Colonel or Lieutenant Fitzpatrick – see
Garryard House, 28 Earlsfort Terrace above.
- Two assassinations planned for Phibsborough were abandoned;
Collins was disappointed with the
number of targets missed.
2. The Afternoon
A large force of mainly RIC (including Auxiliaries) arrive at Croke Park
in Dublin where a football game between Tipperary and Dublin was taking
place. Without provocation, they fire
into the crowd. The 14 people killed or mortally wounded in Croke Park by Crown
Forces were James Burke (44); Daniel Carroll (30); Michael Ferry (40); Thomas
Ryan (27); James Teehan (26); Joe Traynor (21); Michael Hogan (24, Captain of
the Tipperary team); Jane Boyle (26); Tom Hogan (19); James Matthews (38 or
48); Patrick O’Dowd (57); Jerome O’Leary (10); John William Scott (14); William
Robinson (11 or 14). Eleven died
straight away and three died over the coming days. About another 80 people were wounded. Only
one of the people killed (Hogan) was a member of the IRA – the other thirteen
were innocent civilians. (Naturally,
Hogan was unarmed as he was playing football at the time!)
Michael Foley has written a detailed book on Bloody Sunday, focussing on
the Croke Park killings called The
Bloodied Field – Croke Park. Sunday 21 November 1920. Also, there is a very good article by David
Leeson called “Death in the Afternoon: The Croke Park Massacre, 21 November
1920” in the April/May 2003 edition of the Canadian
Journal of History.
See also Kautt (2014), pgs
100-101
3. The Evening
Dick McKee and Peadar Clancy had been arrested on Saturday night in Sean
Fitzpatrick’s home in 36 Lr Gloucester St. McKee had been followed to
Gloucester St by John ‘Shankers’ Ryan.
McKee and Clancy were Commandant and Vice-Commandant of the
Dublin Brigade of the IRA respectively. (Townshend says that Clancy was
no longer V/C of Dublin Brigade as he had recently been made Director of
Munitions at IRA GHQ. He was replaced as
V/C by Oscar Traynor.)
Conor Clune, from Co Clare, had arrested in a raid on Vaughan’s Hotel in
Parnell Sq by members of F Company of the Auxies led by DI William ‘Tiny’ King and Capt Jocelyn Lee ‘Hoppy’ Hardy. It would seem that Clune had no IRA
connections – he was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
McKee, Clancy and Clune were killed in Dublin Castle after reports of
the IRA shootings came in. The Castle authorities issue a detailed statement
which says that the three men were killed when ‘trying to escape’. The Irish
Bulletin attacks the statement as a fabrication. There is a lot of
controversy over the extent to which the three men were tortured before they
were killed. However, it would seem that
there is little doubt that the story that they were killed when ‘trying to
escape’ was a fabrication.
For Ryan’s fate – see Feb-05-21/1.
(Liam Pilkington, O/C of the Sligo Brigade IRA was also captured on
Saturday night in Vaughan’s hotel but many others escaped just before the raid
took place.)
4. Further Deaths in Dublin on Bloody
Sunday
Leonard notes that four other people
die violently in Dublin on this day. Two
were civilians and were killed by Crown Forces, William Barnett and William
Cullinane (killed in Mountjoy Square and Lincoln Place respectively). Barnett was possibly killed in an attempted
robbery and Cullinane was shot by Auxiliaries after being told to run. (O’Halpin and Ó Corráin say that
Cullinane was shot on November 23rd.) The third was a
a British Army soldier, E. W. Powell, who (according
to Leonard) died in mysterious circumstances while O’Halpin
and Ó Corráin say it was an accidental shooting and
the fourth was an Auxiliary, Henry Spenle, who
committed suicide in Dublin Castle.
5.
Aftermath
According to Roskill, one of the results of the Sunday morning killings
“was something not short of panic in London, where attacks ‘by desperados’ on
government buildings, and even on the House of Commons, were expected
hourly”. This resulted in much greater
security around London. Barricades are
erected in Downing St and Great Charles St in London and 200 ex-officers are
enlisted “to roam armed and in plain clothes about the Houses of Parliament and
the Government offices”.
The “deeply conservative” RC Cardinal Logue of Armagh says about Bloody
Sunday “if a balance were struck between the deeds of the morning and those of
the evening, I believe that it should be given against the forces of the Crown”
(Townshend (2014), pg 272).
The London Times on November
22nd said “An army already perilously indisciplined
and a police force avowedly beyond control have defiled by heinous acts the
reputation of England” (Mitchell (1995), pg 216).
In the aftermath of Bloody Sunday, all officers’ wives and children were
sent to Britain (Kautt (204), pg
99).
The classic account of Bloody Sunday is James Gleeson’s Bloody Sunday first published in
1962.