The Torture and
Killing of the Loughnane Brothers
Setting
the scene – War of Independence in Galway
In
the December 1918 election, the four Galway constituencies returned the four
Sinn Féin candidates. One constituency,
Galway East, returned the Sinn Féin candidate unopposed and in the other three
constituencies the Sinn Féin candidates were returned with very substantial
majorities (Walker (1992), pg 7).
The Galway IRA were relatively late ‘into
the field’. They carried out attacks on
four RIC barracks in the first months of 1920 (Castlehacket
RIC barracks on January 12th – see Jan-12-20/1; Castlegrove RIC barracks on March 26th - Mar-26-20/3; Loughgeorge RIC barracks on
May 25th – see May-25-20/1 and Brookeen RIC
barracks on July 4th – see Jul-04-20/3). However, these attacks did not lead to any
casualties or the capture of any of the barracks (and, crucially from the point
of view of the IRA, they did not lead to the capture of any arms or
ammunition). According to McNamara, “The failure of these
early attacks precipitated a fundamental change in republican tactics” and the
Galway IRA started to focus its attacks on RIC patrols where they were “more
vulnerable than in their heavily fortified barracks” (McNamara (2018), pg 122).
The
first of these ambushes resulted in the first Crown Forces casualties in County
Galway. Two RIC constables (James Burke
and Patrick Carey) were killed in an ambush at Gallagh
Hill near Tuam on July 19th 1920 – see Jul-19-20/2. This ambush
resulted in a furious reprisal from the RIC and British Army on the town of Tuam with many homes and businesses destroyed, including
the Town Hall. The next ambush took place at Red Bridge near Oranmore on August
21st in which one RIC man (Constable Martin Foley) was killed - see Aug-21-20/3. Again, there were reprisals in the village of
Oranmore.
The
third ambush, which is highly relevant to the fate of the Loughnane
brothers, took place at Castledaly located between
villages of Kilchreest and Peterswell
in south County Galway on October 30th, 1920.
One RIC man was killed (Constable Timothy Horan) and the IRA captured a
number of rifles – see Oct-30-20/2. As had become the norm, there were reprisals
in the wake of the Castledaly ambush with a number of
houses in the vicinity burnt down by the RIC.
Castledaly was the first major engagement
conducted by the South Galway IRA – the barrack attacks and ambushes mentioned
above were the work of the North Mid and East Galway IRA. Due to the relevance of the Castledaly ambush to the Loughnane
brothers, it will be returned to below. (All four RIC constables killed in the
three ambushes mentioned were Irish born members of the RIC with an average of
12 years of service in the RIC (See Abbott (2000), pgs
103-104, 112 & 139)).
Even
before the Castledaly ambush, the pendulum was
beginning to swing away from the IRA. As
McNamara has stated “The first six months of 1920 gave rise to a false
confidence within the Galway Volunteers that the arrival of the Black and Tans
fundamentally shattered” (McNamara (2018), pg
158). From the summer of 1920 onwards,
RIC barracks in County Galway began to receive the newly recruited ‘Black and
Tans’ (i.e. British-born recruits to the RIC). More importantly for the Loughnane
brothers, County Galway received its first company of Auxiliaries, ‘D’ Company,
in September 1920. The main group of
Auxiliaries was based in Lenaboy Castle, in Taylor’s
Hill in Galway City. Some were stationed
in the Retreat in Salthill while others were stationed in Drumharsna
Castle near Ardrahan in south Co. Galway. The first commander of ‘D’ Company was Major
Arthur Patrick Nicol. In an article in
the Connaught Tribune on October 2nd,
Nicol writes “we are the auxiliary force, and act
independently. All our men are ex-officers and I hope gentlemen. I wish it to
be distinctly understood that we are not here to shoot people, but to restore
order. We are obliged to take certain steps to do this. The police were
practically confined to their barracks … until we came. Peaceable, law abiding citizens have nothing to fear from us.” (Lesson (2012), pgs 46-47). Nicol was later dismissed for
drunkenness on November 22nd (see Nov-22-20/8) and replaced by
Lieutenant Colonel F. H. W. Guard. The
section of Auxiliary ‘D’ Company in Drumharsna Castle
was commanded by Section Leader C. W. Owen (See https://www.theauxiliaries.com/companies/d-coy/d-coy-galway.html).
Assisted
by members of the ‘old RIC’ (i.e. members of the RIC
who had joined pre-1920 – the vast majority of whom were Irish born), these new
forces soon start extensive raiding of homes and making many arrests. The people of Galway City were to experience
their methods first hand after an altercation in the city’s railway station on
September 8th 1920 – see Sep-08-20/2. There are a number of accounts of what
happened in city’s railway station on this day (see Henry (2012), pgs 88-92) but what is clear is that it resulted in the
deaths of IRA Volunteer Sean Mulvoy and RIC man Edward Krumm. Following this incident, the RIC go on a
rampage throughout the city assaulting civilians, looting and smashing homes
and shops. An IRA Volunteer (Seamus
Quirke) is dragged from his lodgings and shot dead. Two other IRA Volunteers (Sean Broderick and
Joe Cummins) are also dragged from their beds and shot. They survive by
feigning death. The Crown Forces impose
a curfew and the arson of homes and businesses continues for the next two weeks
(McNamara (2018), pp. 144-145; Henry (2012), pgs 88-109;
Leeson (2012), pgs 45-46 & 163 & 195).
In
addition to these two IRA men killed in Galway City, over the next eleven weeks
(until the arrest of the Loughnane brothers on
November 26th), Crown Forces were to kill seven more people in Galway – all in
non-combat situations. These deaths
include one IRA man (Michael Moran – see Nov-24-20/6); one was a RC
priest (Fr. Michael Griffin – see Nov-14-20/1); four were male
civilians (Joseph Athy –see Sep-16-20/1; John O’Hanlon –
see Oct-02-20/1; Michael
Walsh – see Oct-19-20/5 and Thomas Egan – see Oct-24-20/2) and one was a
female civilian (Ellen Quinn – see Nov-01-20/5). The Auxiliaries have been implicated in all
but one of these seven killings. While
only one IRA had been killed by Crown Forces, three of the male civilians (Athy, O’Hanlon and Walsh) prominent republicans. This would indicate that the Crown Forces (at
this stage did not know – or could not capture – active IRA men. Their intelligence in this area was lacking.
As
noted above, in the period up until November 26th, the IRA in Galway had killed
five members of the RIC. They also
executed one civilian as a suspected informer (Patrick Joyce - see Oct-15-20/3).
Along
with these killings outlined above, the RIC, and in particular the Auxiliaries,
were carrying out many raids, beatings and floggings. For example, on October 9th, three brothers from
Maree, near Oranmore - Thomas, Stephen and Patrick Deveney
– are taken from their beds and dragged out into the road. All three are beaten and shot but
survive. Another man living nearby –
Albert Cloonan – is also dragged from his bed and
shot. On October 16th,
Auxiliaries enter the Feeney home in Corofin, Co.
Galway. The four sons in the house were
taken outside, two are stripped and flogged.
Another is hit on the head with a gun butt and beaten – all three are
then kicked while on the ground. Later
this night, a Corofin publican, John Raftery, is also
attacked. On October 21st,
Crown Forces arrive at the house of Roger Furey in
Gurran, Oranmore, Co. Galway. They take
his two sons outside for questioning – during which one of the sons, Michael,
is shot in the leg. Next
they raid the house of Roger Furey’s brother, Thomas Furey, where his three sons are questioned and beaten. Next they raid the
home of Martin King where they smash all the windows and beat up his two sons.
This
is background on what was happening in Galway in the lead up to the arrest of
the two Loughnane brothers on November 26th. It is also worth noting that, on the
national stage, the conflict was accelerating at this time. November 21st was ‘Bloody Sunday’
in Dublin and the following Sunday (November 28th) the Kilmichael ambush took place in Cork.
In the next section, details will be given on
what happened to the two brothers.
The Loughnane Brothers
On
Friday November 26th 1920, the Auxiliaries were raiding homes in south Galway
looking for wanted men. They called to
the home of Patrick and Harry Loughnane from Shanaglish near Gort and arrested
them. Patrick was a member of the local
IRA and Harry was the secretary of the local Sinn Féin club. The Auxiliary
company responsible for the arrest of the Loughnane
brothers were members of ‘D’ Company of the Auxiliaries stationed at Drumharsna Castle near Ardrahan.
The leader of the raiding party was Temporary Cadet C W Owen who, as noted above,
was Section Leader in charge of the Auxiliaries stationed at Drumharsna Castle.
Nine
days later (on December 5th), the bodies of two men were discovered in a
shallow pool at Owenbristy, about two miles from Ardrahan. The two
bodies were badly disfigured and partially burnt.
In the next sub-section,
the official British side of what happened will be given in the form of a
report on the Military Court of Inquiry into the deaths of the Loughnane brothers.
In the following sub-section, using a variety of sources, an attempt
will be made to give a fuller account of the arrest, detention and killing of
the Loughnane brothers. One of the key sources that will be used are
statements made to the Bureau of Military History (BMH). The BMH was formed in 1947 and over the next
ten years, (among other activities) it collected 1773 witness statements from
individuals who had been active in the period 1913 - 1921. These statements
were kept unavailable for a considerable period but were released to the public
in March 2003. All the BMH statements
are available at the http://www.militaryarchives.ie/collections/online-collections/bureau-of-military-history-1913-1921/. In the third
sub-section, the significance of the killing of the two brothers will be
reviewed.
Military
Court of Inquiry
Since early October 1920, under the
Restoration of Order in Ireland Act, Military Courts of Inquiry had replaced
the civilian Coroners Courts. A
Military Court of Inquiry was held on December 8th in Gort
RIC barracks with the purpose “of enquiring into the identity and cause of
death of two bodies found near ARDRAHAN said to be the bodies of Patrick and
Harry Loughnane”.
(A transcript of the Court of Inquiry is available at this website: https://www.theauxiliaries.com/INCIDENTS/loughnanebrothers/LoughnaneBrothers.html)
The Court of Inquiry heard from two
doctors who had examined the bodies. The first doctor (Dr Thomas Connolly) said
that he examined the bodies in Kinvara on December
5th and reported that both bodies were charred.
He said both skulls were extensively fractured with laceration of the
brain and said that one was completely unrecognisable while the other might be
identifiable. He also said that a
sister of the two brothers (Nora Loughnane) was
present when he was examining the bodies and that she identified one of the
bodies as her brother Harry. The second
doctor (Dr J Sandys) said that he had examined the bodies in Shanaglish Church on December 7th and also reported that
both bodies were charred. He said that the skull of the first body (said to be
Patrick Loughnane) was extensively fractured and part
of the skull was missing. The skull of
the second body (said to be Harry Loughnane) was also
extensively fractured but not as bad as the other – a portion of the face was
left. He also said that “The bodies were
so charred that all marks of identification were obliterated”. Both doctors were of the opinion that the
deceased were dead at least a week.
Nora Loughnane
(who was the sister of Patrick and Harry) also gave evidence. She said that after her brothers were
arrested, she had inquired about them in a number of locations such as
Eglington RIC barracks and the city gaol.
On December 4th, she said that she had gone to Lenaboy
Castle and interviewed the Commander of the Auxiliary Division. He told her that her brothers had escaped on
the night of November 26th and were “supposed to be running South”. She said that she went to a barn in Kinvara to view the two bodies on December 5th. She said both faces were black and burnt but
she recognised Harry as he still had his face from his mouth up (but that the
back of his skull was missing). The
skull of the other body was missing and she was only able to identify him as
her brother Patrick from the breadth of his shoulders and his stature.
Next to give evidence was Temporary Cadet
C. W. Owen. He said that he was in
charge of the Auxiliary party who arrested the two brothers on November
26th. They were taken to Drumharsna Castle (stopping at Gort
RIC barracks for “a few minutes” on the way) and they were placed in detention
under an armed guard. At 11.00pm that evening, Owen said that the sentry on
duty informed him that the two prisoners had escaped. He said that he launched a search for the two
escapees but could not find them. He
went on to say that he informed his Commanding Officer in Galway (Lieutenant
Colonel F. H. W. Guard) the next day who ordered him to continue the search.
The Inquiry then heard from Temporary
Cadet V. Laurensen (or Lawrensen). He said that he was the sentry guarding over
the two Loughnane prisoners on the night of November
26th. About 11.00pm, one of them asked to go out for the purpose of
nature. He said that he was distracted
by a noise in a nearby barn and went to investigate. On his return, both prisoners had
escaped. “I immediately reported the
matter to Section Leader Owen who organised a search party”
Lieutenant Colonel F. H. W. Guard told the
inquiry that he was informed by Temporary Cadet Owen on November 28th that the
two brothers had escaped and he ordered the detachment to return to the
district to try to recapture them.
Finally, there was also a short deposition
from Michael Loughnane (a young cousin of the Loughnane brothers) stating that he found the bodies of two
men in a pond about two miles north of Ardrahan on
Sunday December 4th and he went and reported it to Nora Loughnane. (In his deposition, Michael Loughnane stated Sunday December 4th but the December 4th
was a Saturday. The date the two bodies
were found was December 5th.)
The Court concluded that the two bodies
were those of Patrick and Harry Loughnane and that
the cause of death was extensive fracturing of the skull with lacerations to
the brain caused by means and persons unknown.
Arrest, Torture & Murder
In
Henry O’Mara’s BMH statement, he gives a detailed account of what happened to
the Loughnane brothers. O’Mara had been active in the East Clare
Brigade of the IRA during the War of Independence but, by the time he gave his
statement to the BMH in 1954, he was a Chief Superintendent in the Garda
Síochána. O’Mara full BMH statement refers only to what happened to the Loughnane brothers – this is unusual as in most BMH witness
statements the witnesses recounts their own involvement
in the struggle for independence.
(Henry O’Mara’s BMH statement is available here: http://www.militaryarchives.ie/collections/online-collections/bureau-of-military-history-1913-1921/reels/bmh/BMH.WS1652.pdf .)
O’Mara
pieces together what happened to the Loughnane
brothers from interviews he conducted with a number of people. His first interviewee was Robert Glynn who
talks about the arrest of the two brothers. Glynn tells him that he was working
with the Loughnane brothers on their farm in Shanaglish (along with his own brother and about fourteen
neighbours) when a lorry load of Auxiliaries arrived at around 3.00pm in the
afternoon of November 26th. Glynn says
that, when he saw them coming, he made a run for it and tried to escape. The
Auxiliaries opened fire on him but he got away uninjured. He says he went back later that night to the Loughnanes’ farm and met his brother (Pete Glynn) who told
him that, after he made his run for it, the Auxiliaries had lined them all up
against a wall and that a policeman who had been stationed in Tubber identified
the two Loughnane brothers and they were put in the
lorry and taken away. (Tubber is about three kilometers
from Shanaglish.) Robert Glynn also said that his
brother told him that, as the Loughnane brothers were
being taken away, one of the Auxiliaries said to Patrick Loughnane
“Bring with you the rifle you had at Castledaly”. This was a reference to the ambush which took
place at Castledaly on October 30th – see Oct-30-20/2. From what Patrick Glynn said, it would seem
that the Auxiliaries were looking for the Loughnane
brothers and that they, at least, suspected them of having taken part in the Castledaly ambush.
For
the next part of his statement, O’Mara interviewed Michael Carroll. Carroll said that he was arrested and taken
away on November 26th by the Auxiliaries from his home in Tubber between 4.00pm
and 5.00pm. He says that the Loughnane brothers were already under arrest in the
truck. Carroll says that both he and the
brothers were repeatedly beaten and badly treated as they were brought to the
RIC barracks in Gort. Carroll says that both he and
the Loughnane brothers were interrogated and badly
beaten in Gort RIC barracks. According to O’Mara
“Fourteen stalwarts [RIC men] stripped to singlets, trousers and rubber shoes
beat the Loughnanes for over an hour. A young R.I.C.
constable named Doherty, who knew them, interceded for them but without effect.
He told Pat and Harry that they would be murdered. Pat thanked him and turning
to Harry, said, "We'll say our rosary. Let
them."” (Pg 7 in O’Mara’s BMH statement).
After their beating, the Loughnane brothers
were handed back to Auxiliaries who took them to Drumharsna
Castle. (Carroll says he did not see the
Loughnanes again.
He himself was taken to Galway the next Monday and ended up being
interned in Ballykinlar camp for thirteen
months.)
The
next person to give information to O’Mara was Pat Linnane
who said that, he was going home with this mother on the evening of November
26th, when he saw two men being made run by the Auxiliaries in front of their
lorry until they were exhausted. The
Auxiliaries then tied the two prisoners to the back of their lorry with rope
and dragged them along the road. Linnane said that the two men were covered in blood but
still alive.
O’Mara
says that on the night of November 26th, the two brothers were
brought from Drumharsna Castle to the (nearby) Moy O’Hynes Wood and that four shots were fired there. He said that the following morning that the
two bodies were still in Moy O’Hynes Wood but, the
following night, the Auxiliaries came back and took the bodies to Owenbristy (about two kilometres away) where they tried to
burn and bury the bodies. They could not
bury them due to the shallowness of the soil so they threw them in a nearby
muddy pond. Unfortunately, O’Mara does
not say who was his source of this information.
Drumharsna Castle (Photo taken in 2109. According to Grant, a
large house stood next to the castle until it was demolished in the 1920s.)
O’Mara
goes on to say that on the night of November 29th, a party of Auxiliaries
called to the home of the Loughnane brothers and told
their mother that her two sons had escaped.
This news was received with a lot of foreboding. The brothers’ sister, Nora Loughnane (mentioned above as having given evidence before
the Court of Inquiry) came home and started looking for her brothers. She went to the British military, the RIC and
even went to talk to the commanding officer of ‘D’ company of the Auxiliaries,
Lieutenant Colonel Guard, at Lenaboy Castle in Galway
City but all to avail.
The
next part of O’Mara’s statement is somewhat strange but it has entered the
local folklore on the killing of the Loughnane
brothers. His informant for this element
of his statement was Michael Hynes. He
and his brother, Willie Hynes, were IRA Volunteers, originally from Kinvara but, at this point, they were on the run and living
in a tent at Boherbue. Michael Hynes says that Michael ‘Tally’ Loughnane (the young cousin of the Loughnanes
who was to make the brief deposition to the BA’s Military Court of Inquiry –
see above) came to them after mass on Sunday and told them that he had a dream
that he saw the bodies of his two cousins in a pond at Owenbristy. Michael Hynes said “I thought Tally was daft
but I told him to go have a look in the pond and then come back to us”. Michael Loughnane
came back to the Hynes brothers “in quick time” to tell them that there were
somethings that looked like burnt bodies in the pond. The two Hynes brothers returned to Owenbristy with Michael Loughnane
and confirmed that there were two bodies in the pond. (Strangely, in his own
BMH statement, Michael Hynes does not mention anything about Michael Loughnane. He simply
states that the brothers’ “naked bodies were found in a pond near Drinthasna Castle” -
see Page 8 in Michael Hynes’s BMH statement available at http://www.militaryarchives.ie/collections/online-collections/bureau-of-military-history-1913-1921/reels/bmh/BMH.WS1173.pdf. However, in is
probably worth noting that Hynes’s account of the killing of the Loughnane is quite brief.)
A
horse van was brought to the pond and the two bodies were brought to a barn
owned by the Hynes family near Kinvara. (They could not bring the bodies to their
home as their home had been burnt down by the RIC, including Auxiliaries, the
previous Monday – see page 7 of Michael Hynes’s BMH statement. A few nights after the funeral, the barn to
which the brothers’ bodies had been brought, was also burnt by the RIC – see
page 9 of Michael Hynes’s BMH statement.)
The
next part of O’Mara statement, as related to him by Michael Hynes, is: "Dr. Connolly examined the remains carefully. They were
badly burnt and what appears to be the letters 'I.V.' were cut in the charred
flesh in several places. Two of Harry's fingers were missing and his right arm,
broken completely across at the shoulder, was hanging off. Both Pat's wrists
and legs were broken. The doctor said that it looked to him that hand grenades
had been put into their mouths and exploded. I couldn't recognise either of
them.” Hynes also said that Nora Loughnane was present and identified the bodies.
The
bodies were put in coffins and the widely publicised photographs of the corpses
of the two Loughnane brothers in their coffins were
taken at Hynes’ barn. (The photographs accompany Eamon Healy’s article on the
killing of the Loughnane Brothers on the Beagh Roots Galway website.
The article is available here: http://beaghrootsgalway.weebly.com/blog/26-november-1920-murder-of-the-loughnane-brothers-of-shanaglish. The photographs were taken by Tomás Ó h-Eidhin.) The two
coffins were brought to Kinvara Church and the next
day they were brought to the church in Shanaglish. At their funeral mass on December 7th, Father
John Nagle, parish priest for Shanaglish, “told how
these two young men who, ten days before, had been, in mind and body, models of
what he would wish all young men to be, had been beaten, tortured, murdered and
how, when dead, their bodies had been burned and then thrown into a stagnant
pool”. After mass but before burial,
four RIC men, two military officers and a doctor arrived. The doctor carried out an examination of the
bodies. (This was obviously Dr. Sandys who was to give evidence to the Military Court
of Inquiry the next day. At the Military Court of Inquiry, Dr Sandys said that
he went to Shanaglish in the company of only one
officer, Lieutenant McCreery of the 17th Lancers. Lieutenant McCreery was to later to be killed
by the IRA at the Ballyturin ambush – see May-15-21/6.) At 3.00pm, the two brothers were buried
side-by-side. O’Mara says that after
the burial, a volley of shots was fired over the graves of the two brothers by
six local IRA Volunteers.
O’Mara
next recounts what happened at the Military Court of Inquiry which was carried
out in Gort the following day – see above. He finishes his statement with the following:
“It was those sufferings that made our country's history. The details of the
events of this century should, therefore, be recorded while eye and ear
witnesses still live. It’s for the purpose "of the record" then that
this article has been written. God forbid that our intention in writing such
should be to foster hatred or stir up strife. For, whilst asserting boldly that
the past is for remembrance and pride, and whilst we know only too well that no
small nation has suffered more at the hands of a brutal tyrant than has
Ireland, we gladly grant that we always had good friends even amongst
non-Catholic English statesmen; such as Drummond, Wyndham, Kenworthy”.
Other
BMH statements add some more detail to O’Mara statement. For example, Daniel
Ryan in his BMH statement says that he was one of the party who fired the
volley of shots over the graves of the Loughnane
brothers along with Joseph Stanford, Patrick Glynn and John Coen (Page 11 of
Daniel Ryan’s BMH statement available at: www.militaryarchives.ie/collections/online-collections/bureau-of-military-history-1913-1921/reels/bmh/BMH.WS1007.pdf ) He names only four
in the firing party rather than the six mentioned by O’Mara. Patrick Glynn gives the same four names as
the members of the firing party (Page 12 of Patrick Glynn’s BMH statement available at:
www.militaryarchives.ie/collections/online-collections/bureau-of-military-history-1913-1921/reels/bmh/BMH.WS1033.pdf )
Interestingly,
both Ryan and Glynn give a list of the participants in the Castledaly
ambush. Both include Patrick Loughnane as a participant but neither mention Harry Loughnane as being there.
Michael Reilly in his BMH also mentioned that Patrick Loughnane took part in the Castledaly
ambush but, again, Harry Loughnane was not mentioned
(Page 10 of Michael Reilly’s BMH
statement available at: http://www.militaryarchives.ie/collections/online-collections/bureau-of-military-history-1913-1921/reels/bmh/BMH.WS1358.pdf ). While some sources have claimed that both
brothers took part in the Castledaly ambush (for
example, see McNamara (2018), p. 152 and O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 238) on the basis
of the BMH statements, it can be stated with a high degree of certainty that
Patrick took part in the Castledaly ambush but Harry
did not. In fact, it is not certain that Harry was even a member of the
IRA. In the family memoir kept by Nora Loughnane, it is stated that “Pat[rick
Loughnane] was President of the local Sinn Féin club,
in the IRA also”. However, with regards
to Harry, she says that he was “Gentle and retiring he was to have been a
teacher but his health broke down and he farmed” (O’Malley and Ó Comhraí (2013), pg 286). In other words, Nora does not mention Harry
being in the IRA but she does say that Pat was a member.
(It
should also be noted that, in the report of the activities of the South West
Galway Brigade of the IRA prepared for the Military Services Pension Board in
the 1930s, the names of forty-eight IRA men who were present at the Castledaly ambush are given. However, the names of neither Patrick or
Harry Loughnane are on this list – see Page 10a of
the report of South West Galway Brigade available at http://mspcsearch.militaryarchives.ie/docs/files//PDF_Membership/7/A21_1%202%20Brigade%201%20Western%20Division.pdf .)
Joseph
Stanford in his BMH statement says that it was an IRA search party that found
the bodies of the Loughnane brothers rather than
young Michael ‘Taffy’ Loughnane (Page 31 of Joseph Stanford’s BMH statement
available at: http://www.militaryarchives.ie/collections/online-collections/bureau-of-military-history-1913-1921/reels/bmh/BMH.WS1334.pdf .)
Another BMH statement devoted exclusively to
the Loughnane brothers was written by Pádraig Ó Fathaigh from Ardrahan. (Pádraig
Ó Fathaigh’s BMH statement is available at: www.militaryarchives.ie/collections/online-collections/bureau-of-military-history-1913-1921/reels/bmh/BMH.WS1517.pdf ) Like O’Mara, Ó Fathaigh
was active in the IRA during this period but, also like O’Mara, in his BMH
statement he wrote exclusively about the
Loughnane brothers.
(That two active members of the IRA dedicated their BMH statements to
the details of what happened to the Loughnane
brothers gives some indication of the effect that their killing had on their
comrades.) Unfortunately, unlike O’Mara,
Ó Fathaigh does not say where he got his information
or who he interviewed. However,
fortunately, Ó Fathaigh’s statement only differs in
small, and not significant, ways from that of O’Mara’s. He does, however, give some more detail on
the injuries suffered by the brothers.
Describing Harry’s body, he says “His once graceful figure was a mass of
unsightly scars and gashes; two of his fingers were lopped off; his right arm
was broken at the shoulder, being almost completely severed from the body; whilst
of the face nothing remained save the chin and lips, and the skull was entirely
blown away. The remains were badly charred”.
Turning to Patrick, he says that his “body was not charred to the same
extent as his brother's. His back and shoulders remained intact. The limbs of
both were charred to such an extent that the bones were exposed, the flesh and
sinews being completely burned away. Mock decorations in form of diamonds were
cut along Pat's ribs and chest, both his wrists were broken and also his right
arm above the elbow. Patrick's face was completely lashed away, so as to be
unrecognisable, and his skull was very much fractured” (Page 4 of Pádraig Ó Fathaigh’s BMH statement).
Ó Fathaigh does say that in the raid on the Loughnane farm, the Auxiliaries were led by a Scotchman
called John Francis Ulic Burke. However, David Grant believes that Burke was
in Galway jail at the time of the Loughnane murders - see https://www.theauxiliaries.com/men-alphabetical/men-b/burke-tf/burke.html
Along
with his BMH statement, Ó Fathaigh also wrote a
memoir (Ó Fathaigh (2000)). In his memoir, he gives only a short account
of the killing of the Loughnane brothers - again with
only minor differences from O’Mara’s and his own BMH statements. However, in his memoir, he does mention an
incident preceding the arrest of the brothers which will be returned to below.
Finally, Ernie O’Malley
has an account of the killing of the Loughnane
brothers based on information held in a family notebook, kept by Nora Loughnane, which he transcribed in a visit to the home of
the Loughnane brothers around 1950 – see O’Malley and
Ó Comhraí (2013), pgs
285-293. The detail of the account is
largely in line with O’Mara’s account but, as would be expected in a family
account, it has a lot more pathos.
Significance
of the Loughnane Killings
Why
did the killings of the two Loughnane brothers gain
such significance beyond Galway? It is
not the fact that two young republicans were arrested and killed. Indeed, a lot of other young Irish
republicans were arrested and killed around this time (see above for some
examples in Galway and see chronology for many more). What is significant is
the wide-spread publicity which the killing of the two brothers received. The amount of publicity can undoubtedly be
put down, in large part, to the gruesome photographs taken outside Hynes’ barn
of the corpses of the two young men.
These
photos indicate that the brothers were possibly subjected to brutal torture
during their captivity. Care has to be
exercised due to the much more restrained account of the injuries on the two
bodies given by the two doctors at the Military Court of Inquiry compared to
much lengthier and gruesome account of the injuries on the recovered bodies
given in the O’Mara and Ó Fathaigh accounts. Also, there was obviously attempts to burn
the bodies and some of the injuries could have happened at that time. However, there is evidence of the brothers
being tortured and injured while still alive, especially the evidence of
Michael Carroll and Pat Linnane (given in O’Mara’s
BMH statement above). Carroll’s evidence
suggests that the brothers were badly beaten in the RIC barracks in Gort (in revenge for the killing of Constable Horan at Castledaly less than four weeks earlier?). Linnane’s evidence
indicates that the two brothers were dragged behind a lorry which could have
caused quite a number of the injuries described by O’Mara and Ó Fathaigh (specifically, Harry’s “right arm was broken at
the shoulder, being almost completely severed from the body” and with regard to
Patrick “both his wrists were broken and also his right arm above the
elbow”). Examination of the photographs
produces evidence consistent with the type of injuries described. These injuries could have been inflicted
after the brothers were already dead – especially when attempts were being made
to burn the bodies. However, what is not
in doubt is that it was generally believed locally that the brothers were
brutally beaten and tortured by the RIC, especially the Auxiliaries, before
they were killed.
There
is another reason for the killing of the Loughnane
brothers receiving so much publicity. In
most of the other killings in which the Auxiliaries were implicated, they had
either ‘plausible deniability’ or an excuse.
For example, Joseph Athy was killed by a
volley of shots fired from behind bushes.
Witnesses saw gunmen in army fatigues fleeing the scene but the Crown
Forces could plausibly claim that it was not them. (Henry (2012), pgs
114-115; McNamara (2018), pgs 148-149). In the case of Michael Moran, the Auxiliaries
admitted killing him but told the Military Court of Inquiry that he was shot
‘trying to escape’ (Lesson (2012), pgs 52-53,
McNamara (2018), pg 152). In the case of Ellen Quinn, who was shot dead
by Auxiliaries as she sat on the front wall of the garden of her home cradling
her baby, the Military Court of Inquiry returned a verdict of death by
misadventure i.e. an accident (McNamara (2018),pg
147, Henry (2012), pgs 126-127 – See also https://www.theauxiliaries.com/companies/d-coy/d-coy-galway.html).
In
the equally notorious case of Fr Michael Griffin, he was called out on a bogus
sick call so was not seen to be arrested by the Auxiliaries (See McNamara
(2018), pg 146, Leeson (2012), pg
52 – See also https://www.theauxiliaries.com/INCIDENTS/griffin-murder/father-griffin.html). So, in this case, the Auxiliaries could claim
that ‘it was nothing to do with us’. However, not long after he resigned, the
Auxiliaries’ commanding officer, Brigadier General Crozier, in a press
interview, said he believed the Auxiliaries killed Fr Griffin (See Daily News, 24th May 1921, pg 1).
The
case of Michael Walsh was an exception.
He was arrested by the RIC in his pub and grocery (The Old Malt House on
High St in Galway City). A young
assistant was present and saw him being taken away. Walsh was taken to the Long Walk (near
Spanish Arch), shot in the head and his body was thrown over the quay wall into
Galway Bay. As McNamara has noted “the
public nature of [Walsh’s] execution was particularly shocking” (McNamara
(2018), pg 149).
Because
there were numerous witnesses to the Auxiliaries arresting the Loughnane brothers, the Auxiliaries could not say that the
brothers had not been in their custody.
Their evidence to the Military Court of Inquiry that the two brothers
had escaped is highly suspect, especially, as not even the Auxiliaries put
forward any plausible explanation of who could have killed them in so gruesome
a manner after they had ‘escaped’. What
made the Auxiliaries’ story about the two brothers escaping particularly
unbelievable was that both doctors, at the Military Court of Inquiry, said that
the brothers were dead about a week when they carried out their examinations,
that is, they would have died by November 30th at the latest which would have
been within a few days of their ‘escape’.
So, according to the Auxiliaries, they not only escaped but, within a
few days, had fallen into the hands of some mysterious ‘others’ who brutally
put them to death. (It is not known why
the Auxiliaries did not employ their standard ‘shot trying to escape’ excuse in
the case of the Loughnane brothers – perhaps because
they were already badly mutilated by the time they got
to Drumharsna Castle and their injuries would have to
been explained at an inquest?) In
summary, the Auxiliaries evidence that the brothers had escaped and, by their
own logic, were subsequently brutally murdered soon after by some mysterious
‘others’ is simply not plausible.
Memorial to the Loughnane Brothers at Moy O Hynes Wood on the road between Kinvara to Ardrahan
Why were the Loughnane Brothers So Badly Treated?
After
the killing of the two brothers, three explanations emerged which attempted to
explain why the Loughnane brothers were so badly
treated. In this section, the reasons
put forward for the targeting of the Loughnane
brothers will be reviewed. In his online
essay (See http://beaghrootsgalway.weebly.com/blog/26-november-1920-murder-of-the-loughnane-brothers-of-shanaglish) , Eamon Healy
puts forward these three possible reasons:
- The Castledaly Ambush
- Hostage Dempsey and
- John and William Carr
The Castledaly Ambush
As
noted above, it can be stated with a high degree of certainty that Patrick Loughnane took part in Castledaly
ambush. So the
killings of the Loughnane brothers could have been
‘score settling’ by the Crown Forces.
Also, as noted, above, O’Mara reported, when he was being arrested, one
of the Auxiliaries said to Patrick Loughnane “Bring
with you the rifle you had at Castledaly”.
It
is also clear from BMH statements of a number of participants in the Castledaly ambush went ‘on the run’ after the ambush, i.e. they no longer stayed at home. Obviously, Patrick Loughnane
had not gone ‘on the run’. How would the
Crown Forces have found out that Patrick Loughnane
had taken part in the Castledaly ambush? One possible source is given in Michael
Reilly’s BMH statement. He said the
following: “One of the brothers - Patrick - was a Lieutenant in Beagh Company and had taken part in the attack on the
R.I.C. at Castledaly. I remember that instead of
waiting for darkness he went straight home to Beagh
Company area in broad daylight. Many people thought he was seen going home from
the ambush and that the R.I.C. got to hear of it. This is one explanation of
why he and his brother were so brutally murdered. If it is correct that the
R.I.C. learned that he took part in the attack on them at Castledaly
it is very likely that he and his brother were tortured by the R.I.C. in an
endeavour to get from them the names of the other officers and Volunteers who
took part.” Pgs 10-11 of Michael Reilly’s BMH
statement available at http://www.militaryarchives.ie/collections/online-collections/bureau-of-military-history-1913-1921/reels/bmh/BMH.WS1358.pdf .) This quote
from Reilly gives both how the RIC could have found out that Patrick Loughnane had taken part in the Castledaly
ambush and also gives a reason for his torture.
However,
this explanation has two slight drawbacks.
First, if the Crown Forces had got information linking Patrick Loughnane to the Castledaly
ambush (especially through, as Reilly implies, by Patrick being seen walking
away from the ambush site ‘in broad daylight’), why did they also arrest Harry Loughnane? Second,
there is a problem from an Auxiliary perspective from
torturing and killing prisoners while in their custody. Naturally, there will be follow-up questions
as to what happened to those arrested and they have to come up with a plausible
story. (They did not give themselves
this problem with Athy and Moran. As has been seen above, Athy
was shot dead by unknown gunmen while Moran was shot ‘while trying to
escape’.) So, from an Auxiliary
point of view (even allowing that they were fairly ‘new to the job’), arresting
and detaining two suspects with many witnesses to the arrests, torturing them,
killing them and then making a mess of disposing of the bodies demonstrates, at
a minimum, rank amateurism. Alternatively, perhaps the culture within which
they were working gave them a sense of total impunity. This issue will be
returned to under Conclusions below.
Despite
these two caveats, Reilly’s BMH statement does give a plausible explanation for
the arrest, torture and killing of Patrick Loughnane.
Prisoner
Dempsey
This
explanation arises from part of Patrick Glynn’s BMH statement in which he says:
“In November, 1920, Derrybrien Company officers Jolt
Burke, Patrick Walsh and Michael Slattery handed over a prisoner to our
Company. … The Derrybrien Company Officers when
handing over the prisoner told me he was an R.I.C. man named Dempsey who was
home on holidays in his native village of Aughrim, a
few miles from Ballinasloe. … We handed him over to Lieutenant Daniel Ryan and
Volunteer Michael Reilly. They conveyed
him to Ashfield House, Shanaglish, in Beagh Company area. Volunteers Patrick Loughnan and
Lawrence Mannion (both deceased) took charge of the prisoner there. I do not
know how long he was a prisoner under escort by Volunteers Loughnan and
Mannion, but while under their charge orders came for his release. After his
release he went into the town of Gort. It is
significant that shortly after the prisoner's release, R.I.C. and Auxiliaries
surrounded the home of Volunteer Loughnan and arrested him and his brother
Henry (sic). It seems to me that it is possible and maybe probable that the
released R.I.C. man, Dempsey, gave a description of Lieutenant Patrick Loughnan
that led to the arrest and later to the brutal murder of the two brothers by
the R.I.C.” (Pages 11-12 of Patrick Glynn’s BMH statement available at: http://www.militaryarchives.ie/collections/online-collections/bureau-of-military-history-1913-1921/reels/bmh/BMH.WS1033.pdf .) Like Reilly, Glynn gives a reason why Loughnane could have been pinpointed by the RIC. Not mentioned by Glynn but there may, in his
words, be a reason why Harry was arrested.
It is possible that the RIC thought that Patrick Loughnane’s
companion (Lawrence Mannion) in the holding of Dempsey could have been Harry Loughnane.
However,
while Glynn gives an explanation for the Loughnane
brothers being arrested, he does not give a reason for their
ill-treatment. There is no mention in
Glynn’s statement of Dempsey being ill-treated so revenge is not an obvious
motive. Also, Michael Carroll, who was
arrested along with the Loughnane brothers (see
above), makes no mention of Dempsey being in the RIC barracks in Gort.
John
and William Carr
This
is the theory which has got most widespread coverage. Thomas McInerny was a leader of the IRA in
the Gort area at the time of the arrest of the Loughnane Brothers.
(He led the Castledaly ambush.) In his BMH statement, he said the following
“Patrick Loughnan belonged to Beagh Company. … He was one of the men I selected in the Beagh Company area and swore into the I.R.B. Under my
orders he raided the house of John Carr, Tierneevan, Gort, for an
automatic pistol which I knew Carr had in his
possession. Carr was an ex-R.I.C. man. Patrick
Loughnan had a surprisingly weak voice for so big a man. He was masked when
raiding for the gun but the Carr family took note of
his voice. John Carr's son William joined the Black
and Tans shortly after the raid and when Patrick Loughnan and his brother Henry
were arrested by the Black and Tans, William Carr was
with them. I am of opinion that William Carr was in
the house when it was raided for the automatic and that when the brothers were arrested he recognised Patrick's voice. Patrick Loughnan and
his brother Henry were brutally murdered by the Tans and the whole area was
shocked by the news” (Thomas McInerney BMH statement,
pgs. 8-9 available at: http://www.militaryarchives.ie/collections/online-collections/bureau-of-military-history-1913-1921/reels/bmh/BMH.WS1150.pdf .). Could this be the reason why the Loughnane brothers were subjected to such brutal
treatment? Was a son revenging what he
took as an insult to his father and family?
The answer is possibly but unlikely. There are two reasons for giving this
answer. First, John Carr
died on July 11th 1919. (He
had been involved in an altercation with a young neighbour outside Tierneevan church on June 29th in which he
received a blow to the head from a hurley.
The wound became sceptic and he died from “pneumonia following
erysipelas caused by a scalp wound” (This was the verdict of the inquest
according to the death certificate - See https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/deaths_returns/deaths_1919/05142/4416681.pdf and Connaught
Tribune July 19th, 1919, page 2). The altercation arose from an inter-family
matter and was not related to politics (See Connaught
Tribune July 26th, 1919, page 5). Therefore, if an arms
raid as described by McInerney took place then it
would have to have taken place before July 1919. However, in none of the BMH statements
mentioned above are there any mentions of raids for arms in this early
period. Even in ‘active’ areas like Cork
and Tipperary, raids for arms would have been fairly rare in the early months
of 1919. The raid could have taken place
as an early “one-off” but this is unlikely.
Second, John Carr’s son (William Carr) did join the Auxiliaries but he did not join ‘shortly
after the raid’. He joined some fourteen
months after his father died (See https://www.theauxiliaries.com/men-alphabetical/men-c/carr-w/carr-w.html - This is the entry for William Carr from David Grant’s website on the Auxiliaries. According to this website, 9.6% of the
Auxiliaries were Irish born. At the time
of his father’s death, William Carr was a junior
officer in the British Army.)
However,
could William Carr still have been involved in the
murder of the Loughnane brothers even if not for the
reasons given by McInerney? In his memoir, Pádraig Ó Fathaigh
says the following: “In hand to hand struggle with the
local IRA captain outside Tirneevin church, an ex-RIC
sergeant was killed. The ex-sergeant’s
son an auxiliary captain came home & went round with a hurley in his hand
with the intention of killing the IRA captain as his father had been
killed. Hearing about this, Pat Loughnane the Beaghe capt. asked his lieutenant Palkey
Neilan to accompany him to meet the Auxiliary capt. As the Black
& Tan came along on his usual stroll Palkey Neilan jumped on him & held his hands whilst Pat Loughnane took his revolver. They then marched him back to his house and
ordered him to yield up all the arms and ammunition that he held.” (Ó Fathaigh (2000), pp. 63-64).
Leaving
aside that Ó Fathaigh was not correct about the
ex-RIC sergeant being killed in a “hand to hand struggle with the local IRA
captain outside Tirneevin church”, could he be
correct that Patrick Loughnane and his companion
disarmed William Carr, possibly in the period before Carr joined the Auxiliaries in late August 1920? (As an
ex-officer in the British Army, it is likely that Carr
would have brought personal arms back home with him.) This could well have given William Carr a motive for personal revenge on Patrick Loughnane. Also, it
is known that not only did William Carr join the
Auxiliaries in August 1920 but also that he was a member of ‘D’ Company.
Despite
this possibility, a number of questions remain unanswered. One, while it is known that William Carr was an Auxiliary in ‘D’ Company, there does not seem
to be any evidence from the various witnesses to link him to the Auxiliary
raiding party which arrested the Loughnane brothers
or even that he was stationed at Drumharsna
castle. This is odd given that his
family was living in the area and therefore, one would have thought, that he
would have been recognised by local people.
(Tierneevan and Drumharsna
are about eight or nine kilometres apart.)
Two, other than these two references in the McInerney
BMH statement and in Ó Fathaigh’s memoirs, there does
not seem to be any contemporaneous references to link William Carr and the killing of the Loughnane
brothers. (Both McInerney’s
BMH statement and the Ó Fathaigh’s memoir would have
been written many years after the event.)
Three, as William Carr would have known the
area well, it is likely that he could have identified Patrick Loughnane as his assailant.
But why was he not able to use his local knowledge to identify Palkey Neilan and why was Harry Loughnane wrongly identified? Finally, the Loughnanes
fellow IRA men were, in the coming months, to prove their mettle in
combat. For example, all four IRA men
who fired the three volleys of shots over the graves of the Loughnane
brothers were centrally involved in the Ballyturin
ambush outside Gort in May 1921. In this ambush, two British Army officers, a
District Inspector of the RIC and the wife of the District Inspector were
killed by the IRA (See May-15-21/6). It would seem likely that, if a local man was
involved in the torture and death of the two brothers, this would have become
known in the district and that further action would have been taken by his
comrades. Therefore, without further
information, it is not possible to say if William Carr
was involved in the killing of the Loughnane
brothers. However, on the evidence
available to date, it would seem that it was a connection made at a later
time.
To
summarise this section, while the Dempsey and Carr
theories cannot be discounted, with current evidence, it would seem that the
most likely explanation for the arrest of the Loughnane
brothers was that given by Martin Reilly.
Patrick Loughnane could have been seen coming
from the Castledaly ambush and this information was
passed to the RIC. (As noted above, in
O’Mara’s BMH statement, it says “a policeman who had been stationed in Tubber
identified the two Loughnane brothers” just before
their arrest.)
Conclusions
Martin
Reilly’s statement gives a good explanation for the arrest of the brothers or,
at least, the arrest of Patrick Loughnane. Reilly may
also be correct that the Loughnane brothers were
“tortured by the R.I.C. in an endeavour to get from them the names of the other
officers and Volunteers who took part [in the Castledaly
ambush]”. The Auxiliaries (and local
RIC) may not have had a lot of information on who took part in the Castledaly ambush. (As noted above, their intelligence on
active IRA men would not seem to have been well developed.) Patrick Loughnane may have been seen as their best ‘lead’ and they
could have been determined to get as much information from him as
possible. However, as noted, the
Auxiliaries behaved in a very ‘amateurish’ fashion in that they did not give
themselves much by way of a ‘plausible explanation’ for when the bodies of the
brothers were found. The explanation as
to why they were so unconcerned at being ‘found out’ may come from looking at
the killing of the two brothers in a slightly wider context.
Making
a general comment on the Auxiliaries, Townshend said “the quality of A. D. R.
I. C [Auxiliary Division of the Royal Irish Constabulary] companies depended on
the character of their officers. Some
became first-class fighting (if not police) units, but many succumbed to
drunkenness and gained a reputation as perpetrators of the most calculated and
destructive reprisals (Townshend (1975), pgs
111-112).
As
noted, the first commander of D Company of the Auxiliaries was Major Arthur
Patrick Nicol. As outlined above, under
his command, D Company engaged in shootings, killings, floggings, burnings,
etc. However, as also noted above, he
was dismissed by the Commander of the Auxiliaries, Brigadier General Crozier,
for drunkenness and replaced by Lieutenant Colonel F. H. W. Guard who took over
D Company on November 30th
1920 – see https://www.theauxiliaries.com/companies/d-coy/d-coy-galway.html . The date is significant – it occurred just
four days after the Loughnane brothers were
arrested. According to Leeson, after
his appointment “Guard seems to have put a stop to his men’s worst excesses: at
the very least, there were far fewer reports of people being whipped, wounded
with shotguns, and forced to crawl after Guard took command” (Leeson (2012), pg 52).
Leeson’s
statement is nuanced. All he is claiming
is that Guard stopped the “worst excesses” of his men. During Guard’s command of D Company from late
November 1920 until late February 1921 (when he was promoted to second-in-command
of the Auxiliaries), Crown Forces were responsible for the killing of, at
least, six men in Galway (see Dec-20-20/3; Jan-18 to 22-21/1 and Feb-20-21/4). Nearly all were
killed ‘trying to escape’. Along with
the killings, other forms of RIC (and, in particular, Auxiliary) harassment
continued in Galway. For example, on February 13th 1921, Auxiliaries
entered Bridget Quinn’s home near Kinvara. They took seven men outside, stripped them
and flogged them. They then burnt the Quinn’s home – see Feb-13-21/2. (The IRA were
responsible for no killings during this period.
However, the killings were to increase markedly from both sides in the
final months of the conflict from early March up until the Truce on July 11th
1921.)
In
other words, what Guard did was to curb the “worst excesses” of the men of D
Company. Under his watch, there were no
more ‘high profile’ killings like those of Michael Walsh, Father Michael
Griffin, Ellen Quinn and the Loughnane brothers. When people were killed in his time, there
were excuses (mainly ‘shot trying to escape’) or plausible deniability (‘it
wasn’t us’). What emerges is a picture
that, under Nicol, members of D Company felt they operated under near complete
impunity.
It
would seem that, under Nicol, the men of D Company felt that they could get
away with anything – including ‘cold blooded murder’. Their actions after they tortured and killed
the Loughnanes demonstrate their complete lack of
concern with getting caught. They would have seemed to be impervious to any
negative consequences from their actions. (They did not even take the bodies a
reasonable distance from Drumharsna like the
Auxiliaries who killed Father Griffin.
His body was buried in a bog at Cloughscoilta
near Barna village about eight kilometres from their
base in Lenaboy Castle where, reportedly, he was
shot.) If the brothers were arrested
after Guard took control, it is likely that they would have been shot ‘trying
to escape’ like many other detainees in this period or, if they were tortured
in an attempt to get them to divulge information, then it is likely that they
would have been subsequently detained rather than killed (like, for example,
Tom Hales and Pat Harte – see Jul-27-20/4).
In conclusion, it would seem that it was the extreme bad luck of the Loughnane brothers that they were arrested before Guard
could curb the ‘worst excesses’ of his men. In particular, before he could curb
their sense of impunity. However, even after Guard took over D Company, the
killing by members of this company of Auxiliaries continued.
Inscription on the
Memorial to the Loughnane Brothers
(Note:
It would appear that Harry Loughnane was
baptised as Henry (Enri in Irish) but always called Harry.)
Bibliography
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Abbott, Richard (2000) Police Casualties in Ireland 1919-1922 (Cork:
Mercier Press)
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William (2012), Blood for Blood – The
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