D'Alton-Hannon Wedding
September, 1916
by Ruairi Lynch
(with contributions from Tom Humphreys, Gearoid Mac Humfraidh & Freddie O'Dwyer)
last updated: Saturday 22 August 2020. Research ongoing.
Completed in September 1916, this poem was privately printed by Clement Shorter in 1917 but Yeats feared its publication would have a detrimental effect on other projects, such as the pursuit of the Lane pictures. He was even told that his apparently pro-German stance might jeopardise his Civil List pension.
'Easter, 1916' was published for the first time in the New Statesman on 23 October 1920. It was later included, along with all the other 1916 poems, in his collection Michael Robartes and the Dancer, published in 1921. The poem, told in a direct and personal style, expressed WBY's mixture of admiration and dismay at the Rising, and made use of his typical antinomies especially in the much-quoted line 'A terrible beauty is born'. Full text of 'Easter 1916' here. |
In September 1916, just a few days before this wedding group assembled in a Dublin suburban garden, W.B.Yeats completed his poem "Easter 1916". (opposite)
In this work, Yeats reflects his and much of the Irish populations torn & raw emotions regarding the events of the Easter Rising against British rule a few months earlier. The Rising's failure and the subsequent execution of the Irish republican leaders, followed by the mass arrests of 3,430 men and 79 women across Ireland, their detention, deportation by cattle boat and internment without trial resulted in the opposite effect to that intended - a re-invigoration of the Irish Republican movement rather than its dissipation and leading to eventual independence. With the World war raging unabated in Europe, 2,085 Irishmen still imprisoned in various prisons throughout Britain following the Rising and the issue of conscription looming in Ireland, this gathering shows the diverse nature of Ireland at the time. This formal wedding photograph features two Irish families that certainly & fairly represented the period of post 1916 Rising Ireland and all were to be dramatically affected by the future events of 1917-24. This moment in time captured family members with known diverse political affiliations and opinions. Some were the apolitical but culturally aware, others the self-declared Constitutional Nationalists who had supported the Irish Parliamentary Party of Parnell and Redmond in the push for Irish Home Rule and later participation in the World War. Then there are the newly emerging younger generation, on the cusp of becoming prominent participants and leaders of Irish Militant Nationalism, recognising that independence through constitutionalism had failed and that perhaps the only route remaining to freedom was through armed revolution. Let's not forget the extended family members from quite different backgrounds, who through marriage, became directly involved in the popular movement, some participating first-hand in events to come. Nationalism, it's said is a harsh mistress and a high price had already been and would be paid by many of those photographed here who had participated in earlier 'anti-government' activities and would do so in the revolution that was to come. Two of this group had previously been jailed. One in 1890 through tenant rights agitation and anti-landlordism, another for involvement in the recent Easter Rising and had only just been released from internment without trial. Further prison terms, a hunger strike, and three successful elections as a public representative to an Irish parliament were to follow. In 1920, a young family member would loose his life in an ambush by British forces, the same forces who were to burn the family home, business and entire personal effects in retaliation for a local ambush in which four Royal Irish Constabulary men died. Through these years of tremendous political & social change and uncertainty, everyday life continued. In this wedding group are two siblings who studied for their pharmaceutical and medical education while actively members of organisations involved in the struggle for independence. Others, including a young Australian wife would assist by providing safe haven for leaders and members of an Irish Republican government in hiding while outwardly showing all the signs of loyalty to the Crown. There is the academic Jesuit priest who became a globetrotting administrator and by contrast, the son who served as a British Amy officer, later transferring to the Royal Air Force, serving in Salonika as an RAF pilot and was later involved in the foundation of the Irish Free State Air Force. With eventual independence in 1922 was to come further tragedy, as the Civil War also played out within this group. Former comrades-in-arms engaging in guerrilla warfare against others fighting for the Irish Free State, with injury, incarceration, hunger-strike and subsequent employment & social discrimination. This is a little of their lives and like their photograph in September 1916, it's also but a brief snapshot in time of Ireland's story. |
Originally from Clogheraily, in the parish of Loughmore, near Templemore, Co Tipperary, John James was born the son of a farmer. Kennedy was employed in Dublin by Arnotts before leaving the firm in 1889 with his colleague Michael McSharry (from Co Leitrim) to establish the gentlemen’s outfitters Kennedy and McSharry, originally located in Westmoreland Street, Dublin.
Kennedy’s forte was on the accountancy side of the business and he also acted as the treasurer to the Faughs, one of Dublin’s oldest GAA clubs, founded in the Phoenix Park in 1885. Kennedy does not seem to have been overtly political; however the fact that the inscription on his grave in Glasnevin is in Irish would suggest that, like his wife Alice, he had a keen interest in the revival of the language. John married Alice D’Alton in her home town of Tipperary in 1893. While he never lived in Tipperary Town, one of his uncles, Michael Kennedy (1819-1907) had previously been resident there, probably employed in the hardware business. Michael married Mary Ryan there in 1859; all five of their children, four sons (including the future Fr J.J. Kennedy (1865-1955) and a daughter were born in Tipperary between 1860 and 1868 Michael later moved his family to Templemore before settling in Dublin in 1887 where he established a brush importing and manufacturing company (which continues in business as M. Kennedy & Sons, suppliers of art materials). Alice (D'Alton) Kennedy does not appear in this photograph. John Kennedy died in 1931 and is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery. |
Born in 1855. At age twenty in 1875, Michael had taken over the family business on the Main Street, Tipperary as a miller, chandler, coal and flour merchant.
On 13 November 1882, he married in the University Church Dublin, Ailey Mary, youngest daughter of the late Maurice Fitzgerald of Mortalstown, Co Limerick (then living in Larnel Vale, Tuam, Co. Galway). From about 1880, O'Brien-D’Alton spearheaded agitation against Smith-Barry of Fota, Co Cork the landlord of much of Tipperary Town, establishing a Tenants Defence Association as part of the Plan of Campaign. The Plan of Campaign was a stratagem adopted in Ireland between 1886 and 1891, co-ordinated by Irish politicians for the benefit of tenant farmers, against mainly absentee and rack-rent landlords. It was launched to counter widespread agricultural distress caused by the continual depression in prices of dairy products and cattle from the mid-1870s, which left many tenants in arrears with rent. Bad weather in 1885 and 1886 also caused crop failure, making it harder to pay rents. More details here. Balfour, the Chief Secretary of Ireland now encouraged the landlords in 1889 to form an anti-tenant syndicate under the chairmanship of Tipperary landlord and High Sheriff of Cork, Arthur Smith-Barry. As the landlord's agent, Smith-Barry, was authorised to buy up estates which were threatened by the Plan of Campaign and then evict the tenants. Hardly surprisingly, this action brought Smith-Barry into conflict with his own tenants, the majority of Tipperary town, who in anger refused to pay rents. O'Brien-D’Alton was the first of many residents to be shortly afterwards evicted, losing his home and £4,000 worth of property for the non-payment of £5.10s in rent. He further paid a price for political activism when jailed following trial for agitation in 1891. His home was then requisitioned as an auxiliary police barracks. When evicted, many residents moved with their shops to pursue their livelihoods outside the town boundaries and built 'New' Tipperary under the direction of Fr. David Humphreys and Michael O'Brien-D'Alton, just released from prison. The Tipperary project, comprising two streets with 97 houses, designed by Robert Gill of Nenagh and built by Alderman Meade of Dublin. However the 'New Tipperary' project proved too costly for the Plan's leaders and this led to its defeat. By this time Parnell had been induced to give some support which helped in the formation of a Tenants' Defence Association in Tipperary and this, along with Dillon's raised money, enabled the Plan to continue. The organisers had £84,000 in 1890 but this had shrunk to £48,000 within a year, by which time almost 1,500 tenants were receiving grants from the Plan funds. The Parnell Split in late 1890 divided O'Brien-D'Alton and his former ally, the local curate Fr David Humphreys (1843-1930), into separate camps, the priest taking control of the project and like the hated Smith-Barry, now attempted to evict non-supportive tenants. D’Alton, though remaining on the town commissioners as a Parnellite, had enough, ceased his business activities to return to farming. His properties were eventually recovered by his brother Walter, a shrewd businessman, in 1897. More details on the Smith-Barry campaign, New Tipperary and the 1890 trials - see here. In 1892, the family address was recorded as Castlerea (probably Castlecreagh, near Galbally) where they may have been leasing farmland from his associate William Hurley. In both the 1901 & 1911 census, the O'Brien D'Altons were farming at Garranekeagh, Ballymacshaneboy in Co. Limerick. In 1921, perhaps with the aid of family and supporters, Michael acquired Caherline House on 179 acres in the same county where he died in 1929. His grave in Glasnevin, where Ailey was buried alongside him in 1948, is part of a double plot, the other half being the resting place of John and Alice Kennedy. |
Born 25 May, 1884, 44 William Street, Limerick to Ellen & William Hannon who were shopkeepers. The third of four children (William, Joseph & Bridget), John was educated in the Irish Christian Brothers at Roxboro Road and Sacred Heart College, Limerick, John joined the Jesuit Order in September 1900, going on to study in Holland, Germany and later Milltown Park.
Ordained in 1915, he went on to teach philosophy in Milltown Park from 1918 and theology from 1924. Appointed to the chair of Catholic Dogmatic Theology at the National University of Ireland in 1924, Fr. John lectured and published in Ireland during the late twenties and early thirties. In 1934, he proposed the church founding of a leper colony or refuge in India but this did not progress further. In 1938, Fr. John was appointed as Apostolic Visitor of the Jesuits which necessitated world travel. Just prior to outbreak of war in 1939, he was in Australia where we have this interesting little snippet of clerical & family life in a letter to his sister, May Moloney and enclosing a photograph with Archbishop Mannix: Fr. John & Archbishop Daniel Mannix (1864-1963). More information on the colourful life of the Archbishop here.
In 1943, Fr. John was appointed as the English-speaking General of the Jesuit Order and went to live & work in Rome following the withdrawal of German forces in 1944.
Fr. John died unexpectedly at the Curia Generalizia Compagnia di Gesù, Borgo Santo Spirito, Rome, Italy, 18 July, 1947 aged 63. |
Louis or 'Louie' as he was known in family circles (a brother of Michael O'Brien D'Alton) was born in Tipperary, 20 September 1862.
Later ran a corn and coal merchant business in Tipperary town. Louis and Bridget were married in the Church of the Sacred Heart, Donnybrook, with Edgar Wyatt as best man. The Wedding Breakfast followed at Monte Vista hosted by the Kennedys. When P.J. Moloney retired from politics in 1923, Louis succeeded him in the 4th Dail for the local constituency as a Cummann na nGaedheal TD from 1923-27 (details below). Far from being a silent member of the Dail, Louis was reasonably active in the Oireachtas debates as can be noted in the records of the Oireachtas. For a listing of his speeches while a TD - click here Louis did not contest the June 1927 election. Louis died 13 January 1945 aged 82. |
below: examples of Cumman Na nGaedheal and Republican election literature 1923.
Bridget or 'Birdie' as she was better known, was born in Limerick and educated in Tipperary.
The daughter of John Hannon and Ellen O'Brien from Limerick. When John died in the mid 1890's, Ellen married for a second time, to PJ Moloney a phamacist in Tipperary. Birdie and her three brothers was raised in the town as part of PJ and Ellen's second family. Birdie became a nurse and was later a theatre sister in Sir Patrick Dunn's hospital in Dublin. "They had a beautiful gentlemen's residence on probably 40 acres of land in Clondalkin, Co. Dublin which we could see if we passed on the train to Dublin. There was a billiard room in the house as well as the usual reception rooms and dining room' Birdie and Louis had 4 sons - Dick, Willy, Sean & Louis. Following Louie's death in 1945, Birdie sold the Clondalkin house and farm and moved to Dundrum, Co. Dublin and then to Dunlavin, Co. Wicklow. In her later years, she moved to Canada to live with her son Louis and family. Birdie died December 14, 1968 in Ontario, Canada. |
Youngest daughter of Maurice Fitzgerald (1804-78) and Maria Teresa Gubbins (1810-73) of Mortalstown, Co Limerick (then living in Tuam, Co. Galway)
At the age of 27, Ailey married Michael O'Brien D'Alton on 13 November 1882. Seven children followed between 1883-1897: Mary 1883 - 19?? Richard Francis 1886-1965 - Emigrated to the US where he was involved in Irish-American politics. Michael 1888 - 19?? William 1890-19?? Married Ethel D'Alton Elizabeth 'Eliza' 1892- 19?? Maurice 1893-1932 Walter 1897-1899. Tragically, died of measles pneumonia as an infant. Ailey died aged 93 on 17th May 1948 in Ballygurteen, Bansha, Co. Tipperary. Buried in Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin. |
Mary Louisa was the second daughter and one of five surviving children of Richard D’Alton (1814-75), a merchant, political activist and pioneering Gaelic scholar in Tipperary Town and his wife Hanora, née Dillon, from Clonpet, Co Tipperary.
Mary Louisa emigrated to Australia in the 1880s, when in her thirties, travelling out to her aunt Bridget (née Dillon), who had emigrated, aged eighteen, in 1849/50, marrying in 1853 a hotelier Richard Feehan of the City Arms in Melbourne, a son of Tipperary emigrees. Most of Bridget’s fourteen siblings subsequently followed her to Australia. Feehan had invested in land, including the Tinapagee station in North-Western New South Wales, beside the holding being worked by Herbert Wyatt and it was through this connection that Mary Louisa met her future husband around 1885. Alice was born in 1888 and Edgar in 1889; a third child appears to have died at an early age (1911 English Census). Research has since established that Walter Herbert was born in 1891 but died in 1892. In 1901 tragedy struck again when Herbert was seriously injured in a farm accident, dying some weeks later at Bourke on 17 August. The family remained in Australia for some time before finally returning to Ireland, presumably to Dublin. Mary Louisa died in Glandore, Co Cork on 20 June 1937, at the age of eighty-seven, and was buried in Kilfeacle Cemetery Co Tipperary where her name was added to the D’Alton tomb, a prominent feature in the graveyard erected by her grandfather (Alice’s great-grandfather) Richard Dalton of Tipperary (Town) as ‘a tribute to the memory of his beloved daughter Mary who departed this life March the 12th 1819 aged 18 yrs [and] also his beloved wife Margaret alias Walsh who departed this life 19th January 1821 aged 41 years’. Richard was buried with them when he died a year later in 1822 at the age of forty-seven. These names are inscribed in the limestone top of the rectangular classical tomb. Into the south, west and east faces are inset marble plaques, while the north face, split like the south into two panels was left plain, with a combed limestone cladding. While Mary Louisa was the last D’Alton (the family preferring to use the French or Norman spelling from the mid-nineteenth century) to be buried here, there is another name added beneath hers, that of Walter, the infant child of her brother Michael O’Brien D’Alton and his wife Ailey who had died years earlier in Tipperary Town, in 1899, at the age of two years and ten months. Young Walter had been born at the end of a difficult decade which had seen Michael and Ailey evicted from their home and business in Tipperary due to national rent disputes. An article on Mary Louisa, husband Herbert Wyatt & family life in Australia will be linked here shortly. |
Born in Clonpet, Co. Tipperary, Hanora was one of fourteen siblings born to Martin Dillon (1781-1843) and Margaret Crowe, the majority of whom emigrated to Australia during the 1840s.
Hanora married Richard D'Alton (1814-75) a merchant in Tipperary c.1853. Mother of Mary Louisa Wyatt, Alice Kennedy, Michael O'Brien D'Alton, Walter F D'Alton & Louis J. D'Alton. Two children died in childhood: Martin aged 10 months in 1856 and Helen aged 3 in 1862. Grandmother to Alice Wyatt Lynch, Edgar Wyatt & Mary Madden. Hanora was resident with her daughter and son-in-law at Monte Vista, Dundrum when she died aged ninety-nine the following year on February 23, 1917. She was buried in Kilfeackle Cemetery, Tipperary. |
Born on 20 March 1869, one of thirteen children of James Moloney, Gurthdrum, Co. Tipperary and Brigid O'Riordan, Ballyvourneen, Caherline, Co. Limerick. Growing up on the family farm, a few miles from Tipperary Town, he was educated locally and by the Christian Brothers.
Moloney moved to Limerick in the late 1880's to be apprenticed to a Chemist (pharmacist) at Stewards, O'Connell Street. In 1893, aged 25, he married a widow, Ellen Hannon (nee O'Brien) from William Street, Limerick. She had one daughter, Bridget 'Birdie' and three sons, John, William and Joseph Hannon. They lived in Cecil Street, Limerick and later over Laird's Chemist in O'Connell Street. While living in Limerick, they had four children, Mary Frances, Conor, James 'Jim' and Patrick adding to what must have been a lively and crowded household of eight children Moving to Tipperary town in the early 1900's, Moloney established a pharmacy named 'The Medical Hall'. His grand-daughter recalled: "There was only one Doctor in Tipperary at that time and one Phamacist (Moloney), so P.J. was kept very busy and did a lot of work for the Doctor, e.g. dressings and medication of minor alilments. I heard that he did some dental extractions too!" At this time, Moloney was also increasingly involved in the Republican movement in the county.
An active member of Sinn Fein, he was arrested following the Easter Rising in May 1916 along with three other activists from Tipperary Town; L. Dalton, W. Benn. T.S.Rogers and W. Ryan. Moloney and others were detained in Cork Jail and Richmond barracks before deportation and jailing in Barlinnie Barracks, Glasgow without trial. Released in the first tranche of prisoners in July 1916, a local newspaper commented on the return to Tipperary of Moloney, Rogers, Benn and Ryan: |
From his pharmacy in Tipperary, Moloney continued Republican activities in the town and county.
Overnight on 16/17 May, 1918, Moloney was among 150 prominent Sinn Fein activists arrested on conspiracy charges relating to the 'German Plot'. The British administration in Dublin Castle suspected that the Sinn Féin movement and the German Empire were to start an armed insurrection in Ireland during the early summer of 1918. The alleged conspiracy, which would have diverted the British war effort, was used to justify the internment of Sinn Féin leaders, who were actively opposing attempts to introduce conscription in Ireland and reflected an increasingly hardline British government approach to Ireland. Moloney was held for seven months without trial and released in December 1918. While jailed, he was nominated for election as a Sinn Fein MP for Tipperary South.
During October 1918 the South Tipperary Brigade was officially formed at a meeting of battalion officers which was held in P.J. Moloney's house in Church St., Tipperary, and at which IRA Chief Of Staff Dick Mulcahy presided. Elected were Brigade Commandant - Seumas Robinson; Brigade V/Commandant - Sean Treacy; Brigade Adjutant - Maurice Crowe; Brigade Q.M. -Dan Breen.
On release, Moloney was elected to the Tipperary County Council and later elected as Chairman of the Tipperary Urban Council when the body had the first Sinn Fein majority.
In the 1918 general election held on 14 December, Sinn Féin won 73 out of the 105 Irish seats in the House of Commons (Moloney was elected as MP for Tipperary South with 74% of the vote against John Cullinan, the IPP MP since 1900). Elections were held almost entirely under the 'first-past-the-post voting' system. In 25 constituencies, Sinn Féin won the seats unopposed. Unionists (including Ulster Unionist Labour Association) won 26 seats, all but three of which were in the six counties that today form Northern Ireland, and the IPP won only six (down from 84), all but one in Ulster. The Labour Party did not stand in the election, allowing the electorate to decide between home rule or a republic by having a clear choice between the two nationalist parties.
From his pharmacy in Tipperary, Moloney continued Republican activities in the town and county.
Overnight on 16/17 May, 1918, Moloney was among 150 prominent Sinn Fein activists arrested on conspiracy charges relating to the 'German Plot'. The British administration in Dublin Castle suspected that the Sinn Féin movement and the German Empire were to start an armed insurrection in Ireland during the early summer of 1918. The alleged conspiracy, which would have diverted the British war effort, was used to justify the internment of Sinn Féin leaders, who were actively opposing attempts to introduce conscription in Ireland and reflected an increasingly hardline British government approach to Ireland. Moloney was held for seven months without trial and released in December 1918. While jailed, he was nominated for election as a Sinn Fein MP for Tipperary South.
During October 1918 the South Tipperary Brigade was officially formed at a meeting of battalion officers which was held in P.J. Moloney's house in Church St., Tipperary, and at which IRA Chief Of Staff Dick Mulcahy presided. Elected were Brigade Commandant - Seumas Robinson; Brigade V/Commandant - Sean Treacy; Brigade Adjutant - Maurice Crowe; Brigade Q.M. -Dan Breen.
On release, Moloney was elected to the Tipperary County Council and later elected as Chairman of the Tipperary Urban Council when the body had the first Sinn Fein majority.
In the 1918 general election held on 14 December, Sinn Féin won 73 out of the 105 Irish seats in the House of Commons (Moloney was elected as MP for Tipperary South with 74% of the vote against John Cullinan, the IPP MP since 1900). Elections were held almost entirely under the 'first-past-the-post voting' system. In 25 constituencies, Sinn Féin won the seats unopposed. Unionists (including Ulster Unionist Labour Association) won 26 seats, all but three of which were in the six counties that today form Northern Ireland, and the IPP won only six (down from 84), all but one in Ulster. The Labour Party did not stand in the election, allowing the electorate to decide between home rule or a republic by having a clear choice between the two nationalist parties.
Sinn Féin's manifesto had pledged to establish an Irish Republic by founding "a constituent assembly comprising persons chosen by Irish constituencies" which could then "speak and act in the name of the Irish people". Once elected the Sinn Féin MPs chose to follow through with their manifesto.
The general consensus is that P.J.'s role after 1916 was "political rather than military, although the decision to form what became the 3rd Tipperary Brigade of the Irish Volunteers/IRA in 1918 was taken at a meeting in his Church Street premises attended by the Cheif of Staff Richard Mulcahy, and his home was 'Brigade headquarters at the time of the Soloheadbeg ambush' "
The Treaty: Debating and Establishing the Irish State. Edited by Liam Weeks & Mícheál Ó Fathartaigh. Irish Academic Press. 2018.
On 21 January 1919, Moloney was one of 27 of the 69 elected Sinn Féin MPs who refused to recognise the Parliament of the United Kingdom and assembled at the Mansion House as a revolutionary parliament - Dáil Éireann. 34 of those elected were unable to attend as were jailed, 8 others were unable to attend as either exiled or in the case of Collins and Boland, in Britain organising the escape from Lincoln Prison of de Valera.
The general consensus is that P.J.'s role after 1916 was "political rather than military, although the decision to form what became the 3rd Tipperary Brigade of the Irish Volunteers/IRA in 1918 was taken at a meeting in his Church Street premises attended by the Cheif of Staff Richard Mulcahy, and his home was 'Brigade headquarters at the time of the Soloheadbeg ambush' "
The Treaty: Debating and Establishing the Irish State. Edited by Liam Weeks & Mícheál Ó Fathartaigh. Irish Academic Press. 2018.
On 21 January 1919, Moloney was one of 27 of the 69 elected Sinn Féin MPs who refused to recognise the Parliament of the United Kingdom and assembled at the Mansion House as a revolutionary parliament - Dáil Éireann. 34 of those elected were unable to attend as were jailed, 8 others were unable to attend as either exiled or in the case of Collins and Boland, in Britain organising the escape from Lincoln Prison of de Valera.
On the same day as the revolutionary Irish parliament first met and declared Ireland's independence, members of the Tipperary Irish Volunteers ambushed Royal Irish Constabulary officers escorting a consignment of gelignite explosives at Soloheadbeg, County Tipperary. Two officers were killed and their weapons and consignment of explosives taken. The Volunteers were acting on their own initiative and had not sought authorisation for their action. The Soloheadbeg ambush is regarded as the first engagement of what was to become the Irish War of Independence.
Moloney's three sons were active members of the 3rd Tipperary Brigade and his daughter Mary 'May' was a member of Cumman na mBan while studying medicine in Dublin. (May's Dublin home was also a 'safe house' used by Collins and other members of the underground movement)
In January 1920, Moloney was arrested and taken to Cork Prison.
On 31 March, he and other prisoners were moved to London's Wormwood Scrubs, where he promptly went on hunger strike with Joseph Lawless of Dublin. The strike continued for 23 days before they were released on May 14 and taken in a weak condition to the Islington Infirmary. During the hunger strike, his youngest son, Patrick 'Paddy' was killed in a British raid on a family farmhouse near Tipperary.
13 November, 1920: an IRA ambush at Lisvernane (known locally as Lisnagaul), Tipperary, resulted in the deaths of four RIC men. The following night, in an unofficial police reprisal, the Moloney home, pharmacy and personal effects were completely destroyed by fire.
"Damage was estimated at £10,000, the adjacent premises of Lipton's Grocers was destroyed and the entire terrace might have been consumed were it not for 'good work by the local police and military fire brigade"
The Treaty: Debating and Establishing the Irish State. Edited by Liam Weeks & Mícheál Ó Fathartaigh. Irish Academic Press. 2018.
As Ellen commented in a letter to a relative shortly afterwards 'We only have what we stand in'. Ernie O'Malley's collection of books & papers entrusted for safe keeping in the Moloney home as his home in Dublin was considered unsafe were also destroyed in the inferno.
"Moloney’s wife wrote bitterly that, although the arsonists attempted to disguise themselves, one of them “was in our house every day”. She did not pause to reflect, if she knew, that her son Jim (my grandfather) had assembled the intelligence for the Lisvernane ambush."
Eunan O'Halpin. Irish Times review of The Black Tans: British Police and Auxiliaries in the Irish War of Independence, 1920-1921By DM Leeson. Irish Times. August 27, 2011.
1 May 1921
Six months after the burning of the Moloney family home and business, the Tipperary RIC, acting on what they termed “reliable information”, led a surprise attack on a family farmhouse outside the town. Paddy Moloney, Adjutant of the 4th Battalion, 3rd Tipperary Brigade IRA and his battalion Commander Sean Duffy were both shot dead.
Two weeks later, Jim Moloney organised an attack on RIC men as they left Mass in Bansha that resulted in the death of the Black and Tan John Nutley. A few weeks later, John Buckley, a young labourer and father-to-be on a Moloney farm, was dragged from his bed and killed by disguised policemen.
24 May 1921. Two elections in Ireland took place in 1921, as a result of the Government of Ireland Act 1920 to establish the House of Commons of Northern Ireland and the House of Commons of Southern Ireland. These would be the last island of Ireland general election. The election was used by Irish Republicans as the basis of membership of the Second Dáil. No actual polling took place in the South, as all 128 candidates were returned unopposed as the Irish Parliamentary Party and Labour agreed not to run candidates. Of these 128 seats, 124 were won by Sinn Féin and four by independent Unionists representing the University of Dublin (Trinity College). As an aside, members of the Second Dail Éireann remained de-jure TDs until they died as the Dail was never dissolved. The last of them, Commdt. Gen. Tom Maguire, TD for Mayo South – Roscommon South, was the last surviving member. He died on 5 July 1993, aged 101.
Six months after the burning of the Moloney family home and business, the Tipperary RIC, acting on what they termed “reliable information”, led a surprise attack on a family farmhouse outside the town. Paddy Moloney, Adjutant of the 4th Battalion, 3rd Tipperary Brigade IRA and his battalion Commander Sean Duffy were both shot dead.
Two weeks later, Jim Moloney organised an attack on RIC men as they left Mass in Bansha that resulted in the death of the Black and Tan John Nutley. A few weeks later, John Buckley, a young labourer and father-to-be on a Moloney farm, was dragged from his bed and killed by disguised policemen.
24 May 1921. Two elections in Ireland took place in 1921, as a result of the Government of Ireland Act 1920 to establish the House of Commons of Northern Ireland and the House of Commons of Southern Ireland. These would be the last island of Ireland general election. The election was used by Irish Republicans as the basis of membership of the Second Dáil. No actual polling took place in the South, as all 128 candidates were returned unopposed as the Irish Parliamentary Party and Labour agreed not to run candidates. Of these 128 seats, 124 were won by Sinn Féin and four by independent Unionists representing the University of Dublin (Trinity College). As an aside, members of the Second Dail Éireann remained de-jure TDs until they died as the Dail was never dissolved. The last of them, Commdt. Gen. Tom Maguire, TD for Mayo South – Roscommon South, was the last surviving member. He died on 5 July 1993, aged 101.
In July 1921, a truce was agreed between the British and Irish republican forces, negotiations were opened and ended in the signing of the Treaty on December 6 1921. The Treaty gave the 26 southern counties of Ireland – soon to be known as the Irish Free State – a considerable degree of independence – the same within the British commonwealth as Australia and Canada. The British military garrison was to be withdrawn and the RIC police disbanded and replaced with a new police force.
However the settlement effectively dissolved the Republic declared in 1918 and pledged Irish TDs or members of parliament to swear allegiance to the British monarch. The British would retain three naval bases along the Irish coast at Cobh, Bearhaven and Lough Swilly. It also confirmed the partition of Ireland between North and South, which had already been instituted under the 1920 Government of Ireland Act.
The first substantive Dáil discussions on the proposed Treaty were held privately on 14 December with public sessions commencing 19 December.
Moloney opposed the Anglo-Irish Treaty. "Addressing the Dáil in December 1921, he did not recite his own narrative of imprisonment and loss, or speak of his dead son. Instead he simply observed that TD's stood 'between two hells...I will not willingly consent to go back into the British Empire".
Eunan O'Halpin. Irish Times. 19 January 2019.
Moloney's speech to the Dail on the Treaty, Thursday 22 December 1921:
However the settlement effectively dissolved the Republic declared in 1918 and pledged Irish TDs or members of parliament to swear allegiance to the British monarch. The British would retain three naval bases along the Irish coast at Cobh, Bearhaven and Lough Swilly. It also confirmed the partition of Ireland between North and South, which had already been instituted under the 1920 Government of Ireland Act.
The first substantive Dáil discussions on the proposed Treaty were held privately on 14 December with public sessions commencing 19 December.
Moloney opposed the Anglo-Irish Treaty. "Addressing the Dáil in December 1921, he did not recite his own narrative of imprisonment and loss, or speak of his dead son. Instead he simply observed that TD's stood 'between two hells...I will not willingly consent to go back into the British Empire".
Eunan O'Halpin. Irish Times. 19 January 2019.
Moloney's speech to the Dail on the Treaty, Thursday 22 December 1921:
It is with some diffidence I arise to address the members of this assembly. Permit me, all you members of the Deputation, to address to you a tribute of my good faith in the great efforts you made to bring back to An Dáil of the Irish people a settlement of this very difficult, insoluble problem. I, as well as all the other members of this Dáil, am asked to approve of your work. I cannot do it. I don't want to inflict upon you my views. They are the views of a great many members of this House.
Permit me though to say that I will not willingly consent to go back into the British Empire. I will not, willingly or otherwise, vote myself into the British Empire, but I say "Damn the Treaty whatever about the consequences."
There is my position. It is the position of a great many men like me, men of average intelligence, men of average faith and principle, decent Irishmen who love Ireland and who are prepared to make sacrifices for Ireland every time, and through no fault of mine, and no fault of any of yours here, they are put in the position—we have been manœuvred into a position where we have to choose between two hells.
I refuse to choose between two hells. I ask here now publicly our leaders, or some leader, to point out to me some path by which a man such as I am—not pretending to be an orator or a statesman, but an ordinary man—can leave these two hells behind him with the vestige of my honour. I will not vote for the Treaty. I am waiting for guidance, and waiting for the path. That is all I have to say.
Dail Debate - 22 December 1921. https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/dail/1921-12-22/2/
The Anglo-Irish Treaty was viewed as a step backwards by many Irish Republicans and nationalists while others considered it an achievement, a stepping stone towards full independence.
The Treaty was narrowly passed by the Dail in January 1922, but the President of the Republic, Eamon de Valera and two of his ministers resigned in protest. Having declined to take part in the Treaty negotiations, de Valera promoted a revision whereby Ireland would have ‘external association’ with the British Commonwealth. Those who had signed the Treaty, headed by Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith formed a Provisional Government to oversee the handover of power from the British to the new Irish state.
The Treaty was narrowly passed by the Dail in January 1922, but the President of the Republic, Eamon de Valera and two of his ministers resigned in protest. Having declined to take part in the Treaty negotiations, de Valera promoted a revision whereby Ireland would have ‘external association’ with the British Commonwealth. Those who had signed the Treaty, headed by Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith formed a Provisional Government to oversee the handover of power from the British to the new Irish state.
From February 1922, Collins began building a new National Army from pro-Treaty IRA units. In March 1922 the IRA called a convention and the majority repudiated the right of the Dail to dissolve the Republic. In April a hardline anti-Treaty IRA group under Rory O’Connor occupied the Four Courts, the centre of the courts system in Dublin, in defiance of the Provisional Government and the Treaty. Michael Collins managed to avert bloodshed in the short term by organising a pact with Eamon de Valera in May, to re-unite Sinn Fein and a similar initiative with the anti-Treaty IRA, which had proposed joint military operations against Northern Ireland. This pact would also extend to the election due in June 1922 where both pro-treaty and anti-treaty factions would fight the general election of June 16, 1922 together and form a coalition government afterwards.
Just before the elections were held, the pact between pro and anti-Treaty sides broke down on the inclusion of the British monarch in the Irish Free State’s constitution.
"This pact prevented voters giving their opinions on the treaty itself, especially in uncontested seats. However, the draft Constitution of the Irish Free State was then published on 15 June, and so the anti-treaty Sinn Féin group's 36 seats out of 128 seemed to many to be a democratic endorsement of the pro-treaty Sinn Féin's arrangements. Others argued that insufficient time was available to understand the draft constitution, but the main arguments and debates had already been made public during and after the Dáil Treaty Debates that had ended on 10 January 1922, nearly six months before. Winston Churchill, then Secretary of State for the Colonies, opposed the Pact as undemocratic, and made a long statement on 31 May. He was responsible at the time for steering the transitional arrangements between the Provisional Government and the government of the United Kingdom in the period between the ratification of the Treaty and the creation of the Irish Free State."
Wikipedia - 1922 General Election, Ireland.
Moloney on the hustings during the 'pact election' campaign, and speaking from a platform of both pro- and anti-treaty candidates said that 'they were as united today as ever before against the common enemy of their country". While he termed himself no enemy of the Labour Party, he urged all sectional parties to stand aside 'in the interests of national welfare'. Only through unity could the separatist movement get 'the last ounce due to Ireland by John Bull, who was ...backing up the North East with guns and powder to be used against their fellow Catholics there'
The Treaty: Debating and Establishing the Irish State. Edited by Liam Weeks & Mícheál Ó Fathartaigh. Irish Academic Press. 2018.
The 1922 Irish general election took place in the 26 counties of what continued to be known as Southern Ireland on 16 June 1922, under the provisions of the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty, to elect a constituent assembly paving the way for the formal establishment of the Irish Free State. In Irish political history, this served as the election to the Third Dáil; under the provisions of the treaty it was a provisional parliament replacing the parliament of Southern Ireland. (From 6 December 1922, it was to be known as the Dáil Éireann of the Irish Free State). Differing from the 1920 election, this first independent Irish election was under the electoral system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote.
Polling day went ahead on 16 June 1922.
Electoral results showed that the treaty had effectively divided the Sinn Fein party between 65 pro-treaty candidates, 57 anti-treaty and 1 nominally on both sides.
Just before the elections were held, the pact between pro and anti-Treaty sides broke down on the inclusion of the British monarch in the Irish Free State’s constitution.
"This pact prevented voters giving their opinions on the treaty itself, especially in uncontested seats. However, the draft Constitution of the Irish Free State was then published on 15 June, and so the anti-treaty Sinn Féin group's 36 seats out of 128 seemed to many to be a democratic endorsement of the pro-treaty Sinn Féin's arrangements. Others argued that insufficient time was available to understand the draft constitution, but the main arguments and debates had already been made public during and after the Dáil Treaty Debates that had ended on 10 January 1922, nearly six months before. Winston Churchill, then Secretary of State for the Colonies, opposed the Pact as undemocratic, and made a long statement on 31 May. He was responsible at the time for steering the transitional arrangements between the Provisional Government and the government of the United Kingdom in the period between the ratification of the Treaty and the creation of the Irish Free State."
Wikipedia - 1922 General Election, Ireland.
Moloney on the hustings during the 'pact election' campaign, and speaking from a platform of both pro- and anti-treaty candidates said that 'they were as united today as ever before against the common enemy of their country". While he termed himself no enemy of the Labour Party, he urged all sectional parties to stand aside 'in the interests of national welfare'. Only through unity could the separatist movement get 'the last ounce due to Ireland by John Bull, who was ...backing up the North East with guns and powder to be used against their fellow Catholics there'
The Treaty: Debating and Establishing the Irish State. Edited by Liam Weeks & Mícheál Ó Fathartaigh. Irish Academic Press. 2018.
The 1922 Irish general election took place in the 26 counties of what continued to be known as Southern Ireland on 16 June 1922, under the provisions of the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty, to elect a constituent assembly paving the way for the formal establishment of the Irish Free State. In Irish political history, this served as the election to the Third Dáil; under the provisions of the treaty it was a provisional parliament replacing the parliament of Southern Ireland. (From 6 December 1922, it was to be known as the Dáil Éireann of the Irish Free State). Differing from the 1920 election, this first independent Irish election was under the electoral system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote.
Polling day went ahead on 16 June 1922.
Electoral results showed that the treaty had effectively divided the Sinn Fein party between 65 pro-treaty candidates, 57 anti-treaty and 1 nominally on both sides.
Moloney was re-elected for the same constituency at the 1922 general election, this time as an anti-Treaty Sinn Féin TD, but did not take his seat. This was to be his last General Election.
Despite the Collins-de Valera Pact, the election results began the effective division of Sinn Féin into separate parties. The 36 anti-Treaty TDs including P.J.Moloney then boycotted the new Dáil by refusing to take up their seats. This boycott in turn gave uncontested majority status to the pro-treaty members of Sinn Féin, and so enabled W. T. Cosgrave to establish the Second Irish Provisional Government which became the First Executive Council of the Irish Free State on 6 December 1922.
Outbreak of War - 28 June 1922
Just ten days after polling, a confluence of events conspired to spark civil war out of the tensions over the Treaty. First a retired British general, Henry Wilson, was shot dead in London on June 22 by two IRA members, who were later hanged. It has never been proved who ordered the killing but the anti-Treaty IRA certainly had nothing to do with them and it may even have been ordered by Collins himself in revenge for Wilson’s role as military advisor in Northern Ireland. The British blamed the IRA group in the Four Courts and threatened Collins that they would attack the Four Courts, using the 6,000 British troops still in Dublin, if he did not do so. Secondly, pro-Treaty forces arrested an anti-Treaty IRA officer Leo Henderson and in response the Four Courts garrison abducted a Free State officer, JJ Ginger O’Connell.
Michael Collins and the Provisional Government gave the Four Courts garrison a final chance to surrender and hand back O’Connell or they would attack the Courts. The ultimatum ran out and pro-Treaty troops opened fire on the Courts with artillery borrowed from the British on June 28, 1922.
This action caused IRA units around the country to take sides and most, especially in the south, sided with the anti-Treaty faction, now headed by Liam Lynch. Eamon de Valera initially rejoined the IRA as an ordinary volunteer but later, in October 1922, set up a clandestine republican government to oppose the Free State.
Both sides developed rival narratives to support their position. The pro-Treaty or Free State line was that the Dail had voted for the Treaty and the people had endorsed their decision in an election in June 1922. They were therefore upholding democracy, the, ‘will of the people’, and the ‘people’s rights’ to establish an Irish government under the Treaty. Those in the IRA who opposed them had mutinied against their civilian authorities and were ‘mutineers’ or ‘irregulars’.
The anti-Treatyites, or republicans argued that the Treaty had been imposed by the British under threat of war, that there could be no free vote while there was British threat of re-occupation and that the Treaty did not represent true Irish independence. They claimed that the Provisional government was really a ‘military junta’ doing Britain’s bidding.
The pro-Treaty forces took Dublin after a weeks’ fighting and then proceeded to secure the other towns and cities held by the anti-Treatyites. Anti-Treaty strongholds in Cork and Kerry were taken by sea in a series of landings in July and August 1922, meaning that by the end of that month, it appeared that the pro-Treaty forces had won. British supplies of armoured vehicles and artillery effectively decided the war’s conventional phase in their favour.
P.J.Moloney played no direct role during the Civil War.."though he bore the worry that his two surviving sons were hunted men serving on Liam Lynch's staff and likely to be killed or executed if captured. He had not yet rebuilt his pharmacy business and his main income appears to have come from part-time work as a 'medical compounder' for Tipperary Board of Guardians, with whom he engaged in lengthy correspondence in 1923 in an attempt to secure arrears of salary and better pay'
The Treaty: Debating and Establishing the Irish State. Edited by Liam Weeks & Mícheál Ó Fathartaigh. Irish Academic Press. 2018.
Despite the Collins-de Valera Pact, the election results began the effective division of Sinn Féin into separate parties. The 36 anti-Treaty TDs including P.J.Moloney then boycotted the new Dáil by refusing to take up their seats. This boycott in turn gave uncontested majority status to the pro-treaty members of Sinn Féin, and so enabled W. T. Cosgrave to establish the Second Irish Provisional Government which became the First Executive Council of the Irish Free State on 6 December 1922.
Outbreak of War - 28 June 1922
Just ten days after polling, a confluence of events conspired to spark civil war out of the tensions over the Treaty. First a retired British general, Henry Wilson, was shot dead in London on June 22 by two IRA members, who were later hanged. It has never been proved who ordered the killing but the anti-Treaty IRA certainly had nothing to do with them and it may even have been ordered by Collins himself in revenge for Wilson’s role as military advisor in Northern Ireland. The British blamed the IRA group in the Four Courts and threatened Collins that they would attack the Four Courts, using the 6,000 British troops still in Dublin, if he did not do so. Secondly, pro-Treaty forces arrested an anti-Treaty IRA officer Leo Henderson and in response the Four Courts garrison abducted a Free State officer, JJ Ginger O’Connell.
Michael Collins and the Provisional Government gave the Four Courts garrison a final chance to surrender and hand back O’Connell or they would attack the Courts. The ultimatum ran out and pro-Treaty troops opened fire on the Courts with artillery borrowed from the British on June 28, 1922.
This action caused IRA units around the country to take sides and most, especially in the south, sided with the anti-Treaty faction, now headed by Liam Lynch. Eamon de Valera initially rejoined the IRA as an ordinary volunteer but later, in October 1922, set up a clandestine republican government to oppose the Free State.
Both sides developed rival narratives to support their position. The pro-Treaty or Free State line was that the Dail had voted for the Treaty and the people had endorsed their decision in an election in June 1922. They were therefore upholding democracy, the, ‘will of the people’, and the ‘people’s rights’ to establish an Irish government under the Treaty. Those in the IRA who opposed them had mutinied against their civilian authorities and were ‘mutineers’ or ‘irregulars’.
The anti-Treatyites, or republicans argued that the Treaty had been imposed by the British under threat of war, that there could be no free vote while there was British threat of re-occupation and that the Treaty did not represent true Irish independence. They claimed that the Provisional government was really a ‘military junta’ doing Britain’s bidding.
The pro-Treaty forces took Dublin after a weeks’ fighting and then proceeded to secure the other towns and cities held by the anti-Treatyites. Anti-Treaty strongholds in Cork and Kerry were taken by sea in a series of landings in July and August 1922, meaning that by the end of that month, it appeared that the pro-Treaty forces had won. British supplies of armoured vehicles and artillery effectively decided the war’s conventional phase in their favour.
P.J.Moloney played no direct role during the Civil War.."though he bore the worry that his two surviving sons were hunted men serving on Liam Lynch's staff and likely to be killed or executed if captured. He had not yet rebuilt his pharmacy business and his main income appears to have come from part-time work as a 'medical compounder' for Tipperary Board of Guardians, with whom he engaged in lengthy correspondence in 1923 in an attempt to secure arrears of salary and better pay'
The Treaty: Debating and Establishing the Irish State. Edited by Liam Weeks & Mícheál Ó Fathartaigh. Irish Academic Press. 2018.
Guerrilla warfare
However the anti-Treaty IRA attempted to wage a guerrilla campaign against the Free State like that which they had mounted against the British during the previous years. In August 1922, this claimed its most prominent victim when Michael Collins, head of the Provisional Government and Commander in Chief of the National Army was killed in an ambush in his native Cork. Arthur Griffith had also died of a stroke not long before. WT Cosgrave became President of the Provisional Government and Richard Mulcahy the Army Commander in Chief.
However the anti-Treaty IRA attempted to wage a guerrilla campaign against the Free State like that which they had mounted against the British during the previous years. In August 1922, this claimed its most prominent victim when Michael Collins, head of the Provisional Government and Commander in Chief of the National Army was killed in an ambush in his native Cork. Arthur Griffith had also died of a stroke not long before. WT Cosgrave became President of the Provisional Government and Richard Mulcahy the Army Commander in Chief.
In the autumn of 1922, the guerrilla campaign caused serious losses to the National Army and disruption of the establishment of the new government. In an effort to crush this campaign, the government embarked on a policy of executions of captured guerrillas. The first were executed in Dublin in November 1922, followed by senior anti-Treaty propagandist Erskine Childers.
In reprisal the IRA assassinated pro-Treaty TD (member of parliament) Sean Hales and in revenge for that, four IRA leaders who had occupied the Four Courts – Rory O’Connor, Liam Mellows, Joe McKelvey and Richard Barret – were summarily executed. In all between 77 and 81 republicans were officially executed and another 100-150 assassinated or summarily killed in the field. The worst instance of this occurred in Kerry, where, in reprisal for a bomb attack in March 1923 that killed 5 National Army soldiers, within a week, 17 prisoners were killed in three separate incidents after being tied to landmines which were then detonated.
By the spring of 1923, the republicans’ campaign had been reduced mainly to destruction of property – such as the railway lines and the houses of the old landed elite. A great number had been imprisoned – around 12,000. When Liam Lynch, the anti-Treaty IRA leader, was killed in action in April 1923, his successor Frank Aiken, at the urging of civilian republicans under Eamon de Valera, called a ceasefire and then in May 1923 ordered their remaining fighters to ‘dump arms’ and return home – effectively ending the war. No surrender was called however and no formal end to the war was ever negotiated.
In reprisal the IRA assassinated pro-Treaty TD (member of parliament) Sean Hales and in revenge for that, four IRA leaders who had occupied the Four Courts – Rory O’Connor, Liam Mellows, Joe McKelvey and Richard Barret – were summarily executed. In all between 77 and 81 republicans were officially executed and another 100-150 assassinated or summarily killed in the field. The worst instance of this occurred in Kerry, where, in reprisal for a bomb attack in March 1923 that killed 5 National Army soldiers, within a week, 17 prisoners were killed in three separate incidents after being tied to landmines which were then detonated.
By the spring of 1923, the republicans’ campaign had been reduced mainly to destruction of property – such as the railway lines and the houses of the old landed elite. A great number had been imprisoned – around 12,000. When Liam Lynch, the anti-Treaty IRA leader, was killed in action in April 1923, his successor Frank Aiken, at the urging of civilian republicans under Eamon de Valera, called a ceasefire and then in May 1923 ordered their remaining fighters to ‘dump arms’ and return home – effectively ending the war. No surrender was called however and no formal end to the war was ever negotiated.
P.J.Moloney played no direct role during the Civil War.."though he bore the worry that his two surviving sons were hunted men serving on Liam Lynch's staff and likely to be killed or executed if captured. He had not yet rebuilt his pharmacy business and his main income appears to have come from part-time work as a 'medical compounder' for Tipperary Board of Guardians, with whom he engaged in lengthy correspondence in 1923 in an attempt to secure arrears of salary and better pay'
The Treaty: Debating and Establishing the Irish State. Edited by Liam Weeks & Mícheál Ó Fathartaigh. Irish Academic Press. 2018.
An election was held in August 1923 which the pro-Treaty party, now organised as Cumman na nGaedheal, won. Many republican candidates, though allowed to participate, were still imprisoned. Some 8,000 of the 12,000 or so anti-Treaty internees went on hunger strike in November 1923 and three died but the prisoners were not released until mid 1924.
Aside from the military confrontation between pro and anti-Treatyites, the absence of effective government and policing throughout the civil war saw a great deal of social and criminal violence. Three of those executed by the Free State were armed criminals rather than guerrillas. The Army was also used to disperse the pickets of a strike by postal workers in September 1922 and in early 1923 a Special Infantry Corps was deployed to put down land agitation and to break up farm labourers’ strikes across the south east. After the conflict however, the Free State managed to establish an unarmed police corps, the Garda Siochana.
Moloney did not stand for re-election in the 1923 Irish Free State General Election.
"He was succeeded in the August 1923 election as Tipperary Town's standard-bearer by the celebrated IRA man Dan Breen: anti-treaty Sinn Fein took two of the seven Tipperary seats with 29% of the poll."
The Treaty: Debating and Establishing the Irish State. Edited by Liam Weeks & Mícheál Ó Fathartaigh. Irish Academic Press. 2018.
The fact that P.J.Moloney did not stand for re-election in 1923 is commented on by Eunan O'Halpin: "This most likely reflected not profound disillusionment, but the need to concentrate on rebuilding his life and business. He later successfully re-entered the electoral fray at a local level as a Fianna Fail county councillor. None of his surviving children followed him into politics"
Eunan O'Halpin. Irish Times. 19 January 2019.
The Civil war left the Irish nationalist parties highly polarised and embittered. The total casualty list has still not been definitively determined but appears to be about 1,500-2,000 killed with some thousands more injured. The anti-Treatyites entered politics as Fianna Fail in 1927 and came to power peacefully in 1932 – despite widespread rioting between the IRA and the pro-Treaty Blueshirt movement. By 1939, most of what they considered the objectionable features of the Treaty had been removed by acts of parliament. The legacies of the civil war were many, but among them were; hostility between the Irish state and what remained of the IRA, the enactment of extensive repressive legislation authorising internment and execution in emergency circumstances, the stripping of local government of much of its powers and their centralisation in Dublin.
In 1926, Ellen, P.J's wife of thirty-one years died. He later married their long time friend, Elizabeth 'Lizzie' Kennedy.
P.J. Moloney later supported de Valera's return to conventional politics, became a member of Fianna Fail and for many years he chaired the commemorative committee for Sean Treacy (1895-1920) and gave the annual graveside oration.
P.J. Moloney died in Tipperary on 4 September 1947 aged 78.
Taoiseach Eamon de Valera and other senior anti-Treaty figures attended his funeral. The coffin was draped in the Tricolour and members of the Third Tipperary Brigade formed a guard of honour.
Dan Breen in his eulogy recalled that Moloney 'gave his three sons to the fight...that Paddy had died in it...only the mothers of his own Tipperary...will ever know the amount of good (he did as a pharmacist) in the big flu of 1918...Yes, PJ was with us in the fight..the Ireland he worked and suffered for shall be realised and when that day dawns of a completely free and Gaelic Ireland, P.J. Moloney's name will shine out on the list of those whom he has now joined in his eternal reward"
Eunan O'Halpin. Irish Times. 19 January 2019 & The Treaty: Debating and Establishing the Irish State. Edited by Liam Weeks & Mícheál Ó Fathartaigh. Irish Academic Press. 2018.
The Treaty: Debating and Establishing the Irish State. Edited by Liam Weeks & Mícheál Ó Fathartaigh. Irish Academic Press. 2018.
An election was held in August 1923 which the pro-Treaty party, now organised as Cumman na nGaedheal, won. Many republican candidates, though allowed to participate, were still imprisoned. Some 8,000 of the 12,000 or so anti-Treaty internees went on hunger strike in November 1923 and three died but the prisoners were not released until mid 1924.
Aside from the military confrontation between pro and anti-Treatyites, the absence of effective government and policing throughout the civil war saw a great deal of social and criminal violence. Three of those executed by the Free State were armed criminals rather than guerrillas. The Army was also used to disperse the pickets of a strike by postal workers in September 1922 and in early 1923 a Special Infantry Corps was deployed to put down land agitation and to break up farm labourers’ strikes across the south east. After the conflict however, the Free State managed to establish an unarmed police corps, the Garda Siochana.
Moloney did not stand for re-election in the 1923 Irish Free State General Election.
"He was succeeded in the August 1923 election as Tipperary Town's standard-bearer by the celebrated IRA man Dan Breen: anti-treaty Sinn Fein took two of the seven Tipperary seats with 29% of the poll."
The Treaty: Debating and Establishing the Irish State. Edited by Liam Weeks & Mícheál Ó Fathartaigh. Irish Academic Press. 2018.
The fact that P.J.Moloney did not stand for re-election in 1923 is commented on by Eunan O'Halpin: "This most likely reflected not profound disillusionment, but the need to concentrate on rebuilding his life and business. He later successfully re-entered the electoral fray at a local level as a Fianna Fail county councillor. None of his surviving children followed him into politics"
Eunan O'Halpin. Irish Times. 19 January 2019.
The Civil war left the Irish nationalist parties highly polarised and embittered. The total casualty list has still not been definitively determined but appears to be about 1,500-2,000 killed with some thousands more injured. The anti-Treatyites entered politics as Fianna Fail in 1927 and came to power peacefully in 1932 – despite widespread rioting between the IRA and the pro-Treaty Blueshirt movement. By 1939, most of what they considered the objectionable features of the Treaty had been removed by acts of parliament. The legacies of the civil war were many, but among them were; hostility between the Irish state and what remained of the IRA, the enactment of extensive repressive legislation authorising internment and execution in emergency circumstances, the stripping of local government of much of its powers and their centralisation in Dublin.
In 1926, Ellen, P.J's wife of thirty-one years died. He later married their long time friend, Elizabeth 'Lizzie' Kennedy.
P.J. Moloney later supported de Valera's return to conventional politics, became a member of Fianna Fail and for many years he chaired the commemorative committee for Sean Treacy (1895-1920) and gave the annual graveside oration.
P.J. Moloney died in Tipperary on 4 September 1947 aged 78.
Taoiseach Eamon de Valera and other senior anti-Treaty figures attended his funeral. The coffin was draped in the Tricolour and members of the Third Tipperary Brigade formed a guard of honour.
Dan Breen in his eulogy recalled that Moloney 'gave his three sons to the fight...that Paddy had died in it...only the mothers of his own Tipperary...will ever know the amount of good (he did as a pharmacist) in the big flu of 1918...Yes, PJ was with us in the fight..the Ireland he worked and suffered for shall be realised and when that day dawns of a completely free and Gaelic Ireland, P.J. Moloney's name will shine out on the list of those whom he has now joined in his eternal reward"
Eunan O'Halpin. Irish Times. 19 January 2019 & The Treaty: Debating and Establishing the Irish State. Edited by Liam Weeks & Mícheál Ó Fathartaigh. Irish Academic Press. 2018.
Postscript
Moloney died before he could make a written deposition to the Bureau of Military History on the revolutionary period. However in 2001, an eighty-five year old prison Journal by Moloney was discovered in a British Home Office file held in the British National Archives at Kew, London. This journal, dating from his 1916 incarceration in Barlinnie Barracks, Glasgow was submitted as documentary evidence to Sir John Sankey, Chair of the 'Advisory Committee to Try Sinn Feiners' (established in June 1916 after the trial and execution of the principal Republican leaders by courts martial in May 1916) to review the cases of men in detention at that time.
Moloney's great-grandson, historian Eunan O'Halpin describes the journal and it's author as...
Moloney died before he could make a written deposition to the Bureau of Military History on the revolutionary period. However in 2001, an eighty-five year old prison Journal by Moloney was discovered in a British Home Office file held in the British National Archives at Kew, London. This journal, dating from his 1916 incarceration in Barlinnie Barracks, Glasgow was submitted as documentary evidence to Sir John Sankey, Chair of the 'Advisory Committee to Try Sinn Feiners' (established in June 1916 after the trial and execution of the principal Republican leaders by courts martial in May 1916) to review the cases of men in detention at that time.
Moloney's great-grandson, historian Eunan O'Halpin describes the journal and it's author as...
'a forthright 19,000 word account of his political evolution from fervent Parnellite "Parnell was my ideal of a great leader his personal magnetism had some wonderful power to create enthusiasm especially in young and ardent minds' to loyal Redmondite. But when war came in 1914, Redmond 'deserted Ireland's interests...when he advised young Irishmen to fight for Ireland's freedom in France, then I saw he had failed to grasp the finest opportunity ever given to an Irish leader to wring, if necessary, from England a full measure of justice...it was his weak policy which was responsible for the gallant lives lost in the fight for Irish freedom in Dublin during Easter Week".
The Journal suggests a man possessed of fortitude, discipline, fluency and humour, and also reflects both his strong Catholicism and his anti-clericalism..."
Eunan O'Halpin. Irish Times. January 19, 2019.
When Moloney was released from prison in July 1916, on the grounds that he was considered to have had political rather than military involvement in the Rising, a request was made for the manuscript to be returned. Fortunately for posterity, the Home Office 'refused to return what one official loftily termed 'a jeremiad, a dreary catalogue of complaints, correct in grammar and [which] shows the author to be a person of some education' on the grounds of its seditious sentiments. This arbitrary act was a stroke of luck for posterity. Moloney's account has remained safe in British hands for over a century, whereas his Tipperary premises, family home and personal effects were destroyed by fire in an unofficial reprisal in November 1920.'
The Treaty: Debating and Establishing the Irish State. Edited by Liam Weeks & Mícheál Ó Fathartaigh. Irish Academic Press. 2018.
P.J.Moloney's journal is available here.
Edgar Wyatt was born in the remote Outback town of Bourke, north-western New South Wales, Australia in 1889, the son of Mary Louisa D'Alton and Herbert Wyatt, and the younger brother of Alice.
Described in the 1911 census as an ‘Assistant of Customs and Excise’. He had joined the service that year and probably initially worked in Dublin before moving to Liverpool. The earliest print reference to Edgar Wyatt in Dublin is in 1908, when he attended the funeral in the Pro-Cathedral of another of the Kennedy brothers, Thomas Patrick Kennedy (1864- 1908) who had been in business in London. Kennedy’s obituary described him as an ardent Nationalist and a member of the National Liberal Club (Freeman’s Journal, 9 January 1908). Edgar was Best Man to Louie D'Alton at his wedding to Birdie Hannon in 1916. |
Mary Frances 'May' Moloney was born in Limerick, 14 October 1894.
Member of Cumman na mBan. She was a medical student during the War of Independence and qualified in 1922. Her home as a student was on the Haddington Road, Dublin and used from time to time as a 'safe house' by Michael Collins. She married Alphonsus Patrick "Bub" Robert O'Neill (1897-1977) a member of a prominent Republican family from Miltown Malbay, Co. Clare (brother of Ignatius O'Neill and both had been involved in the Rineen, Co. Clare ambush - 22 Sept 1920). As his great grandson, Tom Humphrey's recalls the origin of Alphonsus' nickname: "Bub was called this because of his resemblance as a child to the curly blond boy called 'Bubbles' in a Pears soap advertisement. He was christened Alphonsus Patrick but was called Bub throughout his life." May and Robert had four children, Miriam Ethel O'Neill (1924-1991), Patricia, Eleanor Frances and Conal Patrick O'Neill (1932-2010). May died in Limerick, 21 October 1975 aged 81. |
Ellen was born in Limerick in 1858, where the O'Brien's family ran a wool & leather business.
In 1876, aged eighteen, she married William Hannon and moved to 44 William Street, Limerick where they operated a shop. During the 1880's they had four children: William, Joseph, John & Bridget. William Senior died in July 1891. "...Through her first marriage, Ellen had a family link to Hannah Bracken of Templemore, Co. Tipperary, mother of Brendan Bracken, the future British wartime cabinet minister and Churchill's close confidant" The Treaty: Debating and Establishing the Irish State. Edited by Liam Weeks & Mícheál Ó Fathartaigh. Irish Academic Press. 2018. Following William Snr's death, Ellen later met P.J.Moloney, a pharmacist from Tipperary working in Limerick and later married in 1895, having four more children during the 1890's: May, Connor, James and Paddy. The family moved from Limerick to Tipperary where P.J. established a pharmacy 'The Medical Hall' and four more children joined the family, Mary Frances, Jim, Con and Paddy. 1920: the family home & pharmacy business at Church Street, Tipperary was burned down by un-identified RIC members in response to an ambush the previous day. The entire building and contents were lost. (see entry for P.J.Moloney for additional detail) Ellen's daughter May was living in Haddington Road, Dublin while studying medicine and Ellen now moved to live with her. It is understood that this address was frequently used by Michael Collins as one of his 'safe houses'
Ellen died on 26 March, 1926 aged fifty-eight. |
21 Aug 2020: Thanks to the discovery of Willy Hannon's RFC/RAF Military file by Gearoid Mac Humfraidh, this section on Hannon is currently being updated.
Nicknamed 'The Bird', William 'Willy' Ignatius Hannon was born in Limerick 15 November 1892. Following education with the Jesuits at Mungret, Co. Limerick, Willy began an apprenticeship in various medical halls [pharmacies] intending to follow in his step-father, P.J.Moloney's profession.
In 1913, Hannon joined the Irish Volunteers and following Redmond's Woodenbridge, Co. Wexford speech in September 1914, attempted to join an Irish Regiment. Rejected on unspecified health grounds, he tried a number of times to join the British Army as a junior officer until accepted by the Royal Irish Regiment in February 1916 as a 'temporary' Second Lieutenant 'on probation'. When ill-health returned, Willy relinquished his commission in December 1916.
Despite these setbacks, Willy persevered and was re-appointed as a 2nd Lieutenant in February 1917 quite probably due to the horrendous losses on the Western Front during 1916. Training in Cork followed before deployment overseas to Egypt, Palestine and eventually Salonika in July 1917. The London Gazette records Willie in the Royal Irish Regiment and notification of backdating his seniority to 18 February 1916: Researching Willy Hannon's military career history is somewhat difficult as his 'Service and Casualty Form' (Army Form B103) may not have survived. A 'Service and Casualty Form' also commonly known just as 'The Casualty Form' was maintained by military administration for each member of the British armed forces from c. 1914-25 for the duration of their service. This military record card, maintained in longhand, gives basic personal information, details of promotions (acting temporary, local or substantive), transfers to other armed services eg Air Force or Navy, appointments, transfers, postings, attachments, forfeiture of pay, wounds, accidents, admission to and discharge from hospital, Casualty Clearing Stations and so on. Date of disembarkation and embarkation from a theatre of war (including furlough) are also included.
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The whole basic structure of an armed service career is available on a 'Casualty Form' and can run to several pages. Where relevant, information relating to awards for Gallantry, Courts Martial and Prisoner of War details were also recorded.
Willy Hannon's Service & Casualty Form is not held in the British National Archives in Kew and only fragments of general information relating to him in various other archives (such as the Royal Air Force Archives & statutory printed details in The London Gazette) survive. Two reasons for this may explain. Some seven million records relating to service men and women during the First World War were maintained at the War Office Repository in Arnside St, London until September 1940, when more than half of these records were destroyed in a Luftwaffe bombing raid. Only 2.8 million records survived or have since been reconstructed from the records of the Ministry of Pensions. Simply put, there's only a 40% chance of finding a 'Service and Casualty Form' today. The second explanation for this missing Service & Casualty form is that there is a small possibility that the file may have been transferred to the Irish military records Dublin in c. 1922 on the establishment of the Free State as Hannon was then serving with the Irish National Air Service.
Willie Hannon's Service & Casualty form may exist today, undiscovered in an archive but in all probability, it was destroyed by a German bomb in 1940.
However, other records and sources can help in building information on a person's military service during the First World War.
What is available is currently available includes Hannon's 'Medal Card' - currently held in the British National Archives. This shows his service in the 1st Royal Irish Regiment as a Lieutenant followed by service as a Flying Officer in the Royal Air Force. Listed is also that he was eligible to receive a post-war 'Victory Medal' and that this was claimed by Willy and issued on 16 August 1922 just prior to his joining the Irish Free State air service. His first service was in Salonika, probably with the 1st Royal Irish Regiment and according to this record, he started service in Salonika in July 1916. (This indicates that he was on leave at the time of the family wedding in September 1916 and may be a clerical error and refers instead to July 1917)
Willy Hannon's Service & Casualty Form is not held in the British National Archives in Kew and only fragments of general information relating to him in various other archives (such as the Royal Air Force Archives & statutory printed details in The London Gazette) survive. Two reasons for this may explain. Some seven million records relating to service men and women during the First World War were maintained at the War Office Repository in Arnside St, London until September 1940, when more than half of these records were destroyed in a Luftwaffe bombing raid. Only 2.8 million records survived or have since been reconstructed from the records of the Ministry of Pensions. Simply put, there's only a 40% chance of finding a 'Service and Casualty Form' today. The second explanation for this missing Service & Casualty form is that there is a small possibility that the file may have been transferred to the Irish military records Dublin in c. 1922 on the establishment of the Free State as Hannon was then serving with the Irish National Air Service.
Willie Hannon's Service & Casualty form may exist today, undiscovered in an archive but in all probability, it was destroyed by a German bomb in 1940.
However, other records and sources can help in building information on a person's military service during the First World War.
What is available is currently available includes Hannon's 'Medal Card' - currently held in the British National Archives. This shows his service in the 1st Royal Irish Regiment as a Lieutenant followed by service as a Flying Officer in the Royal Air Force. Listed is also that he was eligible to receive a post-war 'Victory Medal' and that this was claimed by Willy and issued on 16 August 1922 just prior to his joining the Irish Free State air service. His first service was in Salonika, probably with the 1st Royal Irish Regiment and according to this record, he started service in Salonika in July 1916. (This indicates that he was on leave at the time of the family wedding in September 1916 and may be a clerical error and refers instead to July 1917)
Salonika - 'The Casablanca of the Great War'
This northern Greek city now called Thessaloniki, had, until a few years before the war, been one of the jewels of the Ottoman Empire – a mysterious compound of the exotic and the cosmopolitan, the place to which St Paul had addressed his Letter to the Thessalonians, in which Roman ruins stood beside ancient basilicas, recently converted back to churches from being mosques. From the port, serving the Balkans, it was possible to see Mount Olympus, home of the ancient gods, across the bay. But outside the city, the countryside hadn’t changed much from the days when Lord Byron was there, its tracks – there were no proper roads – still haunted by brigands. Before 1914, the Balkans had already suffered several years of intense fighting. In 1912 Salonika was captured from the Ottomans by the Greek army – to the mortification of the Bulgarian army, which arrived the next day. (The Bulgarians, seeking to negotiate with the Ottoman commander Hassan Tahsin Pasha, were told ruefully: “I have only one Thessaloniki, which I have surrendered.”)
Military operations in Macedonia had commenced on 5 October 1915, when the French and British forces (including the 10th (Irish) Division and the 5th (Service) Battalion (Pioneers) Royal Irish Regiment ) landed at the then neutral Greek port of Salonika with the intention of providing aid to the Serbian Army which was under pressure from the advancing Austro-Hungarians and Bulgarians. They were just too late. The Serbs had been defeated. The Connaught Rangers, the Royal Irish Fusiliers and the Hampshire Regiment fought the Battle of Kosturino to cover their epic and painful retreat across the Albanian mountains. Thereafter, the French and British threw a ring of barbed wire fortifications around Salonika (it became known as The Birdcage) and occupied the plains; while the Bulgarians dug themselves into the mountains. That was how things remained until the last months of the war. Stalemate.
The Allies found offensive action extremely difficult, as the Bulgarians and their German Allies held the high ground in rocky mountainous country. At the same time, the Central Powers were content to contain the Allies in what was described as ‘the biggest internment camp’, containing some 600,000 British, French, Serbian and later, Greek troops. This drew forces away from the main theatre of war on the Western Front.
On this stagnant and largely forgotten front, the troops remained, in the words of F. Nash, who served with the RAMC and the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry, “bedded fast in slab and thick monotony like flies in treacle”. After a mere two years of peace, villages were still deserted, houses wrecked. Posted upcountry in what resembled a desert, Military and Air Force officers shared a single ambition: to get to Salonika town on leave. With a nurse.
Salonika was small but colourful. The old town was made up of wooden houses that cascaded down the hill from the fort, with latticed windows on the first floor to conceal the ladies of the house. Open drains ran down the centre of the street. About 1900, the Ottoman governor had succeeded in modernising the lower city, creating brightly lit boulevards on the model of Paris. Not only had the population barely become Greek, but the majority were of somewhat ambiguous nationality at the best of times. For more than half were Jews. They were descended from families who had been expelled from the Iberian peninsula in the 15th century – and they still spoke Ladino, a kind of Spanish Yiddish. (The vibrant Jewish community continued until the city fell to the German forces on April 22, 1941 and remained under German occupation until 30 October 1944. The city suffered considerable damage from Allied bombing and almost all of its entire Jewish population were exterminated by the Nazis. Barely a thousand Jews survived.)
To add to the complications in 1917, Greece was, despite the presence of the Anglo-French armies, officially neutral. The Allies had been invited to Salonika by the prime minister, Eliftherios Venizelos, but the king was the brother-in-law of the Kaiser. Salonika’s neutral status meant that the enemies of the French and British could, to begin with, maintain consulates. Spying was rife.
But there were more than spies in Salonika. It had cafes, restaurants, the clubs that the British established wherever they went in the world, music halls where rowdy young subalterns and flying officers could misbehave – and other entertainments around the railway station where the number of brothels had multiplied since the arrival of so many soldiers. Nurses were the only 'respectable' females of their own type that the officers were likely to find on the Salonika Front. They either lived in tented cities on the outskirts of Salonika itself or in tents in the wild, where they had to improvise everything for themselves. They were a venturesome breed, and very much in demand, if only as a reminder of home. Their lot was not as unremittingly terrible as that on the Western Front: skirmishes took place in the foothills but not trench warfare. But they did not get leave. They were out there for the duration, galled that the public in Britain thought they were having an easy time of it. That was hardly the case. Only officers were allowed inside the Birdcage (as they called Salonika from the barbed wire fortifications surrounding it). The men had to stay in their camps. Since there was little fighting to do, the authorities had to put their minds to entertainment. What would keep them from getting restless?
The answer was shows. All kinds were put on. They used whatever human talent was to hand. Displays on the parallel bars were prominent in the army gymnasts’ performance, for example. Others were of a more amateur kind – but still taken seriously. One brigade built its own theatre, where a troupe of 250 soldiers were relieved normal duties to mount entertainments. Bints – the often quite ordinary soldiers whose task it was to impersonate women – were sometimes accorded super star status. This was not principally because of what, in old public schools, would have been called “vice”: homosexuality was largely, though not wholly repressed. The bints’ turns on stage allowed many in the audience to forget the madness of being stuck for years in an uncomfortable foreign clime, and remember the mothers, wives, girlfriends and sisters from whom they were parted.
There was a wonderfully British determination to make the best of things. There were plenty of horses to be put through their paces at divisional horse shows. Hunts were formed. Tortoises were raced. One soldier sent home for his cello. Farms and gardens were established, partly to grow food (necessary, since all supplies had to come in by ship and were vulnerable to Austrian U-Boats in the Adriatric and German vessels in the Mediterranean) but also for the love of the plants that the quartermasters knew from their gardens in the Home Counties & Ireland. Which added credence to the derogatory name by which the armies were known – the Gardeners of Salonika.
The hospitals were entirely staffed by women, some of them entirely so: the stalwart ladies who organised them, initially without the help or recognition of the military command, did so to free the maximum number of men for fighting duties. Many of them were also suffragettes, who wanted to show that the supposedly frailer sex could do more than stay at home knitting socks. Although the hospitals also managed to put on shows, of a decorous kind, the nurses were often busier, until 1918, than the soldiers. For while the British, on the right of the Front, had little to do after Kosturino, the French, on the left, saw more action; and the Serbs were forever fighting, ferociously in the mountains. Hospital beds that weren’t filled with wounded soldiers were occupied by malaria cases (soldiers objected to wearing mosquito veils in the heat of the Greek summer). Malaria often struck the nurses themselves and accounted for most of the deaths and medical evacuations from the area.
William Hannon served in Salonika for some eighteen months from July 1916 or according to other sources, from July 1917. With the lack of his 'Casualty Card' we are unable to confirm service dates and locations other than he was in Ireland on leave when he attended his sister's wedding in September 1916. By the autumn of 1917, after a number of months of military inactivity, he must have felt sufficiently restless serving in the quiet war-zone of Salonika to transfer to the excitement and danger of the Royal Flying Corps service.
This northern Greek city now called Thessaloniki, had, until a few years before the war, been one of the jewels of the Ottoman Empire – a mysterious compound of the exotic and the cosmopolitan, the place to which St Paul had addressed his Letter to the Thessalonians, in which Roman ruins stood beside ancient basilicas, recently converted back to churches from being mosques. From the port, serving the Balkans, it was possible to see Mount Olympus, home of the ancient gods, across the bay. But outside the city, the countryside hadn’t changed much from the days when Lord Byron was there, its tracks – there were no proper roads – still haunted by brigands. Before 1914, the Balkans had already suffered several years of intense fighting. In 1912 Salonika was captured from the Ottomans by the Greek army – to the mortification of the Bulgarian army, which arrived the next day. (The Bulgarians, seeking to negotiate with the Ottoman commander Hassan Tahsin Pasha, were told ruefully: “I have only one Thessaloniki, which I have surrendered.”)
Military operations in Macedonia had commenced on 5 October 1915, when the French and British forces (including the 10th (Irish) Division and the 5th (Service) Battalion (Pioneers) Royal Irish Regiment ) landed at the then neutral Greek port of Salonika with the intention of providing aid to the Serbian Army which was under pressure from the advancing Austro-Hungarians and Bulgarians. They were just too late. The Serbs had been defeated. The Connaught Rangers, the Royal Irish Fusiliers and the Hampshire Regiment fought the Battle of Kosturino to cover their epic and painful retreat across the Albanian mountains. Thereafter, the French and British threw a ring of barbed wire fortifications around Salonika (it became known as The Birdcage) and occupied the plains; while the Bulgarians dug themselves into the mountains. That was how things remained until the last months of the war. Stalemate.
The Allies found offensive action extremely difficult, as the Bulgarians and their German Allies held the high ground in rocky mountainous country. At the same time, the Central Powers were content to contain the Allies in what was described as ‘the biggest internment camp’, containing some 600,000 British, French, Serbian and later, Greek troops. This drew forces away from the main theatre of war on the Western Front.
On this stagnant and largely forgotten front, the troops remained, in the words of F. Nash, who served with the RAMC and the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry, “bedded fast in slab and thick monotony like flies in treacle”. After a mere two years of peace, villages were still deserted, houses wrecked. Posted upcountry in what resembled a desert, Military and Air Force officers shared a single ambition: to get to Salonika town on leave. With a nurse.
Salonika was small but colourful. The old town was made up of wooden houses that cascaded down the hill from the fort, with latticed windows on the first floor to conceal the ladies of the house. Open drains ran down the centre of the street. About 1900, the Ottoman governor had succeeded in modernising the lower city, creating brightly lit boulevards on the model of Paris. Not only had the population barely become Greek, but the majority were of somewhat ambiguous nationality at the best of times. For more than half were Jews. They were descended from families who had been expelled from the Iberian peninsula in the 15th century – and they still spoke Ladino, a kind of Spanish Yiddish. (The vibrant Jewish community continued until the city fell to the German forces on April 22, 1941 and remained under German occupation until 30 October 1944. The city suffered considerable damage from Allied bombing and almost all of its entire Jewish population were exterminated by the Nazis. Barely a thousand Jews survived.)
To add to the complications in 1917, Greece was, despite the presence of the Anglo-French armies, officially neutral. The Allies had been invited to Salonika by the prime minister, Eliftherios Venizelos, but the king was the brother-in-law of the Kaiser. Salonika’s neutral status meant that the enemies of the French and British could, to begin with, maintain consulates. Spying was rife.
But there were more than spies in Salonika. It had cafes, restaurants, the clubs that the British established wherever they went in the world, music halls where rowdy young subalterns and flying officers could misbehave – and other entertainments around the railway station where the number of brothels had multiplied since the arrival of so many soldiers. Nurses were the only 'respectable' females of their own type that the officers were likely to find on the Salonika Front. They either lived in tented cities on the outskirts of Salonika itself or in tents in the wild, where they had to improvise everything for themselves. They were a venturesome breed, and very much in demand, if only as a reminder of home. Their lot was not as unremittingly terrible as that on the Western Front: skirmishes took place in the foothills but not trench warfare. But they did not get leave. They were out there for the duration, galled that the public in Britain thought they were having an easy time of it. That was hardly the case. Only officers were allowed inside the Birdcage (as they called Salonika from the barbed wire fortifications surrounding it). The men had to stay in their camps. Since there was little fighting to do, the authorities had to put their minds to entertainment. What would keep them from getting restless?
The answer was shows. All kinds were put on. They used whatever human talent was to hand. Displays on the parallel bars were prominent in the army gymnasts’ performance, for example. Others were of a more amateur kind – but still taken seriously. One brigade built its own theatre, where a troupe of 250 soldiers were relieved normal duties to mount entertainments. Bints – the often quite ordinary soldiers whose task it was to impersonate women – were sometimes accorded super star status. This was not principally because of what, in old public schools, would have been called “vice”: homosexuality was largely, though not wholly repressed. The bints’ turns on stage allowed many in the audience to forget the madness of being stuck for years in an uncomfortable foreign clime, and remember the mothers, wives, girlfriends and sisters from whom they were parted.
There was a wonderfully British determination to make the best of things. There were plenty of horses to be put through their paces at divisional horse shows. Hunts were formed. Tortoises were raced. One soldier sent home for his cello. Farms and gardens were established, partly to grow food (necessary, since all supplies had to come in by ship and were vulnerable to Austrian U-Boats in the Adriatric and German vessels in the Mediterranean) but also for the love of the plants that the quartermasters knew from their gardens in the Home Counties & Ireland. Which added credence to the derogatory name by which the armies were known – the Gardeners of Salonika.
The hospitals were entirely staffed by women, some of them entirely so: the stalwart ladies who organised them, initially without the help or recognition of the military command, did so to free the maximum number of men for fighting duties. Many of them were also suffragettes, who wanted to show that the supposedly frailer sex could do more than stay at home knitting socks. Although the hospitals also managed to put on shows, of a decorous kind, the nurses were often busier, until 1918, than the soldiers. For while the British, on the right of the Front, had little to do after Kosturino, the French, on the left, saw more action; and the Serbs were forever fighting, ferociously in the mountains. Hospital beds that weren’t filled with wounded soldiers were occupied by malaria cases (soldiers objected to wearing mosquito veils in the heat of the Greek summer). Malaria often struck the nurses themselves and accounted for most of the deaths and medical evacuations from the area.
William Hannon served in Salonika for some eighteen months from July 1916 or according to other sources, from July 1917. With the lack of his 'Casualty Card' we are unable to confirm service dates and locations other than he was in Ireland on leave when he attended his sister's wedding in September 1916. By the autumn of 1917, after a number of months of military inactivity, he must have felt sufficiently restless serving in the quiet war-zone of Salonika to transfer to the excitement and danger of the Royal Flying Corps service.
A key archive file, William Hannon's Royal Flying Corps/Royal Air Force two page longhand training and service record, recently came to light. Below are the two foolscap record pages, card number 127 of Hannon's RFC/RAF career, copies appearing here courtesy of his great-grand-nephew Gearoid Mac Humfraidh. This service record provides, supports and confirms a great deal of information of his training and service within the British Air Force between 1917 & 1922. Larger versions of this record and transcriptions will appear throughout this section.
Flight Training 1917-18, Heliopolis, Egypt.
Research has picked up Hannon's trail again on 29 November, 1917. He is recorded as attending the 3rd School of Military Aeronautics (3SoMA) in Heliopolis, Egypt and as being 'under instruction'. This was the nearest flight training school to the Salonika/Macedonian front and was rudimentary in both facilities and tuition. Provided the student pilot survived atrocious casualty rates during training, he was a qualified pilot within three months. Packed off then to one of the various war fronts, he would statistically experience a shorter than average lifespan compared to that of a front-line soldier.
(For details of the RFC Flight Officer training in Egypt during 1917-18 and service in Macedonia & Salonika, a previous article by the author on the artist and former Royal Air Force Air Vice Marshall Basil Spackman is available here. As it's a long article, when open, press CTRL + F and enter 'Flight Training' to locate details)
13 February 1918. Hannon is next listed as transferring from 1st Royal Irish Regiment to the Royal Flying Corps, General List. This indicates that as of that date, Hannon was now a qualified pilot and so was formally transferred between services.
This was the beginning of his flying career.
13 February 1918. Hannon is next listed as transferring from 1st Royal Irish Regiment to the Royal Flying Corps, General List. This indicates that as of that date, Hannon was now a qualified pilot and so was formally transferred between services.
This was the beginning of his flying career.
Between February and April 1918, Hannon served with the Royal Flying Corps and by April 1918, when the RFC and Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) merged to form the Royal Air Force, he is described as a 'Flying Officer'. (below)
It remains unclear as to where Hannon saw military flying service with the absence of his 'Casualty Card', but highly likely that it was back on the Macedonian Front in Salonika - the usual posting for newly qualified RFC pilots from Egypt. The air war was beginning to escalate on this front with most squadrons seeing daily action and losses.
With war's end in November 1918, the RAF went through a period of large scale re-organisation and staff reductions during 1919 which resulted in many pilots leaving to set up private business ventures. A number remained in service, including Hannon. By December 1919, he was listed as holding a short-service commission with the RAF.
In the November 1921 Monthly Royal Air Force List we can find William I. Hannon serving as a Flying Officer with No. 216 Squadron, Middle East Area, Egyptian Group based at Heliopolis. He had been based in Egypt with this squadron from 25 July 1920:
With war's end in November 1918, the RAF went through a period of large scale re-organisation and staff reductions during 1919 which resulted in many pilots leaving to set up private business ventures. A number remained in service, including Hannon. By December 1919, he was listed as holding a short-service commission with the RAF.
In the November 1921 Monthly Royal Air Force List we can find William I. Hannon serving as a Flying Officer with No. 216 Squadron, Middle East Area, Egyptian Group based at Heliopolis. He had been based in Egypt with this squadron from 25 July 1920:
Squadron 216, flying Handley Page aircraft (1919-21), DH10s (1921) & Vimys (1922) from Heliopolis and Kantara largely transported military mail and passengers throughout the Middle East .
The Irish National Air Service
Irish military aviation began in 1922 when a single-engined biplane, a Martinsyde Type A mark II was bought to permit Gen Michael Collins to escape from London should the Treaty talks with Britain fail.
With the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 and the foundation of the Irish Free State, the Free State Air Service (as a section of the National Army) began. Aircraft were purchased from surplus British wartime stocks with three aircraft forming the first Irish squadron in July 1922 based in Baldonnel.
With a shortage of pilots and aircrew, a recruitment drive was quickly mounted by the new government in the midst of the Civil War and by December 1922, twelve former Royal Air Force pilots had joined the Irish National Air Service, including the thirty-four year old William Hannon. He joined the naescent Air service on 5 December 1922 on a relatively poorly paid salary of £260 per annum. The London Gazette noted that he was now placed on the RAF Reserve List as 'Class A'
(Interestingly, perhaps due to the political uncertainty within the newly emergent Free State and his low salary as a military pilot with the Air Service, Hannon did not formally relinquish his commission with the Royal Air Force until 1926. This was to have repercussions for Hannon in 1924 but more on that later.
By the end of 1922, the National Army Air Service comprised ten aircraft, consisting of six Bristol F2B fighters from the First World War and four Martinsyde F4 Fighters, and about 400 men
The surviving records for William Hannon in the British National Archives date from 1922. His records file (largely the 'Service & Casualty Form') were either destroyed during the London Blitz in September 1940 or transferred to the Irish military records and remains undiscovered to date. This record (Ref: AIR 76/207/172) does contain information - such as his selected next-of-kin is his brother, the Rev. J.J.Hannon then residing in Milltown Park, Dublin and a confrmation of his birth date: 18.11.1892.
While Hannon had left the Royal Air Force in 1922, he retained his commission and notations on his file reveal the minutiae of military administration from 'Excused training during year ended 4.12.23' and on 5.12.22 transferred to 'Reserve Class A'
There are no details completed for Medical Board assesments or special qualifications.
While Hannon had left the Royal Air Force in 1922, he retained his commission and notations on his file reveal the minutiae of military administration from 'Excused training during year ended 4.12.23' and on 5.12.22 transferred to 'Reserve Class A'
There are no details completed for Medical Board assesments or special qualifications.
"William was kept busy during the early days of his service. There is a record of a flight in a Bristol fighter on 11 December 1922 with Major General W. McSweeney, OC of the Irish National Air Service"
Raymond Moloney. 'Flying in the Free State'. December 2019. An Cosantóir Defence Forces Magazine.
On 13 March, 1923, a DH9, serial number 2 landed at Baldonnel aerodrome piloted by Lt. William Hannon and accompanied by Observer, 2/Lt Comba. A few months later, by June 1923 there were enough aircraft to almost make up two squadrons. However with a chronic shortage of pilots and observers, (probably due to the low pay rates in comparison with the RAF or private charter work), Hannon was now promoted to Captain in charge of Training.
On a date unknown, William married Sarah Fitzgerald
In 1924, Lt Hannon and another flying officer, Lt Herron were found to be still active on the Royal Air Force reserve list 'in contravention of their oath to the Free State. However this matter was resolved by the intervention of the Chief of Staff".
Hannon's file in the British Archives shows the entry for 1924: 'Trans'd to Class C on account of joining Irish Free State Air Force'
However, Hannon did not formally relinquish his commission until 7 December 1926.
There was some further difficulties in October 1925 when Hannon was court martialed on 'handing over a Martinsyde Scout fighter to A/Captain W. Delamere in an unflyable condition.' Following a two day trial, Hannon was honourably aquitted. However, the OC Air Corps suspended him from flying in November 1925, effectively ending his active flying career.
The London Gazette noted W.I.Hannon as a transfer on the RAF Reserve list from Class A to Class C on 30 March 1926.
Hannon relinquished his commission with the RAF 'on completition of service' on 5 December 1926.
"William remained in the Air Corps as an adjutant and technical officer until 1930 when he was remustered as an observer due to the manpower shortage. In 1931/32 th Corp's strength amounted to 23 officers, 48 NCOs and 143 privates. Further appointments followed for William in the Aeronautic School in 1932, followed by an appointment as a photographic officer in 1937."
Raymond Moloney. 'Flying in the Free State'. December 2019. An Cosantóir Defence Forces Magazine.
Hannon was also an Administrative Officer tasked with inspecting standards at various Irish aerodromes. Take this example of his assesment of Kildonan Aerodrome, Finglas (the first commerical aerodrome in Ireland) in November 1933:
Operations ceased at Kildonan by 1938 with all commercial activity moving to Collinstown (now the site of Dublin Airport).
An avid golfer, in 1935 Captain Hannon was Captain of the Newlands Golf Club and a member of the Irish Aero Club.
below: press clipping, March 1937.
An avid golfer, in 1935 Captain Hannon was Captain of the Newlands Golf Club and a member of the Irish Aero Club.
below: press clipping, March 1937.
With the increasing possibility of another European war, the Air Corps began upgrading the Defence Forces aircraft with 'small numbers of more modern aircraft, such as the Gladiator fighter and the Anson patrol aircraft'.
In 1938, William was appointed as Staff Officer at Air Corps Headquarters and in 1941 as an Armaments Officer.
In 1938 four Gloster Gladiator biplane fighters were delivered – a further eight were ordered but were subsequently embargoed by the outbreak of the Second World War. Other aircraft purchased from the United Kingdom before the outbreak of war included 16 Avro Anson Mark I maritime patrol bombers, 3 Supermarine Walrus amphibians, 6 Westland Lysander Mark II army co-operation aircraft and a number of trainers.
During World War II (or The Emergency) there are no records of Air Corps planes engaging any belligerent aircraft, although dozens of escaped barrage balloons were shot down. Requests for more aircraft from Britain resulted in 13 obsolete Hawker Hector biplane light bombers being supplied during 1941. Twelve Hawker Hurricane Mk. Is were initially ordered for the Irish Army Air Corps in 1940 but were not delivered due to a wartime embargo imposed by the British Government. Eleven Hurricane Mk. Is were eventually delivered to the Air Corps, from surplus R.A.F. stocks, between July 1943 and March 1944, and the Hurricane Mk. I (no.93), that crash-landed in Co. Wexford in 1940, was the twelfth aircraft.
Suffering from progressive deafness, Captain William Hannon was medically retired from the Air Corps on 6 September 1941 aged 49.
Captain William Hannon aged just 50, died on 6 June 1943.
'Mourners at his funeral included his widow, Sarah Hannon, brother Rev. J. Hannon SJ, stepbrothers Con and Jim Moloney, stepsister, Dr. Mary O'Neill, Major W. Delamere (OC Air Corps) and members of the Air Corps"
Raymond Moloney. 'Flying in the Free State'. December 2019. An Cosantóir Defence Forces Magazine.
In 1938, William was appointed as Staff Officer at Air Corps Headquarters and in 1941 as an Armaments Officer.
In 1938 four Gloster Gladiator biplane fighters were delivered – a further eight were ordered but were subsequently embargoed by the outbreak of the Second World War. Other aircraft purchased from the United Kingdom before the outbreak of war included 16 Avro Anson Mark I maritime patrol bombers, 3 Supermarine Walrus amphibians, 6 Westland Lysander Mark II army co-operation aircraft and a number of trainers.
During World War II (or The Emergency) there are no records of Air Corps planes engaging any belligerent aircraft, although dozens of escaped barrage balloons were shot down. Requests for more aircraft from Britain resulted in 13 obsolete Hawker Hector biplane light bombers being supplied during 1941. Twelve Hawker Hurricane Mk. Is were initially ordered for the Irish Army Air Corps in 1940 but were not delivered due to a wartime embargo imposed by the British Government. Eleven Hurricane Mk. Is were eventually delivered to the Air Corps, from surplus R.A.F. stocks, between July 1943 and March 1944, and the Hurricane Mk. I (no.93), that crash-landed in Co. Wexford in 1940, was the twelfth aircraft.
Suffering from progressive deafness, Captain William Hannon was medically retired from the Air Corps on 6 September 1941 aged 49.
Captain William Hannon aged just 50, died on 6 June 1943.
'Mourners at his funeral included his widow, Sarah Hannon, brother Rev. J. Hannon SJ, stepbrothers Con and Jim Moloney, stepsister, Dr. Mary O'Neill, Major W. Delamere (OC Air Corps) and members of the Air Corps"
Raymond Moloney. 'Flying in the Free State'. December 2019. An Cosantóir Defence Forces Magazine.
Below: 'Flying in the Free State' article on William Hannon by Raymond Molony. An Cosantóir Defence Forces Magazine 2019.
Credits: Raymond Moloney. An Cosantóir. December 2019/January 2020. Click on images below to download. Note: Hannon's birthdate is incorrectly listed as June 1888.
Sources:
RAF #: WO 372/9/1276 & AIR 76/207/172 courtesy of the British National Archives.
W.I.Hannon RFC listing: http://www.airhistory.org.uk/rfc/people_index.html and a very useful links here: http://www.airhistory.org.uk/rfc/reference.html
Raymond Moloney article on William Hannon's flying career - An Cosantóir. December 2019/January 2020.
RAF #: WO 372/9/1276 & AIR 76/207/172 courtesy of the British National Archives.
W.I.Hannon RFC listing: http://www.airhistory.org.uk/rfc/people_index.html and a very useful links here: http://www.airhistory.org.uk/rfc/reference.html
Raymond Moloney article on William Hannon's flying career - An Cosantóir. December 2019/January 2020.
A joint marriage celebrant and close friend to the Kennedys of Monte Vista.
A native of Callan, Co Kilkenny, then attached to the Franciscan community at Merchant’s Quay, Dublin. He was a well-known public figure who can best be described as a polymath. Previously, Fr Kennedy had spent almost twenty years in Australia, where he had been the Franciscan provincial, based in Waverley in the eastern suburbs of Sydney. "Fr Fitzgerald first came to Sydney in 1886 as part of the second group of Franciscans to arrive from Ireland. Known as an exceptionally gifted man, he was remembered as a brilliant public speaker, a linguist, a writer of stories and books, and for his talent for friendships, which included Cardinal Moran and a number of up-and-coming artists." He was recalled to Ireland and left Australia in 1903 to travel to Rome and onwards to the Franciscans in Dublin. A master of several European languages, he was also a Gaelic revivalist and an ardent Nationalist of what the Irish Independent termed the "progressive variety". In the years after his return to Ireland, Fr Fitzgerald developed a parallel career as an author, writing "Stepping Stones to Gaeldom" in 1910, as well as short stories and popular novels on Irish country life. His political connections are not well chronicled but he translated into English, Padraic Pearse’s book of Gaelic short stories "An Mháthair agus Scéaglta Eile", which had been published in January 1916, just before the Easter Rising. He was a supporter of Countess Markievicz in the 1918 elections. Suffering declining health, he returned to Australia in 1920. During 1921, his health declined further and he died in Sydney in May 1921 aged 59. |
Born in the remote Outback town of Bourke, north-western New South Wales, Australia, Alice was the daughter of Mary Louisa D'Alton and Herbert Wyatt. Formerly a teacher, she married Denis Lynch, chief Distiller and manager of the Dublin Whiskey Distillery in 1914 and also had her wedding reception in Monte Vista, Dundrum.
The 1911 English census lists Alice and her widowed mother Mary Louisa (c.1849-1937) as residents of a house in Chorlton-cum-Hardy in South Manchester, where Alice was employed as an assistant teacher in government service. It would appear that she remained there after her mother moved back to Dublin c.1913 to a newly built house, 4 St Mary’s Terrace, Rathfarnham, which she occupied for over a decade, up until 1924. Alice's future husband, Denis Lynch is believed to have met Alice through the Kennedys. Alice Kennedy’s nephew Richard F. 'Dick' Dalton being both a friend and a political associate of Diarmuid Lynch of the Friends of Irish Freedom in New York. (The Kennedys were also evidently matchmakers, credited with introducing Diarmuid to his future wife Kit Quinn after his return to Ireland from a Gaelic League/IRB mission to America in late 1914.) Alice Wyatt’s birthplace, Bourke in north-western New South Wales, on the Darling River, was a particularly arid and somewhat inhospitable sheep-farming area, four hundred miles from Sydney at the very edge of the Outback, only connected by rail in 1885. Her father, Herbert Harvey Wyatt (1855-1901), a Homestead Leasee on a sixteen square mile sheep station named Acton Hill near Tinapagee on the Paroo river, a hundred miles from Bourke, was a member of a long established and distinguished Staffordshire family of yeomen, which can be traced back to Humphrey Wyatt of Weeford, born in 1540. Alice was a direct descendant of James Wyatt’s oldest brother William (1734-80), also an architect, who practised in Staffordshire and the English midlands. William’s great-grandson and Alice’s paternal grandfather was a lawyer turned Anglican clergyman the Rev Arthur Harvey Wyatt (1827-1906), rector of Corse in Gloucestershire, who had a large family and married twice. His two eldest sons, Alice’s father Herbert Harvey and his brother Edgar Arthur (1853-79) appear to have been brought up by their grandparents, Harvey (c.1799-1876) and Jemima Wyatt on their 500 acre farm at Acton Hill, near Barton-under-Needwood, in Staffordshire. Harvey had also succeeded his father, the land surveyor Robert Harvey Wyatt (d. 1836), as local agent to the Anson family, Earls of Lichfield. In due course this position passed to Harvey’s second son, Robert (1835-86), who like Arthur had been trained as a barrister. Edgar, a talented cricketer, died young, in Sussex, while Herbert decided to seek his fortune in Australia. Herbert died in 1901 and is buried in Bourke, New South Wales. Alice's husband, Denis Lynch, the chief distiller and manager of the DWD were privately (and illegally) providing safe haven, refuge and liason for the leaders of the proscribed Irish revolutionary government, including 'The Most Wanted Man in the British Empire": "In 1919-20, Denis and Alice Lynch were frequently discreet hosts of the fugitive Collins at Distillery House, their home in the grounds of the Dublin Whiskey Distillery in Drumcondra where Denis was manager. One evening, Denis was entertaining business guests and left the table to check on his other, hidden guest. 'What are ye talking about tonight Denis? asked the restless Collins. 'Yourself as always Mick' came the reply." Eileen McGough. Diarmuid Lynch - A Forgotten Irish Patriot. Mercier History. Cork 2013. p84 In early February 1919, Eamon de Valera who had been jailed by the British Authorities in Lincoln Prison was broken out of jail by a team led by Michael Collins and secretly returned to Ireland. "Having shipped De Valera safely across the Irish Sea, Collins lodged him in Denis Lynch's home in Drumcondra, the trusted house where he himself often went to ground. Strolling in the grounds of the distillery, de Valera and Harry Boland laid plans for Boland's forthcoming mission to America to prepare for de Valera's own arrival there....." Eileen McGough. Diarmuid Lynch - A Forgotten Irish Patriot. Mercier History. Cork 2013. p117 Alice & Denis also provided the venue for the 3rd meeting of the proscribed and hunted members of the First Dail Eireann in April, 1919. Denis and Alice moved to West Cork in the early twenties. Alice died in 1968. More details on the Lynch/Wyatt 1914 wedding here and Denis Lynch's story here. |
Jim Moloney, was born in Limerick, January 1896. Son of P.J. & Ellen Moloney.
Educated at the Jesuit College, Mungret, Co.Limerick. Considered to be the successor to the family business, Jim studied pharmacy in Dublin 1918-20 while at the same time, also served as a member of the Dublin Brigade IRA. He returned to Tipperary in 1920 where he ran the family pharmacy and was a member of the 3rd Tipperary Brigade IRA and following the burning of the family home and business in November 1920 and a 'Wanted Man', went 'on the run'. On his brother Paddy's death in May 1921, Jim was appointed as Adjutant, 4th Battalion, 3rd Tipperary Brigade which continued after the July 1921 truce. Following the outbreak of the Civil War in 1922, Jim continued with Anti-Treaty forces and was appointed Divisional IO, 2 Southern Division; Command IO, Southern Command; and Director of Communications on C.O.S. Liam Lynch’s staff. He was arrested in the Glen of Aherlow, along with his brother Con (Adjutant General of the anti-treaty forces during the Civil War) on 7 March 1923 and imprisoned in Mountjoy. He was subsequently moved to Newbridge and Harepark internment camps. He acted as OC in Newbridge Camp and went on hunger strike over five weeks in the autumn of 1923. Jim was released from prison in July 1924 and later that year married Kathleen Barry, sister of Kevin Barry. Born in Dublin on 19 October 1896 at 8 Fleet Street, Kathleen Agnes Barry Moloney was the eldest of seven children. Her parents Thomas and Mary (née Dowling) and her aunt Judith ran a prosperous dairy that included an eighty-six acre holding at Tombeagh, Hacketstown County Carlow and a retail outlet below the family home in Fleet Street. When Thomas Barry died in 1908 the Barry family found themselves split between their homes in Dublin and at Tombeagh. The Barry family were staunch republicans, in particular the older Barry children. One brother, Michael, was active in the Carlow Brigade and the girls, particularly Kathleen, in Cumann na mBan. She joined the university branch of Cumann na mBan in 1920 and was close to the most senior republicans including Michael Collins, Austin Stack, Richard Mulcahy and Eamon de Valera throughout the 1920–24 period. She opposed the Treaty. In April 1922 she was asked by de Valera to accompany Countess Markievicz as a member of a Republican delegation which travelled to the USA. Shortly after her return the civil war started and she, along with Mary MacSwiney and Linda Kearns, remained in the Hammam Hotel in O’Connell Street during the week-long siege that ended in the death of Cathal Brugha. Between June and October 1922 Kathleen organised and maintained a line of communication between Dublin and General Liam Lynch in the South. In December 1922 she was asked to reorganise the Irish Republican Prisoner’s Dependents Fund (IRPDF) and acted as general secretary of the fund until September 1924. She was asked to travel to Australia with Linda Kearns in September 1924 on behalf of the Reconstruction Committee of the IRPDF to raise funds to provide financial aid to released prisoners. Shortly before her departure for Australia, Kathleen married Jim Moloney in Westland Row church. She returned to Ireland in April 1925 and effectively retired from political activity, settling into married life and raising her growing family. Following the Civil War and largely due to changed family circumstances and the political situation, Jim struggled to establish himself in full time employment until 1934 when he was appointed to a position in the Irish Sugar Company in Carlow. Jim and Kathleen had five children, twin girls, Helen (02 January 1926-2011) and Mary (O'Halpin), Patrick (1927-1989), Katherine (1928-1989) (who married the poet Patrick Kavanagh) and Judith (1930-1971). From around 1930 Kathleen began working as Sales Publicity Advisor with the Electricity Supply Board (ESB) and was employed there until the 1950s when she retired due to ill health. During her time with the ESB Kathleen became a very active member of the union, the ATGWU, and various staff committees, once again displaying enormous energy and resourcefulness in campaigning for equality and workers rights on behalf of staff in the ESB. Kathleen remained a committed republican throughout her life, campaigning against the executions of republican prisoners between 1939 and 1947. She also acted as committee member of the Women’s Industrial Development Association (WIDA) between 1932 and 1939. She and Jim supported the establishment of Clann na Poblachta and its involvement in the first inter-party government in 1948. Kathleen Barry Moloney died, at the age of 72, in Dublin on 10 January 1969. Jim died twelve years later in 1981 aged 85. Both are interred in Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin. One of Kathleen's siblings was Monty Barry. She married Seamus O'Donovan an Electricity Supply Board Administration Manager and lived in Shankill, Co. Dublin 1933-47. However, this was no ordinary middle-class manager leading the quiet life in what was then rural south Co. Dublin. Seamus, had fought in the War of Independence, was the IRA chemicals and explosives expert and had fought with Anti-Treaty forces during the Civil War. By the 1930's, Seamus became the IRA liason with Nazi Germany in 1939 as well as the chief bomb-maker and planner of the IRA bombing campaign in Britain during 1939-40. The German spy, Herman Goertz was sheltered at the family home during 1940 as was the Abwehr operative, Ernst Weber-Drohl. There's an interesting History Ireland article here on the IRA-Nazi Germany links & Seamus O'Donovan. |
Of Kathleen & Jim's children, Helen (1926-2011) became a renowned stained glass artist. Click image opposite for details.
Katherine (1928-1989) married the poet Patrick Kavanagh - more information here |
Born in Limerick in 1897, Son of P.J. & Ellen Moloney and educated in the Jesuit College, Mungret, Co. Limerick.
As with other members of the family, Con was deeply involved in the War of Independence. "As Deputy Chief of Staff of the IRA, he played an important part in the war of independence. He was instrumental in the organisation of the Third Tipperary Brigade during Sean Tracey's imprisonment in 1918. He was Adjutant in the Third Tipperary Brigade. He was released from Mountjoy Prison on December 30 1919 after being on hunger strike. Moloney was one of the Brigade Council present at the raid known as 'Blackcastle Races' in September 1920...while 'on the run' he delivered to oration at Sean Tracey's funeral which he also organised." "Tipperary's Sons and Daughters 1916-23" by Martin O'Dwyer 18 October 1920: Sean Treacy was buried in Kilfeacle Graveyard. When the last prayers had been said, 3rd Brigade Adjutant Con Moloney came forward and in the graveside oration: "Seán Treacy is dead. His death is a great blow to us and to Ireland. But his loss must not unnerve us. Rather must it strengthen our resolve to continue on the path he opened for us, to strive for the ideals for which he gave his life, if necessary to die fighting as Seán did." Ernie O'Malley of IRA GHQ recalled Moloney in his 1936 book 'On Another Man's Wound': Con was later part of Dan Breen’s wedding group in June 1921. Along with Breen, he was a member of the Tipperary 3rd Brigade, before being appointed Adjutant for 2 Southern Division. Divisional Headquarters were located in Donohill, county Tipperary throughout the war of independence and the truce period. The divisional officers’ aims were to ensure that organisation and training were carried out, and that munitions manufacture was continued, as many expected the conflict with British forces to resume. As well as this, they dealt frequently with reports of breaches of the truce
from the Liaison Offices which were established on both sides to monitor its implementation. |
With the outbreak of the Civil War, Moloney became Adjutant-General of the Anti-Treaty forces.
On 26 January 1923, Moloney issued an order that houses of members of the 'Free State Senate' would be destroyed if any of the anti-Treaty prisoners of war were to be executed and that one of the Senators would be shot in reprisal. None, however were killed.
Moloney was later appointed as Deputy Chief of Staff under Liam Lynch.
March 7, 1923: Con Moloney was seriously wounded & captured by National Army troops in the Glen of Aherlow with his brother Jim and Tom Conway. While neither Con nor Jim contributed a statement to the Bureau of Military History on events during the War of Independence and the Civil War, Dan Breen recalled the event in his February 1959 deposition:
On 26 January 1923, Moloney issued an order that houses of members of the 'Free State Senate' would be destroyed if any of the anti-Treaty prisoners of war were to be executed and that one of the Senators would be shot in reprisal. None, however were killed.
Moloney was later appointed as Deputy Chief of Staff under Liam Lynch.
March 7, 1923: Con Moloney was seriously wounded & captured by National Army troops in the Glen of Aherlow with his brother Jim and Tom Conway. While neither Con nor Jim contributed a statement to the Bureau of Military History on events during the War of Independence and the Civil War, Dan Breen recalled the event in his February 1959 deposition:
Source: BMH: http://www.militaryarchives.ie/collections/online-collections/bureau-of-military-history-1913-1921/reels/bmh/BMH.WS1763.pdf#page=160
Both Moloneys and Conway were imprisoned initially in Mountjoy, Jim was later moved to Newbridge. Both endured a forty-three day hunger-strike in October/November 1923. Due to his injuries, Con was released early from prison in December 1923.
Following the Truce, Con worked in the insurance business in Dublin. Married to Johanna Barlow, they had five children: Eileen (d.2003), Kathleen, Maureen, Josephine (1927-2016) and Paddy.
In 1934 Sean Oglaigh na h-Eireann (Old Irish Republican Party) had an address at 3 Davis Street, Tipperary and the secretary was Con Moloney. According to a letter dated 1935 from Con Moloney the total membership was 1,335 forming 66 Companies. Of the 49 members registered in Carlow at this time, 36 were from Rathvilly / Hacketstown.
Con died on 8 March 1951 aged 54 and is buried in St. Michael's Cemetery, Tipperary.
Johanna died in 1984 aged 87.
For more information on Con Moloney during the War of Independence and Civil War:
The Bureau of Military Archives here, Eire Ascendant at Wordpress here
Following the Truce, Con worked in the insurance business in Dublin. Married to Johanna Barlow, they had five children: Eileen (d.2003), Kathleen, Maureen, Josephine (1927-2016) and Paddy.
In 1934 Sean Oglaigh na h-Eireann (Old Irish Republican Party) had an address at 3 Davis Street, Tipperary and the secretary was Con Moloney. According to a letter dated 1935 from Con Moloney the total membership was 1,335 forming 66 Companies. Of the 49 members registered in Carlow at this time, 36 were from Rathvilly / Hacketstown.
Con died on 8 March 1951 aged 54 and is buried in St. Michael's Cemetery, Tipperary.
Johanna died in 1984 aged 87.
For more information on Con Moloney during the War of Independence and Civil War:
The Bureau of Military Archives here, Eire Ascendant at Wordpress here
The youngest of the Moloney family, who was either not present at the wedding or chose not to appear in the photograph,
Paddy had been twice jailed during 1920 'for minor acts of defiance' reportedly enduring four months of solitary confinement which severely affected his health' The Treaty: Debating and Establishing the Irish State. Edited by Liam Weeks & Mícheál Ó Fathartaigh. Irish Academic Press. 2018. During 1920 he was appointed as Adjutant of the 4th Battalion, 3rd Tipperary Brigade IRA and by November, he was 'on the run'. On 1 May, 1921, both Paddy and his Officer Commanding the 4th Battalion, Sean Duffy, were killed following an RIC attack on a family owned farmhouse at Gortdrum, near Soloheadbeg, Tipperary. The RIC, it is understood, were acting on “reliable information, commonly believed to be from information provided by an informer." |
Brendan Rendall Bracken, 1st Viscount Bracken, PC (1901–1958) was an Irish-born businessman and a minister in the British Conservative cabinet. He is best remembered for supporting Winston Churchill during the Second World War. He was also the founder of the modern version of the Financial Times and was Minister of Information from 1941 to 1945.
Interestingly, Tom Humphreys has pointed out that Brendan Bracken, a nephew of Ellen Hannon Moloney (and first cousin to the Hannon's and Moloney's), was packed off to Echuca in 1916 after being expelled from Mungret College to a distant relative. "Distressed by his misbehaviour, his mother sent him in 1915 to Mungret College, a Jesuit boarding school in County Limerick, but he quickly bolted and ran up hotel bills. She then sent him to Australia to live with a cousin who was a priest in Echuca, Victoria. The young man led a nomadic existence in Australia, moving often but reading avidly, and becoming self-educated" More information on Brendan Bracken here. |
Monte Vista, Dundrum c. 2018
The previous wedding party held at Monte Vista was the Lynch-Wyatt reception in July 1914. A number of guests appear in both photographs. Click image below to access.
Manuscript Sources & Credits
Thanks to Tom Humphreys & Gearoid Mac Humfraidh - Great Grandsons of P.J. Moloney for family biographical history, photographs, archive copy material and the all important large and no so large corrections. Gearoid managed to locate Willy Hannon's Royal Air Force Records courtesy of RAF Archives which added largely to 'The Bird''s story.
Eunan O'Halpin - Great Grandson of P.J. Moloney for background family history,
UCD Archives: Con Moloney Papers - access here.
UCD Archives: Kathleen Barry Moloney Papers
"No Other Law" Liam Lynch by Florence O'Donoghue. Dublin Irish Press 1954.
Turtle Bunbury Family History (for 1930's references to Con Moloney)
Oireachtas na hEireann
Thanks to 'The Irish Story' for a succinct analysis of what is the complex Civil War. For more detail on this period of our history, click here.
Thanks to Wikipedia - always a useful tool for putting aspects of history and family connections in perspective.
Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com
Raymond Moloney article on William Hannon's flying career - An Cosantóir. December 2019/January 2020.
LIbrary of Scotland for RAF Lists 1919-1922
British National Archives WO 372/9/1276 & AIR 76/207/172
All articles are updated when additional information comes to hand, donated or advised.
Should you have any additional information to contribute, comment or amend, please get in contact here.