Transatlantic defiance: The militant Irish republican movement in America, 1923–45 9781847799517

Table of contents :
Front matter
Dedication
Contents
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Preface
Introduction: ‘Out of Ireland, I never shall be happy’
The search for direction, 1923–6
Irish departures, American arrivals, 1923–6
Transforming the movement, 1927–30
Creating a new identity, 1931–5
Depression, survival and assistance, 1931–5
Guiding a bombing campaign from the United States, 1936–9
Restrained action, 1940–5
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index

Citation preview

Gavin Wilk

Transatlantic defiance The militant Irish republican movement in America, 1923–45

Transatlantic defiance

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Transatlantic defiance The militant Irish republican movement in America, 1923–45

g av i n w i l k

Manchester University Press Manchester and New York distributed in the United States exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan

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Copyright © Gavin Wilk 2014 The right of Gavin Wilk to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Published by Manchester University Press Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9NR, UK and Room 400, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk Distributed in the United States exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA Distributed in Canada exclusively by UBC Press, University of British Columbia, 2029 West Mall, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z2 British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data applied for

ISBN  978 0 7190 9166 7  hardback First published 2014 The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for any external or thirdparty internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

Typeset by 4word Ltd, Bristol

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For my wife, Siobhán, and parents, Ted and Sheila. In memory of my grandparents, James and Julia Cody, and Theodore and Gladys Wilk.

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Contents Acknowledgementsix Abbreviationsxii Prefacexv 1 Introduction: ‘Out of Ireland, I never shall be happy’ 2 The search for direction, 1923–6 3 Irish departures, American arrivals, 1923–6 4 Transforming the movement, 1927–30 5 Creating a new identity, 1931–5 6 Depression, survival and assistance, 1931–5 7 Guiding a bombing campaign from the United States, 1936–9 8 Restrained action, 1940–5 9 Conclusion

1 13 26 54 81 109 124 160 191

Bibliography196 Index217

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Acknowledgements This book began as a doctoral thesis at the University of Limerick under the supervision of Professor Bernadette Whelan. I am indebted to Professor Whelan for her support and guidance throughout this project. Her overall dedication to the students and staff in the Department of History at the University of Limerick is remarkable and exemplary. I would also like to thank Professor Joe Lee, Glucksman Ireland House, New York University and Dr Úna Ní Bhroiméil, Department of History, Mary Immaculate College who served as examiners for my thesis. Their advice and enthusiasm for this book is deeply appreciated. I wish to acknowledge the financial assistance afforded to me in my research by the award of a Postgraduate Scholarship from the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences. I would like to express my deepest appreciation to the staff at Manchester University Press for making publication of this book possible. Thank you to the anonymous readers who initially reviewed the manuscript and to John Roost from 4word along with Alison Shakspeare and Lisa Scholey for their assistance during the final production stages. The staff in the following libraries and archives were always extremely courteous and helpful: Glucksman Library, University of Limerick; Mary Immaculate College Library; National Archives of Ireland; Cork City and County Archives; Cork Public Museum; National Library of Ireland; University College Dublin Archives; Trinity College Dublin Archives; Military Archives, Dublin; British Library; The National Archives, Kew; Archives of Irish America, New York University; Boston Public Library; Cleveland Public Library; FBI Headquarters; US Department of Homeland Security; Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library; Historical Society of Pennsylvania; Library of Congress; National Archives, College Park, Maryland; National Archives at New York City; New York Public Library; Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University; San José State University Special Collections; and the Western Reserve Historical Society. In particular, I would like to thank Christopher Cahill who allowed me to look at the American-Irish Historical Society collections while the society’s building was being refurbished. I would also like to thank Bente Polites and Michael Foight for granting me access to

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x

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the Special Collections at Villanova University for a week during the summer. Thank you as well to John O’Brien of the West Side Irish-American Club in Cleveland who allowed me to view the club’s historical meeting minutes. Gratitude must be expressed to Dr Suellen Hoy, Dr John Borgonovo, Dr Marie Coleman, Dr Brian Hanley, Dr Timothy Meagher, and Tim Pat Coogan for offering their personal insights on a variety of subject matters related to the research. I am also deeply indebted to Dr Jim Murphy, Peggy Calvey Patton, Judge Seán Gallagher, Bernie McCafferty, Fr Patrick Ryan, Seán Donlon, John and Melanie McKenna, Rev Robert Godley and Patricia and David Lobb for sharing personal collections, information and fascinating stories about friends and family. Over the past few years, the faculty and staff in the Department of History at the University of Limerick have been most helpful and supportive. Thank you to Dr Ciara Breathnach, Dr Odette Clarke, Dr David Fleming, Dr Raymond Friel, Dr Catherine Lawless, Dr Alistair Malcolm, Professor Anthony McElligott, Dr Mary McCarthy, Dr Richard Kirwan, Dr Catherine O’Connor, Dr Conor Reidy, Anne Marie O’Donnell and Susan Mulcahy. In particular, I would like to thank Dr John Logan, Dr John O’Callaghan and Dr Ruán O’Donnell for research and writing advice. Professor Marc Gallicchio and Professor Adele Lindenmeyr at Villanova University have offered invaluable advice and encouragement since I was an undergraduate student. Likewise, Dr Craig Bailey has been very supportive of this project from the outset. Professor Fred Israel has also provided a reassuring voice and assistance over the last decade. Thanks to Freyne Corbett, Adrian Cormican, Paul Hayes, Jeffrey Leddin, Martin Walsh, Tomás Mac Conmara, Stephen Ryan, Pádraig Óg O’Ruairc, Niamh Lenahan, Pat McMahon, Jo Baumgart, Dr Andro Rorua, Dr Mary Healy, Dr Amy Healy, Dr J.P. O’Connor and Dr Niamh O’Sullivan for making my postgraduate experience at the University of Limerick very enjoyable. During the researching and writing of this book, many family and friends have provided accommodation, transportation, laughs, and an abundance of support and encouragement. I would like to thank in particular Sarah, James and Serena O’Connell, Yvonne and Tony Martin, Leonie and Mick Mulcahy, Derek and Louise Wallace, Stephen Wilk and Jen Chalavoutis, Sheila Bridget and Cory Vilaplana, Matt, Erin, Johanna and Deirdre Schnell, Michael, Nuala and Pádraig Egan, Conor Egan, Orla and Chloe Kavanagh, Kitty and Frank Keohane, Mary Ryan, Dr Lorraine Ryan and Dr José Galán Ortega, Therese Ryan and Dan McCormack, Teresa de Lacy-Egan, Tony and Marie Egan, Joe and Marie Kerin, Brendan and Olivia O’Sullivan, Patrick and Judy Byrne, Greg, Jess, Mary and Bruce Sobin, Neasa Moloney, Fiona McAuliffe, Sarah O’Flaherty

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Acknowledgements

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and Keith Doherty, Mary McCabe, Paddy and Mary Glynn, Colm Foley, Mike Mastrocinque, Pat Palladino, Tara Kelly, Alex Athanasiadis, Breda Cleary, Jim Cody and Sue Knecht, Thomas and Gloria Cody, Kevin Cody and Ann Gaffney, Charlie and Laraine Jackson, Bob Handrahan, Sr Mary Ann Cody, Sr Claire Kulp, and Fr Tom Maloney. The sincerest thanks to my parents, Ted and Sheila Wilk who have always been my most influential and dedicated supporters. Finally, and most importantly, thank you to Siobhán for her patience, support and love during every step of this project.

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Abbreviations AARIR ACLU AFIN A&P A/C A/G C/S FBI FOIF GAA GAC ICPP INS IPL IRA IRB IRPDF IRT O/C SAC TWU

American Association for the Recognition of the Irish Republic American Civil Liberties Union American Friends of Irish Neutrality Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company Army Council Adjutant General Chief of Staff Federal Bureau of Investigation Friends of Irish Freedom Gaelic Athletic Association General Army Council International Committee for Political Prisoners Immigration and Naturalization Service Irish Progressive League Irish Republican Army Irish Republican Brotherhood IRA Soldiers’ and Prisoners’ Dependents’ Fund Interborough Rapid Transit Officer in Command Special Agent in Charge Transport Workers Union

Archives AIA CCCA FDRL HSP LAC LOC

Archives of Irish America Cork City and County Archives Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum Historical Society of Pennsylvania Library and Archives Canada Library of Congress Manuscript Division

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Abbreviations

xiii

NAB NACP

National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland NAI National Archives of Ireland NLI National Library of Ireland NYPL New York Public Library Manuscripts and Archives Division SJSUSC San José State University Special Collections and Archives TCDA Trinity College Dublin Archives TLRWLA Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives TNA The National Archives, Kew UCDA University College Dublin Archives USDOJ United States Department of Justice VUSC Villanova University Special Collections WRHS Western Reserve Historical Society

Records ASP BMH CNFFBI CNP DCGR DCP DFA DO D/T ÉdVP FAP FGP FO FWP GOP IAGB

Austin Stack Papers Bureau of Military History Cornelius Neenan File, FBI Connie Neenan Papers Ireland, Dublin Consulate, General Records Dennis Clark Papers Department of Foreign Affairs Dominions Office Papers Department of the Taoiseach Éamon de Valera Papers Frank Aiken Papers Frank Gallagher Papers Foreign Office Papers Frank P. Walsh Papers Gerald O’Reilly Papers Records of the Department of State relating to Internal Affairs of Great Britain IARINI Records of the Department of State Relating to Internal Affairs of the Republic of Ireland and of Northern Ireland ICPP International Committee for Political Prisoners Records, 1918–42 IRAFFBI Irish Republican Army File, FBI JBC John Byrne Collection

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xiv

Abbreviations

JCMOHC Jane Conlon Muller Oral History Collection JHP John Hearn Papers JMcGCVU Joseph McGarrity Collection, Villanova University JMcGFBI Joseph McGarrity File, FBI JMcGP Joseph McGarrity Papers, National Library of Ireland JMGP John M. Gallagher Papers JPMP James P. McGranery Papers JUS Department of Justice Papers KOP Kathleen O’Connell Papers MCIHP Maloney Collection of Irish Historical Papers MTP Maurice Twomey Papers NPRB Naturalization Petition and Record Books for the US District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, Eastern Division, Cleveland PCLNY Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York RFBI Records of the Federal Bureau of Investigation SFP Seamus Fitzgerald Papers USDOHS US Department of Homeland Security, US Citizenship and Immigration Services VCF Visa Case Files

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Preface In 1937 Dorothy Macardle’s The Irish Republic was first published. Written ‘from the viewpoint of an Irish Republican’, the book offered over 900 pages largely dedicated to the nationalist struggle in Ireland during the early twentieth century. Due to the admitted subjectivity of the author and the numerous accolades offered to Éamon de Valera throughout, this sweeping narrative was both admired and detested.1 Only fourteen years removed since the Irish Republican Army (IRA) ceasefire that ended the Irish Civil War, the book offered uncomfortable and controversial perspectives about the treatment of republicans during and after this conflict. In particular, Macardle described the social rejection that many IRA members faced as well as the harsh conditions they endured in prison. She also revealed that in the immediate years after the Civil War, legislation passed by the Irish Free State effectively ‘disfranchised’ republicans while also making it ‘extremely difficult for them to make a living’. After ‘abandoning hope’, Macardle concluded that these defeated IRA members subsequently ‘began to emigrate in thousands’.2 Although Macardle’s emigration estimates are certainly ambiguous, it is clear that these departures did leave a lasting impression on those republicans who remained in Ireland. Years later, former Kerry IRA leader John Joe Sheehy commented to a historian that the men who emigrated were ‘the best of Republicans … the very people that Ireland needed’.3 Tipperary IRA veteran Liam Carroll simply recalled, ‘The cream of the lads went to America’.4 For decades the memories of these IRA members who departed for the US after the Irish Civil War have provided a compelling footnote in the drama that was the Irish revolution. However, their subsequent lives in the US and republican activism in Irish-American communities have never been fully investigated. This book will attempt to fill in this historical gap and, by doing so, provide a clearer depiction of the militant republican movement in the US from 1923 to 1945. Since the early 1970s the Joseph McGarrity papers, located in the National Library of Ireland, have offered historians a glimpse into the Irish republican movement in the US during the early twentieth century.5 As the chairman

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from 1920 to 1940 of the US-based militant republican organisation, Clan na Gael, McGarrity was an influential figure in Irish-America and someone who had deep connections with many in the republican movement. During the late 1960s Seán Cronin, a journalist and former member of the IRA, and Marie Veronica Tarpey, a doctoral student, were granted access to McGarrity’s papers in Philadelphia before they were transferred to Dublin. Both subsequently produced works that centred on McGarrity’s life. However, largely missing in Cronin’s book and Tarpey’s thesis was a thorough inspection of the overall militant republican movement in the US during McGarrity’s Clan leadership. Most importantly, both historians neglected to uncover and recognise the role of IRA veterans in the US-based republican activism.6 Cronin and Tarpey were seriously hindered by the lack of complementary primary source material at the time. Tarpey was also forced to deal later with publishing obstacles imposed by Irish businessman, Cornelius (Connie) Neenan. Neenan was one of the most recognisable figures in Irish-American circles during the mid-twentieth century. An IRA veteran from Cork city, he first arrived in New York in 1926 where he served as the IRA representative in the US and later as the secretary of the Clan. From the early 1930s to the late 1960s he was a leading organiser of the American networks of the Irish Hospitals Sweepstake. He also served as the American representative for Waterford Crystal.7 After retiring in the early 1970s and returning permanently to Cork, Neenan became intent on establishing a legacy for himself and his friends who had been in the republican movement in the US. Upon reading both Cronin’s and Tarpey’s works on McGarrity, he was unimpressed. He was especially upset at Tarpey who mentioned McGarrity’s involvement with the Sweepstake after he warned her not to do so during a prior interview.8 For Tarpey this seemingly minor reference proved a major hindrance for future publishing goals. Neenan would not agree with the suggestion made in 1972 by Devin Garritty of Devin-Adair publishers that he subsidise a published biography of McGarrity authored by Tarpey. He also sharply criticised Tarpey’s thesis declaring that it was ‘incomplete’.9 With Neenan casting an overbearing shadow, it would take another four years until Tarpey’s original thesis, without any modifications or additions was published by Arno Press along with other theses in a forty-two volume ‘Irish-American experience’ series.10 In the early 1990s official government records were finally released in Ireland.11 In the immediate years that followed numerous private collections were also deposited in archival depositories across the country. Of these, the most significant in relation to the republican movement in the 1920s and 1930s were the papers of Maurice Twomey, the IRA chief of staff from 1926 to 1936. As revealed by Brian Hanley in The IRA, 1926–1936, Twomey saved detailed

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records.12 Amongst these documents is correspondence that existed between IRA leadership and Connie Neenan during the 1920s and 1930s. In the collection are also IRA Foreign Reserve applications, which provide the names and details of over 400 IRA veterans who emigrated to the US. The information provided on each form is important for it offers a contextual record as well as an initial framework for American settlement patterns. From these documents found in the Twomey papers, the foundation for this book was formed. This new material not only enriches the understanding of the McGarrity papers, it provides an important context from which other collections in Ireland, including the Éamon de Valera papers and Frank Aiken papers at University College Dublin Archives, can be examined. Additionally, the Twomey collection offers a significant complement to Connie Neenan’s unpublished memoirs, first made available in the Cork City and County Archives in 2007. Extensive research for this book has also occurred in the US. Accessions located in various American repositories demonstrate the broad scope of the militant republican movement and have assisted in uncovering important local dimensions. For example, the New York Public Library’s records of the International Committee for Political Prisoners (ICPP), comprises a clear description of how the Clan orchestrated a publicity campaign in 1931 to 1932 against certain Irish Free State coercion policies. The papers of John M. Gallagher, the Cleveland Clan treasurer, found in the Western Reserve Historical Society in Cleveland, portray that city’s close relationship with Mayo IRA veterans arriving during the 1920s. Joseph McGarrity’s diaries from the late 1930s, found in the McGarrity collection at the Falvey Memorial Library Special Collections at Villanova University, offer valuable insight into McGarrity’s perspectives and goals during the period. In San José, California, the John Byrne collection in the San José State University Library Special Collections and Archives introduces documents that describe how Irish-Americans helped IRA veterans, including those ill with tuberculosis, who arrived in the state. The covert nature of the militant republican movement and its possible subversive threat meant that certain republicans would at times be referenced in government records in Ireland, the US and Britain. In Ireland the files of the Department of the Taoiseach, Department of Justice and the Department of Foreign Affairs have been consulted for this work. In the US, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) documents related to Connie Neenan have shed new light on his individual activism. FBI and US Department of State records from the late 1930s have also offered a revealing glimpse into the transatlantic republican connections of this period. This material, along with British Foreign Office and security files located at The National Archives of the United Kingdom and Irish

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intelligence documents found in the Irish Military Archives, have also assisted in understanding the restrictive dynamics of the republican movement during the Second World War. As will be seen in this book, the transatlantic shipping channels developed by the Clan meant that republicans would at times traverse the Atlantic Ocean aboard passenger ships much more than the average individual during the period. This actual movement can be traced today using passenger ship records located at www.ancestry.com. Besides displaying the Irish departures and American arrivals of these republicans, the ship manifests also contain valuable background information, including points of origin and destination as well as the friends and family who were waiting for them in the US. The inter-connection between the communities in Ireland and the US is brought to life through these records. Another useful resource which has been utilised in documenting the advancement of IRA veterans in the US, are the available census records, also found at www.ancestry.com. The fact that these IRA veterans who emigrated to the US have been absent from the historical record for such a long period of time portrays the profound difficulties in examining a transnational movement dependent on certain clandestine components. Equally revealing are the lack of historical documents devoted to US-based female republicans. It is clear that there were a number of Cumann na mBan members who emigrated to the US in the 1920s. Although some would continue their republican activism in Irish-American centres women were, for the most part, not represented adequately in local and national republican leadership circles.13 Subsequently, they were unfortunately more often than not omitted from historical documentation. Because of these variables female republicans are not featured extensively in the following narrative. What this book will reveal, however, is that the militant republican movement in the US from the mid-1920s to the end of the Second World War was influenced to a large degree by IRA veterans who emigrated to the US after the Irish Civil War. Chapter 1 provides an important historical context for the narrative. It reveals the development of Irish nationalism in the US and describes how Irish-American centres became sanctuaries for exiled Irish nationalists. Chapter 2 is primarily concerned with detailing the militant republican movement in the US from the final months of the Irish Civil War to 1926. The national and local dynamics of the Clan are presented, as well as the influential Irish personalities who attempted to dictate events from afar. Chapter 3 incorporates the IRA veterans into the narrative and ascertains why certain republicans emigrated, as well as how they actually arrived in the US, both legally and illegally. Their adjustment into American life is also presented. Chapter 4 details how the Clan and IRA began official co-ordination and describes how IRA veterans began

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to become integral features of the US-based militant republican movement. Chapter 5 covers the period from 1931 to 1935. The Clan’s efforts in organising a campaign against Irish Free State coercion measures are brought forward, as well as the growing ideological differences that began to appear between itself and the IRA. Chapter 6 describes how the Great Depression affected IRA veterans in the US. Unemployment, return migration, as well as the growing connection between the Clan and the Irish Hospitals Sweepstake is presented. Chapter 7 details how Joseph McGarrity, along with committed IRA veterans, funded and co-ordinated an IRA bombing campaign in England and at one point garnered the attention of the American public and the US president with a propaganda stunt that had national and international ramifications. Chapter 8 offers a revealing glimpse into the complex dynamics of the militant republican movement in the US during the Second World War. The Clan’s public and underground activities during this highly restrictive period are disclosed. Also included in this chapter are details related to the actions undertaken by the US government to infiltrate and undermine transatlantic republican networks. Throughout the following pages new and important revelations about the militant republican movement in the US from 1923 to 1945 will be described in detail. With the inclusion of the IRA veterans in the narrative the most important dynamic of the movement during this period will finally be included. Not only will this addition critically enhance the context and understanding of militant Irish republicanism in the US in the immediate decades after the Irish Civil War, but the lives and activism of a number of IRA veterans in the US will also be disclosed. After years of historical neglect those displaced IRA veterans who were abruptly lost in Irish history will now be reclaimed in the American setting.

Notes  1 Dorothy Macardle, The Irish Republic (Corgi edition, London, 1968), 23; Eunan O’Halpin, ‘Historical revisit: Dorothy Macardle, The Irish Republic (1937)’, Irish Historical Studies, 31:123 (May 1999), 389–94.  2 Macardle, The Irish Republic, 804–5.   3 Uinseánn MacEoin, Survivors (Dublin, 1980), 360.   4 Ibid., 274.   5 The collection arrived at the National Library of Ireland (hereafter NLI) in late 1971. By 1973, the papers were completely organised and catalogued. See Irish Press, 10 December 1971, 17 October 1973.   6 Seán Cronin, The McGarrity papers: revelations of the Irish revolutionary movement in Ireland and America 1900–1940 (Tralee, 1971); Marie Veronica Tarpey, The role of Joseph

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McGarrity in the struggle for Irish independence (New York, 1976). For more information on the life of Seán Cronin, see his obituary in the Irish Times, 10 March 2011.   7 Marie Coleman, The Irish Sweep: a history of the Irish Hospitals Sweepstake 1930–87 (Dublin, 2009), 124–5.   8 Cork City and County Archives (hereafter CCCA), Connie Neenan Papers (hereafter CNP), PR7/11, Neenan to Tarpey, 23 July 1972.   9 Ibid.; CCCA, CNP, PR7/11, Garrity to Tarpey, 10 May 1972; CCCA, CNP, PR7/11, Neenan to Mary McGarrity, 29 August 1972; CCCA, CNP, PR7/12, Neenan to Nolan, 30 June 1972. 10 Tarpey, The role of Joseph McGarrity; J.J. Lee, ‘Introduction: Interpreting Irish America’, in J.J. Lee and Marion R. Casey (eds), Making the Irish American: history and heritage of the Irish in the United States (New York, 2006), 11. 11 Tom Garvin, 1922: the birth of Irish democracy (2nd ed., Dublin, 2005), iv. 12 Brian Hanley, The IRA, 1926–1936 (Dublin, 2002), 9. 13 Examples of Cumann na mBan members who emigrated include Nora McKenna (née Brosnan), originally from Castlegregory, county Kerry; Ella Young, originally from Fenagh, county Antrim; Hanna Robinson (née Duggan), originally from Cork city; and Nellie Murray (née Hoyne), originally from Kilkenny city. Murray as detailed later, would in fact become a republican leader in Los Angeles, California. See Sinead McCoole, No ordinary women: Irish female activists in the revolutionary years 1900–1923 (Madison, 2003), 109, 213–14, 160–1; An Phoblacht, 11 October 1930; NLI, Joseph McGarrity Papers (hereafter JMcGP), Ms. 17,546 (2), Murray to McGarrity, 29 May 1939; Irish Echo, 20–26 December 1995.

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1 Introduction: ‘Out of Ireland, I never shall be happy’ On 12 December 1922 the SS Majestic arrived at Ellis Island in NewYork Harbor after a seven day voyage from Southampton, England. Amongst the passengers disembarking was Seán Moylan, an IRA leader from county Cork. Moylan had travelled across the Atlantic Ocean with forged travel documents, including a passport which listed him as ‘John Morris’, a machinist from Manchester, England. As American immigration inspectors processed Moylan they failed to notice any irregularities and he was allowed to proceed into New York for his supposed three month stay.1 Little did they know that Moylan was the director of operations for the IRA, and since the Irish Civil War had begun nearly six months earlier, he had been involved in military activities intended to destabilise the newly formed provisional Government of Southern Ireland. With the IRA facing difficulties in their guerrilla campaign, Moylan had been selected by IRA Chief of Staff Liam Lynch to travel to the US and seek American assistance.2 The decision to send Moylan to the US was not a random act. Instead, it was an attempt by the IRA to once again inspire Irish nationalist forces in the US. For over a century the US had provided a relatively safe base for displaced republicans like Moylan to continue and expand their activism. Irish-American centres also had a long history of providing important funding and publicity channels. Exiles from the failed United Irish movement who emigrated to the US during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century were the first nationalists to become immersed in American society.3 In fact, United Irishman Theobald Wolfe Tone spent five months in the US during 1795.4 Tone’s simple but direct message, written during October 1795 from his temporary residence outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, describing that ‘out of Ireland, I never shall be happy’, would be repeated by many future Irish revolutionaries who followed him.5 His life and deep commitment to Irish independence, which resulted in his death in 1798, would serve as the inspiration for all dedicated to Irish nationalism in Ireland and in the US.6

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Transatlantic defiance

The development of ‘Irish-America’ in the early nineteenth century was a gradual process mainly due to the broad dispersal of local communities. Many of the estimated 800,000 to 1,000,000 Irish emigrants who arrived in the US between 1815 and 1845 faced individual hardships, including extreme prejudice derived from nativist sentiment.7 Eventually, the difficulties encountered by them would encourage collective resistance through the formation of trade unions.8 The establishment of the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH) in 1836 and this organisation’s commitment to ‘Friendship, Unity, and True Christian Charity’ provided another outlet for Irish emigrants to work together as one concerted voice in American society.9 The importance of the AOH was dramatically expanded in the middle part of the nineteenth century, mainly due to the influx of emigrants who arrived in the US during the years of the Great Famine.10 Between 1845 and 1855 the population of Ireland dramatically decreased from 8.5 million to 6 million people.11 Nearly 1.5 million of these emigrants arrived directly in the US, with a large percentage arriving in the urban centres in the northern tier of the country, stretching along the northeast and mid-Atlantic to the west coast.12 Emigrants settled into large cities including New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago and San Francisco, and also became established in the smaller locations of St Louis, Missouri, Jersey City, New Jersey, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Providence, Rhode Island and Cleveland, Ohio.13 From these immigrant alcoves Irish emigrants were forced to adapt individually and collectively to new lives in difficult and squalid conditions. For some extreme bitterness arose, especially when confronted with discrimination.14 Radical emotions were further stimulated by the arrival of members of the Young Ireland movement who, in 1848, had led a failed uprising in Ireland.15 Indeed, John Mitchel, a former Young Irelander who arrived in New York in 1853 after being rescued from Australia, was extremely forthright in what he planned to accomplish in the US. As a ‘professed revolutionary’, Mitchel explained that he was ‘to make use of the freedom guaranteed to me’ and that he would in the US ‘help and stimulate the movement of European Democracy and especially of Irish independence’. He also hoped to ‘claim for the revolutionary refugees … not only the hospitality and comity of America, but also her sympathy and active friendship’.16 Mitchel’s fervent message was carried out by two of his former Young Ireland conspirators, John O’Mahoney and Michael Doheny, who set up the Emmet Monument Association in New York.17 In 1858 O’Mahoney and Doheny contacted another former Young Irelander, James Stephens, about the possibility of organising an armed rebellion in Ireland. After receiving proof that American financial assistance existed Stephens, on 17 March 1858, along with six other men formally announced their intention ‘to make Ireland an independent Democratic republic’. Arising from this pledge

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Introduction

3

was the creation of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB).18 Later in the year, Stephens travelled to the US where he raised nearly £600.19 Upon returning to Ireland Stephens left behind the nucleus of a republican organisation in the US called the Fenian Brotherhood.20 With the onset of the American Civil War in 1861 developing Irish nationalist goals were cast aside for the moment to focus on US concerns. Many Fenians who joined either the Union or Confederate armies were exposed to the rigours and technology of modern warfare.21 The act of organising Irish-American regiments also assisted in the development of Irish nationalism.22 Stephens attempted to capitalise on this era of hard-line militarism and, in 1864, returned to the US to recruit men for a future insurrection in Ireland.23 In the months after the culmination of the Civil War British consulates in the US began reporting that suspicious men were departing for Ireland with the hopes of inciting a rebellion.24 As the British government grew wary of possible social unrest in Ireland the right of habeus corpus was suspended in February 1866.25 Stephens returned to the US once again and attempted to solidify a Fenian movement which, at the time, had become severely fractured. His efforts to unite the organisation failed and the two US Fenian factions launched two separate, ill-advised and unsuccessful military incursions into Canadian territory.26 In March 1867 the long-planned Fenian uprising occurred but was abruptly thwarted by British authorities.27 In order to suppress any future subversive activities numerous Fenians were arrested. In Manchester, England, a police officer guarding a van carrying two Fenian prisoners was shot and killed. Three suspects, William Allen, Philip Larkin and Michael O’Brien, were subsequently executed.28 This event, as well as the continued imprisonment of Fenians in Irish and British jails, brought widespread anger to Irish communities in the US. Subsequently, a new form of political consciousness began to develop amongst Irish-Americans and, in many cases, they were supported locally and nationally by US politicians who recognised the importance of the ‘Irish vote’.29 The arrival in 1871 of twenty-nine year old county Kildare native and wellknown Fenian, John Devoy, offered a young voice and a new dynamic leader for the Irish nationalist movement in the US.30 One of Devoy’s first acts after arriving was to join the Clan na Gael, an Irish nationalist organisation which had been established four years earlier from the remnants of the Fenian Brotherhood. The Clan was a secret national organisation, composed of local districts in the major Irish-American centres across the US, and centrally controlled by an Executive Council, consisting of a chairman, secretary and treasurer.31 By 1873 Devoy had become one of the dominant personalities in the Clan. In 1876 he helped to raise his public stature and the Clan’s credibility after successfully organising a dramatic rescue of six Fenian prisoners from western Australia.32

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As Ireland became embroiled in land agitation during the late 1870s Michael Davitt, a leader in the Irish land movement, arrived in the US during 1878 and met with Devoy. Through the influence of Devoy and the Clan, Davitt and others adopted a new programme called the New Departure, which joined together agrarian reform with a new Home Rule movement led by Irish Parliamentary Party leader Charles Stewart Parnell.33 By this time the Clan had become a powerful organisation consisting of upwards of 11,000 members and had also formally aligned itself with the IRB.34 Devoy’s continued personal involvement in Irish affairs was exhibited when he illegally returned to Ireland in 1879 and met with Davitt, Parnell and leaders of the IRB.35 One year later the Clan supported Parnell during his US tour and assisted in the creation of the Irish National Land League of America.36 The progress exhibited by the joint constitutional and militant dimensions of the nationalist movement began to falter in 1881 as Parnell separated from his radical supporters. Concurrently, Devoy and Davitt broke their alliance.37 Devoy also resigned from the Clan’s revolutionary directory during this year to devote more time to his fledgling newspaper, The Irish Nation.38 After his departure the Clan struggled and its new leader, Chicago attorney Alexander Sullivan, proved inadequate and controversial. Under Sullivan’s guidance the organisation conducted a dynamite campaign in England, orchestrated largely by Clan members who had travelled there secretly.39 This campaign proved deeply divisive for Parnell and Davitt believed the militancy would seriously hinder the home rule cause. Furthermore, the IRB did not authorise the campaign.40 By 1887 Devoy, disturbed at the lack of coherent direction in the Clan, created his own rival organisation. He attempted an accord with Sullivan and his allies, but the murder of his supporter Dr Henry Cronin in Chicago in 1889 by an associate of Sullivan ended any possibility of reconciliation.41 In Ireland the political momentum created earlier in the decade had evaporated by 1886 as a Home Rule bill failed to pass in the British Parliament. Five years later Parnell died as he struggled to salvage a political career overcome by a personal scandal and, in 1893, a revised Home Rule bill once again failed to receive parliamentary approval.42 During the 1890s Irish-American communities demonstrated a renewed sense of Irish nationalism along with anti-British sentiment. A large percentage of Irish-Americans during the end of the decade supported the Boers in their fight against the British in the South African republics.43 It is also clear that during this period Irish-Americans represented a major funding base for Irish nationalist causes. For example, in 1901 new Irish Parliamentary Party leader John Redmond travelled to the US and subsequently created the United Irish League of America. One year later nearly 200 branches existed across the country.44 By this time the fractured Clan had been reunited through the efforts

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of John Devoy and Irish-American attorney, Daniel Cohalan. Under their leadership the Clan not only continued to support Irish nationalism but also instilled a greater commitment to American issues and anti-British propaganda.45 Concurrently a new ‘Irish-Ireland’ movement, which encouraged cultural nationalism, began to develop across Ireland. In 1907 various forces associated with ‘Irish-Ireland’ joined together to form the Sinn Féin party. The original policy of Sinn Féin, as outlined by journalist and founder Arthur Griffith, drew out Irish nationalistic ideas by merging the concepts of economic selfdetermination and citizenship.46 These principles were supported by the revolutionary minded IRB and were also emulated in the US as John Devoy and Daniel Cohalan supported the Gaelic League.47 Devoy’s fledgling newspaper, the Gaelic American, helped to spread these cultural messages to an American audience. This newspaper also became a major medium for anti-British propaganda.48 From 1911 to 1912 the Clan organised a protest against a proposed arbitration treaty between Britain and the US which was facing US Senate ratification. According to the propaganda presented, this alliance would cause the US to become intertwined in British affairs and cripple future American foreign policy decisions.49 The accord was, in fact, not passed by Congress and a renewed sense of political consciousness began once again to overtake certain Irish-American circles.50 In 1912 events in Ireland gained momentum and, after a series of legislative measures in the British Parliament, a Home Rule bill was introduced. This deeply angered Ulster unionists and, out of protest, they formed the militant Ulster Volunteer Force in January 1913. Eleven months later, in a direct response to this move, committed Irish nationalists formed the Irish Volunteers.51 It would take another six months for the Clan to organise a national meeting in the US, which created the American Volunteer Fund for the purpose of purchasing weapons for the Volunteers.52 In July 1914 Roger Casement, one of the founders of the Irish Volunteers, travelled to the US where he met with Clan leaders and embarked on a fundraising mission. His efforts were greatly helped after reports surfaced that a German weapons shipment destined for the Irish Volunteers had arrived in Howth, county Dublin.53 In order to strengthen the developing relationship between the Germans and the Irish Volunteers, Casement, two months after the outbreak of the First World War, departed secretly for Germany in October. His covert transatlantic passage was assisted by the Clan.54 John Redmond’s support for the British war efforts during the early stages of the First World War proved severely detrimental to the fundraising fortunes of the Irish Parliamentary Party in both Ireland and the US. The Clan, on the other hand, continued to publicise its support for Germany through the Gaelic American. This position proved controversial at times and was not fully accepted

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by Irish-Americans.55 In order to attract greater nationwide assistance John Devoy and Daniel Cohalan organised an Irish Race Convention on 4 March 1916 which brought 2,300 people together from many social backgrounds. Most importantly, a new public organisation, the Friends of Irish Freedom (FOIF), was formed.56 Public branches were created across the US and in the process the Clan, through the support of the FOIF, solidified its American-centric policies.57 The Clan still assisted in organising secret military activities with the IRB, as seen in early 1916 when it directly co-ordinated a shipment of German weapons to Ireland supposed to assist in a planned uprising. Although the German ship, the Aud, was obstructed by British authorities, the planned Easter Rising proceeded. After a week of fighting in Dublin many of the participants were arrested and imprisoned and fifteen of the leaders were executed.58 As the news of the Rising and the executions reached the US the forces of the FOIF immediately began to raise funds and seek support from Irish-American leaders.59 By 1917 leading Irish figures, including Liam Mellows and Hanna Sheehy Skeffington, were in the US soliciting further support from both Irish-Americans and the US government.60 The Irish question, however, subsequently became obscured after the US declared war on Germany in April 1917 and entered the First World War. The FOIF, along with the Clan, were publicly forced to support the American war efforts against Germany. The fact that the US was now aligned with Britain caused the FOIF to carefully consider the publication of any anti-British statements.61 As the FOIF struggled to maintain a semblance of balance amidst the growing international crisis, the Irish question suddenly lost an intrinsic value in the American public eye. Irish republicans who had arrived after the Easter Rising hoping for assistance in the US subsequently took it upon themselves to organise their own organisation called the Irish Progressive League (IPL). The IPL directly competed with the FOIF for public attention and began to draw support from leading Irish-American nationalists including Philadelphia Clan leader Joseph McGarrity.62 Upon the conclusion of the First World War the Irish question regained national prominence in the US, especially after the Sinn Féin success in the British general election of 1918 and as the IRA guerrilla campaign began.63 Although membership of the FOIF dramatically expanded to 70,000 by December 1919 the organisation’s major commitment to campaigning against the League of Nations disturbed certain Clan members, including McGarrity, who believed greater funding was needed for Irish purposes. McGarrity was most upset that money which had been raised was distributed for FOIF publicity purposes, leaving little for Sinn Féin political goals.64 The arrival of Sinn Féin President Éamon de Valera to the US in 1919 exacerbated the growing internal difficulties in the Clan and FOIF. Fully intent on

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securing funds for Sinn Féin, de Valera clashed with Devoy and Cohalan. De Valera’s personal appeal during the 1920 Republican party national convention, in which he requested that the party pass a resolution recognising the Republic of Ireland, directly interfered with another Cohalan-led resolution asking for Irish self-determination.65 By October US-based Sinn Féin representative and IRB member Harry Boland renounced any connection between Sinn Féin and Devoy and Cohalan.66 A new public organisation called the American Association for the Recognition of the Irish Republic (AARIR), which directly supported de Valera, was created.67 Also, a ‘re-organised’ Clan with McGarrity as chairman and fellow Philadelphia Clan member Luke Dillon as secretary, was now directly aligned with the political and militant republican forces in Ireland.68 Although possessing different backgrounds and personalities, McGarrity and Dillon were bonded by a fierce devotion to Irish republicanism. Originally from Carrickmore, county Tyrone, McGarrity arrived in Philadelphia in 1892 at the age of seventeen.69 One year later he joined the Clan and in 1904 he was named the Philadelphia district officer. Known as ‘the best friend’ for republican activism in the US, McGarrity’s determination endeared him to many Irish republicans, including Boland and de Valera.70 Possessing unique organisational, inter-personal and business skills, he became an important fundraiser.71 He also exhibited a strong passion for writing and used these skills while serving as the editor of his newspaper, the Irish Press, which ran from 1918 to 1922.72 Dillon, on the other hand, was known simply by his admirers as the ‘hardest man’. For the majority of his life he personally waged a war against the British for the cause of Irish republicanism, without ever setting foot in Ireland.73 Born to Irish parents in Leeds, England, at the age of six he emigrated to the US with them in 1856 and eventually settled in Philadelphia. As a young man he joined the US Army in 1867 and served until 1870. He returned to Philadelphia, joined a Clan club in the city and became a highly respected member. He secretly travelled to England and assisted in two republican-led dynamite campaigns during 1884 and 1885 and escaped to the US on both occasions. When the Boer War broke out in South Africa Dillon went to Canada and attempted to bomb the locks of the Welland Canal in 1900, hoping to disrupt the transportation of British ships carrying grain to British troops. The sabotage operation proved unsuccessful and he was arrested, convicted and imprisoned until 1914. Upon release he immediately returned to republican activism and re-emerged as an important senior figure in the Philadelphia Clan.74 With McGarrity and Dillon at the leadership helm of a new Clan that fully supported the IRA and Sinn Féin, the two republicans moved quickly to unify Clan members scattered across the US who maintained an allegiance to them

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and the republican movement in Ireland.75 After the declared truce between the IRA and the British government in July 1921, the Clan, along with all Irish organisations in the US, limited their public and private activities.76 The subsequent Anglo-Irish Treaty in December was, for the most part, considered a sufficient compromise amongst a large percentage of Irish-Americans in the US. However, this agreement, which created the dominion of the Irish Free State and upheld partition, fell short of steadfast republican aspirations.77 The debates in Dáil Éireann and the acceptance of the Treaty on 7 January 1922 by sixty-four votes to fifty-seven portrayed just how divided Irish leaders had become.78 The ensuing separation of pro-Treaty and anti-Treaty supporters behind their respective leaders, Michael Collins and Éamon de Valera, caused great division and disorientation amongst republican sympathisers in Ireland.79 Confusion was also mirrored in the US as Irish-Americans, their organisations and leaders grappled with how to deal with the complex issues. By March 1922 the FOIF stated its support for the Treaty and blamed de Valera for the divisions that had occurred. The AARIR, on the other hand, stood behind de Valera and his position against the Treaty.80 The Clan also remained loyal to de Valera and the anti-Treaty forces. During February 1922 McGarrity travelled to Ireland where he unsuccessfully attempted to broker a deal between de Valera and Collins. Most importantly, on behalf of the Clan, he presented $17,000 to the anti-Treaty IRA.81 The internal issues dominating Irish politics were transported to the US during this time as well when both pro-Treaty provisional government and antiTreaty Sinn Féin representatives began arriving in the country.82 After an Irish general election victory in June for the pro-Treaty candidates and the assassination of Sir Henry Wilson a few days later by a suspected IRA squad, anti-Treaty IRA forces which had taken over the Four Courts in Dublin months earlier were viewed by the British as extreme liabilities for any future state stability. These men were duly attacked by the Irish National Army on 28 June, marking the beginning of the Irish Civil War.83 The deaths of Harry Boland and Michael Collins in August made it clear to all Irish-American activists that the situation in Ireland had become extremely serious.84 However, for the Clan, the organisation’s commitment to the IRA meant that members would be expected to do much more than follow passively from afar.

Notes   1 Aideen Carroll, Seán Moylan: rebel leader (Cork, 2010), 186–99; National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC (hereafter NAB), Records of the INS,

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Record Group 85 (hereafter RG 85), Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1897–1957 (hereafter PCLNY, 1897–1957), entry for ‘John Morris’ [Seán Moylan], arrived 12 December 1922 on SS Majestic, Microfilm Serial T715, Microfilm Roll 3231, Page Number 39, Line 29 (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 4 April 2012).  2 University College Dublin Archives (hereafter UCDA), Éamon de Valera Papers (hereafter ÉdVP), P150/1268, IRA Chief of Staff to Moylan, 1 December 1922; UCDA, ÉdVP, P150/1268, Moylan statement, c. June 1923.   3 David A. Wilson, United Irishmen, United States: immigrant radicals in the early Republic (Dublin, 1998), 179.   4 Marianne Elliott, Wolfe Tone: prophet of Irish independence (New Haven, 1989), 261–78.   5 Tone to Russell, 25 October 1795, cited in T.W. Moody, R.B. McDowell and C.J. Woods (eds), The writings of Theobald Wolfe Tone, 1763–98 (3 vols, Oxford, 1998, 2001, 2007), ii, 30.  6 Elliott, Wolfe Tone, 402.  7 Kerby A. Miller, Emigrants and exiles: Ireland and the Irish exodus to North America (Oxford, 1985), 193, 274–9; Michael Doorley, Irish-American diaspora nationalism: the Friends of Irish Freedom 1916–1935 (Dublin, 2005), 10.   8 Ibid., 65.   9 Michael F. Funchion, ‘Ancient Order of Hibernians in America’, in M. F. Funchion (ed.), Irish American voluntary organizations (Westport, 1983), 51. 10 Ibid. 11 Miller, Emigrants and exiles, 346. 12 Kevin Kenny, The American Irish: a history (Harlow, 2000), 89–90, 104–6. 13 Ibid., 105–7. 14 Thomas N. Brown, Irish-American nationalism, 1870–1890 (Philadelphia, 1966), 23. 15 Ibid., 12–15; Lawrence J. McCaffrey, The Irish Catholic diaspora in America (Washington, DC, 1997), 144. 16 Quoted in Alan J. Ward, Ireland and Anglo-American relations 1899–1921 (London, 1969), 7–8. 17 Robert Kee, The green flag: a history of Irish nationalism (London, 2000), 306; William D’Arcy, The Fenian movement in the United States: 1858–1886 (2nd ed., New York, 1971), 6. 18 James Stephens, The birth of the Fenian movement: American diary, Brooklyn 1859, ed. Marta Ramón (Dublin, 2009), xii; Kee, The green flag, 307–9; Owen McGee, The IRB: the Irish Republican Brotherhood from the Land League to Sinn Féin (Dublin, 2005), 15. 19 Kee, The green flag, 310. 20 Ibid. 21 Seán Cronin, ‘The Fenians and Clan na Gael’, in Michael Glazier (ed.), The encyclopedia of the Irish in America (Notre Dame, 1999), 317. 22 Brian Jenkins, Fenians and Anglo-American relations during Reconstruction (Ithaca, 1969), 28. 23 Kee, The green flag, 316.

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24 Bernadette Whelan, American government in Ireland, 1790–1913: a history of the US consular service (Manchester, 2010), 158–62. 25 Terence Dooley, ‘The greatest of the Fenians’: John Devoy and Ireland (Dublin, 2003), 53. 26 Kee, The green flag, 324–7. 27 Ibid., 330–40. 28 Ibid., 341–4. 29 Charles Callan Tansill, America and the fight for Irish freedom: 1866–1922 (New York, 1957), 36. 30 Dooley, ‘The greatest of the Fenians’, 79–80; Brown, Irish-American nationalism, xiv. 31 Michael F. Funchion, ‘Clan na Gael’, in M.F. Funchion (ed.), Irish American voluntary organizations (Westport, 1983), 75. 32 Ibid.; Terry Golway, Irish rebel: John Devoy and America’s fight for Ireland’s freedom (New York, 1998), 72–86. 33 Dooley, The greatest of the Fenians’, 91–5. 34 Funchion ‘Clan na Gael’, 74; Golway, Irish rebel, 79, McGee, The IRB, 55. 35 Dooley, ‘The greatest of the Fenians’, 96–9; Golway, Irish rebel, 117–22. 36 Funchion, ‘Clan na Gael’, 77–8. 37 Ibid., 178. 38 Golway, Irish rebel, 142–3. 39 For futher background information on Sullivan, see Michael F. Funchion, Chicago’s Irish nationalists, 1881–1890 (New York, 1976), 29–30; Funchion, ‘Clan na Gael’, 79. For information regarding the dynamite campaign, see Niall Whelehan, The Dynamiters: Irish nationalism and political violence in the wider world, 1867–1900 (Cambridge, 2012); Shane Kenna, War in the shadows: the Irish-American Fenians who bombed Victorian Britain (Dublin, 2013); K.R.M. Short, The dynamite war: Irish-American bombers in Victorian Britain (Dublin, 1979). 40 Funchion, ‘Clan na Gael’, 79. 41 Ibid., 79–80. For more information on the murder of Cronin, see Michael F. Funchion, Chicago’s Irish nationalists, 105–23. 42 D. George Boyce, Nineteenth century Ireland: the search for stability (2nd ed., Dublin, 2005), 192–8. 43 Tansill, America and the fight for Irish freedom, 114–15. 44 Kenny, The American Irish, 193; Boyce, Nineteenth century Ireland, 243. 45 Funchion, ‘Clan na Gael’, 74–5; Kenny, The American Irish, 171–9; Doorley, IrishAmerican diaspora nationalism, 26–8. 46 McGee, The IRB, 311; Michael Laffan, The resurrection of Ireland: the Sinn Féin Party, 1916–1923 (Cambridge, 1999), 25. 47 McGee, The IRB, 320; Úna Ní Bhroiméil, Building Irish identity in America, 1870–1915: the Gaelic revival (Dublin, 2003), 53–4. 48 McGee, The IRB, 306–7; Doorley, Irish-American diaspora nationalism, 27–30. 49 Ward, Ireland and Anglo-American relations 1899–1921, 65–9.

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50 Ibid., 68–9; Bernadette Whelan, United States foreign policy and Ireland: from empire to independence, 1913–29 (Dublin, 2006), 29–30; Joseph P. O’Grady, How the Irish became Americans (New York, 1973), 117–19. 51 J.J. Lee, Ireland 1912–1985: politics and society (Cambridge, 1989), 6–8, 17–18. 52 Francis M. Carroll, American opinion and the Irish question 1910–23: a study in opinion and policy (Dublin, 1978), 31–2. 53 Ibid., 35; Seán Cronin, The McGarrity papers, 50–2. 54 Cronin, The McGarrity papers, 52–5. 55 Carroll, American opinion and the Irish question, 46–8. 56 Ibid., 51–4; Doorley, Irish-American diaspora nationalism, 36–40. 57 Doorley, 40–1. 58 Funchion, ‘Clan na Gael’, 86–7. 59 Doorley, Irish-American diaspora nationalism, 52–3. 60 Whelan, United States foreign policy, 125–6. 61 Doorley, Irish-American diaspora nationalism, 60–1. 62 Ibid., 72–4. 63 Ibid., 105–6; Funchion ‘Clan na Gael’, 87. 64 After much deliberation, eventually $250,000 was sent to Ireland for Sinn Féin purposes. See Doorley, Irish-American diaspora nationalism, 97–9. 65 Doorley, Irish-American diaspora nationalism, 128–9. 66 David Fitzpatrick, Harry Boland’s Irish revolution (Cork, 2003), 147; Funchion, ‘Clan na Gael’, 89. 67 Doorley, Irish-American diaspora nationalism, 134. 68 Cronin, The McGarrity papers, 96. 69 Marie V. Tarpey, ‘Joseph McGarrity, fighter for Irish freedom’, Studia Hibernica, 11 (1971), 164, 169. 70 UCDA, ÉdVP, P150/1267, Connolly to MacNeill, 2 February1922; Tarpey, ‘Joseph McGarrity, fighter for Irish freedom’, 169–72. 71 Tarpey, ‘Joseph McGarrity, fighter for Irish freedom’, 169–72. 72 Tarpey, The role of Joseph McGarrity, 102, 171. 73 Dennis Clark, The Irish relations: trials of an immigrant tradition (East Brunswick, 1982), 122–4. 74 Irish World, 18 January 1930; Cronin, The McGarrity papers, 38–9, 51; Clark, The Irish relations, 120–3; NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,448, Luke Dillon statement, signed by Colonel by Brevit, C.D. Emery, Commanding Company, 27 August 1870; CCCA, CNP, PR7/7, Connie Neenan memoirs, 131. 75 Cronin, The McGarrity papers, 93–8. 76 Carroll, American opinion and the Irish question,176–9. 77 Ibid., 179–80. 78 Lee, Ireland 1912–1985, 54. 79 Ibid., 56–8. 80 Carroll, American opinion and the Irish question, 180–2. 81 Tarpey, The role of Joseph McGarrity, 153–8.

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82 Whelan, United States foreign policy, 382; Carroll, American opinion and the Irish question, 180–4. 83 Michael Hopkinson, Green against green: the Irish Civil War (2nd ed., Dublin, 2004), 110–22. 84 Tarpey, The role of Joseph McGarrity, 174–5, 182–3.

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2 The search for direction, 1923–6 The decision to send Seán Moylan to the US in autumn 1922 was made by the leadership of the IRA in co-ordination with their political counterpart, Sinn Féin. In October the two republican bodies had become officially aligned under Éamon de Valera’s newly formed anti-Treaty republican government following the establishment of the Second Dáil Éireann. Recognising the necessity for American assistance, representatives from both bodies were sent to the US. Upon arriving in New York Moylan joined Sinn Féin representatives J.J. O’Kelly (Sceilg) and Joseph O’Doherty, along with fellow Cork IRA leader, Michael Leahy.1 For the next four years the republican movement in the US would be dominated by political and militant forces such as these from Ireland.

Pursuit of ‘unity’ After Leahy left for California for health reasons, Moylan was joined in early March by Donal O’Leary, another Cork IRA member.2 The two operated out of Room 717 of the Hotel Imperial in New York and worked with Clan officials to secure funds and arms for the IRA. Their covert operations garnered the attention of American Bureau of Investigation agents after Joseph McGarrity sought the assistance of Albert Hickland, a suspected arms smuggler. As surveillance was increased on Hickland and McGarrity, other Clan accomplices were revealed to American officials. For example, on 8 March, James McGee, a local longshoreman and treasurer of the Clan, was followed from his home in New York at 226 East 35th Street. Agents watched as he entered a bank and then proceeded to the Hotel Imperial. Hours later McGee left the premises with McGarrity.3 Unknown to American agents, however, was the fact that the Clan had already moved forward with a plan to purchase arms. John T. Ryan, an attorney from Buffalo, New York and a high ranking Clan official who, five years earlier, had been forced to go on the run from American authorities after aiding a German spy, was chosen to travel to Germany and arrange an arms transaction.

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After recuperating from a bout of appendicitis, Ryan, carrying nearly $70,000 in cash, left aboard a steamship at the end of February.4 On 22 March Moylan departed from New York and eventually met Ryan in Germany.5 The two subsequently attempted to liaise with Nazi officials, including Adolf Hitler, and purchase large artillery pieces and ammunition, which was to be delivered to Ireland either by steamship, plane or submarine.6 Their plans became seriously hindered after IRA Chief of Staff Liam Lynch was killed in county Cork on 10 April. The death of Lynch marked a major setback for the IRA as he had provided the strongest militant voice for the antiTreaty side since the Civil War had begun. For the next few weeks Éamon de Valera slowly emerged as the leading republican figure and soon convinced those in the IRA to stop fighting. On 24 May Frank Aiken, who had recently been appointed IRA chief of staff, ordered a ceasefire. By this time the secret arms mission in Germany had ended and de Valera, writing to a Clan official, admitted that ‘we must confess failure at the moment’.7 De Valera moved quickly to penetrate the leadership vacuum in republican circles. He continued to view the US as the financial and public relations source for further republican goals and was most concerned about aligning the existing transatlantic political and militant republican forces. After declaring on 28 June that Sinn Féin candidates would contest the upcoming Irish general election in August, he turned to his American allies and expressed a desire for ‘unity’ amongst the members of the AARIR and Clan.8 Under de Valera’s instructions Moylan returned to New York. Once again he arrived in Ellis Island with false papers and escaped the scrutiny of immigration officials.9 However, unlike his previous visit, Moylan was instructed to fundraise solely for election purposes. He was joined by Donal O’Callaghan, the Lord Mayor of Cork, who garnered American attention in 1921 when he arrived illegally in Newport News, Virginia, as a stowaway aboard a ship.10 De Valera hoped that Moylan and O’Callaghan would work together to ‘co-ordinate the work of the Clan and the A.A.R.I.R’. in order to create ‘a proper foundation for the future’.11 Their mission included instructions to request $5 from every Clan member. A Clan fundraising circular created especially for this fundraising drive noted that ‘a continuance of an armed struggle’ was not in the best interests of the republicans at the time. However, it was made clear to the members that the ‘fight for Irish liberty’ was being continued through the national elections.12 The Clan set aside its militant ambitions for the moment and, by the end of the summer, had secured over $100,000 for election purposes.13 On 15 August de Valera was arrested in Ennis, county Clare, while campaigning. As his prison sentence began, Sinn Féin political endeavours continued and in the Irish general election, held on 27 August, Sinn Féin

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candidates won 63 of the 143 seats. However, their elected seats remained vacant as not one elected Sinn Féin candidate took the required oath to sit in Dáil Éireann.14 In October Sinn Féin leaders J.J. O’Kelly and Father Michael O’Flanagan returned to New York in order to bolster republican activities after undertaking similar work in Australia.15 It is clear that, even in prison, de Valera remained committed to organising the republican movement in the US alongside his own political plans. Notes transcribed by his personal secretary, Kathleen O’Connell, during this time show that de Valera was constructing ways to include Joseph McGarrity on an American republican ‘Directorate’ that, amongst others, included AARIR leader John Finerty.16 Since the IRA ceasefire de Valera’s political republican goals had inspired IRA Chief of Staff Frank Aiken and he began to advise IRA members to connect with Sinn Féin.17 Aiken also began to exert his influence on those militant supporters in the US. On 1 October he personally wrote to McGarrity and stated that he believed the Clan and the AARIR to be ‘almost similar to the I.R.A. and Sinn Féin’ in Ireland. Most importantly, Aiken advised McGarrity ‘to instruct all his members to join … the A.A.R.I.R’, in order to ‘present a united front to the enemy’.18 At this moment, McGarrity, Luke Dillon and John T. Ryan seemed open to the idea of a joint effort between the Clan and the AARIR. The three men ‘came to the conclusion that a certain course – if followed – would bring about harmony and united effort’ between the two republican groups. Consequently, a temporary advisory executive committee was organised with the AARIR during the autumn. Moylan represented the Clan and worked with AARIR leadership to create a more tightly knit republican alliance.19 As 1924 began Irish republicans in the US continued to focus on the plight of imprisoned IRA members. In February Tipperary IRA member Dan Breen reported to McGarrity that ‘over 2,000 men’ remained in jail.20 Since September 1922 the IRA Soldiers’ and Prisoners’ Dependents’ Fund (IRPDF) had collected money for these jailed republicans and their families. The US committee included support from McGarrity, the AARIR, and the Ladies Auxiliary of the AOH, led by Mary McWhorter. As part of the Irish Women’s Mission Linda Kearns, Muriel MacSwiney and Hanna Sheehy Skeffington travelled to the US after the outbreak of the Civil War in order to increase attention and fundraising.21 Cumann na mBan members, including Máire Comerford and Kathleen Brady, also publicised the cause by campaigning across the US.22 Propaganda was mainly through the medium of the print media. The republican orientated Irish-American newspaper, the Irish World, published names of American contributors. On one occasion the Irish Free State government’s treatment of the republican prisoners was described in detail, including that of married IRA member William Chambers from Newport, county Mayo,

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who was lying in a military hospital in the Curragh in early 1924. After being arrested on 28 December 1922 Chambers, according to the newspaper, ‘was beaten by [a] Free State officer while in camp’ and was currently suffering ‘from chronic bone disease’.23 Various appeals were advertised for financial assistance for volunteers, such as Chambers, and their dependents. Fundraising schemes included selling the bicycle owned by the late republican leader, Cathal Brugha. Further awareness was created through articles written by Linda Kearns and Máire Comerford which appeared in the Irish World.24 By the end of May 1924 the IRPDF had collected nearly $260,000.25

Clash of ideologies In early 1924 the ‘harmony and united effort’ aspired to by de Valera for the AARIR and Clan had evaporated. Clan members, including John T. Ryan, began to feel that their organisation was ‘more or less ignored’ by those politically minded republicans in Ireland.26 Moylan also began to distance himself from de Valera’s political goals and he expressed his opinions in an internal circular distributed to Clan members: ‘As Clan members, we believe that the Clan is the mainstay and support of the physical force movement in Ireland, and we believe that no other method, no matter how plausible, no matter how seemingly successful, is going to bring us the final victory, but the physical force method.’ Moylan did not agree that the relationship between the Clan and the AARIR was similar to that of the IRA and Sinn Féin and he hoped that the Clan would strengthen its own organisation first.27 It is clear from further correspondence sent by Moylan to IRA officials that he suspected the Clan was ‘being totally neglected’ by the republican representatives in the US. ‘All efforts and energies’, according to Moylan, were ‘devoted to building up the A.A.R.I.R’.28 To the dismay of Moylan the ranks of the Clan were not being bolstered by IRA members who had arrived in the US from Ireland. The IRA had placed severe restrictions on emigration. The Clan was not officially authorised to welcome those members who disobeyed orders and emigrated anyway.29 In an effort to bypass these strict regulations Moylan created an IRA Veterans’ Association with branches in New York, Boston and Philadelphia.30 Moylan understood the importance of providing a militant Irish republican organisation for them and firmly believed that if the IRA veterans joined non-militant and non-republican focused organisations, such as the AOH, they would be ‘definitely lost to Ireland’.31 These local alliances were open to IRA members who had left Ireland for legitimate medical and economic circumstances. If military action resumed in Ireland the republicans promised to return. However, the

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IRA Veterans’ Association seemed to face resistance from the IRA and it appears that, at least in New York, they were not allowed to progress, mainly because the Clan was not permitted to provide them any ‘protection and authority’.32 Moylan also began to be quite expressive and forthright in his public opinions. In a speech at the June 1924 AARIR national convention in New York, he encouraged AARIR delegates ‘to get rid of the traitors and knaves and men who have been using the Irish movement for their own selfish purposes’, and he told them that the Irish republicans in the US were ‘too chivalrous, too prayerful, too charitable, too forgiving to our enemies’. All republicans, according to Moylan, should remain ‘bitter’ and ‘murderous’.33 These vitriolic statements clearly conveyed his personal opinions and deepening frustration with the republican situation in the US. He also exposed the collective fundamental differences that had separated the politically-focused AARIR and the militant Clan for years. This proved to be the last public address for Moylan for soon afterwards he submitted his resignation and returned to Ireland in September 1924.34 Even after his departure he expressed to McGarrity that Irish republican officials were unable to fully understand the true nature of the republican dynamics in the US. He especially found de Valera to be ‘quite ignorant’ of the situation.35 De Valera’s and Aiken’s desire to unify the political and militant republican movements in the US continued. Prior to departing for the US new military attaché Liam Pedlar had received instructions from the two men to ‘promote … harmony which is necessary for the successful co-operation between the Clanna-Gael and the A.A.R.I.R’.36 The fragile alliance between the Clan and the AARIR continued into early 1925. On 8 February Mary MacSwiney, an outspoken republican activist from Cork, addressed 6,000 people at the Earl Carroll Theater in New York City ‘under the auspices of the A.A.R.I.R. and the Clan na Gael’.37 MacSwiney’s tour, organised to create further awareness of the republican movement, continued across the country and was supported on a number of occasions by the Clan. At an AARIR event in late February the local Boston Clan leader, John P. O’Sullivan, delivered an opening address for MacSwiney.38 Although certain Clan members, including O’Sullivan, continued to publicly support the AARIR, others in the organisation had become suspicious of actions originating from Ireland. Luke Dillon, writing to Liam Pedlar, questioned if republican personalities, including MacSwiney, were ‘instructed to break up our Organization’.39 Dillon and other Clan members also inquired whether Clan money was actually being allocated to the IRA or was in fact being used for political purposes. Sensing this uneasiness Seán T. O’Kelly, who had become an American envoy of Sinn Féin in 1924, informed Dillon ‘that the financial help your Organization has sent to the [Republican] Government through me has been used for these

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purposes in so far as circumstances permit’. However, O’Kelly stressed that although the Clan viewed the IRA as a direct affiliate the organisation still ‘pledged its loyal adherence to the Government of the Republic of Ireland’.40 As 1925 progressed the Clan welcomed two major developments. In July O’Kelly informed Dillon of a new ‘scheme’ that allowed ‘good standing’ IRA veterans in the US, ‘still anxious to serve the cause of the Irish Republic’, the opportunity to enrol in the IRA Foreign Reserve. Enrolment was ‘conditional upon the individuals concerned being members of the recognised Republican organizations’ in the US. Consequently, recently arrived IRA veterans living in the US were finally authorised to connect with the Clan.41 The Clan also received news that Thompson submachine guns, which American government authorities had seized from the organisation four years earlier, were once again under its control.42 In September 1925 John T. Ryan and fellow Buffalo lawyer, Percy Lansdowne, with the assistance of US Republican Senator James Wadsworth, recovered 488 of these guns and various rounds of ammunition for the Clan through a court ruling.43 These weapons, valued at over $94,000, were promptly placed in the Manhattan Storage and Warehouse Company in New York.44 Although the guns were considered the property of the Clan they had in fact been paid for by Harry Boland, who represented the IRA in 1921. It was decided at a Clan executive meeting in December 1925 that the Clan would officially protect the weapons on behalf of the IRA.45 On 15 and 16 November a General Army Convention upheld the IRA’s commitment to ‘guard the honour and uphold the Sovereignty and Unity of the Republic of Ireland’ through ‘the force of arms’ and to assist ‘all organisations working for the same objects’.46 Andrew Cooney replaced Frank Aiken as the chief of staff and chairman of the Army Council. Although Aiken remained on the IRA’s executive body and a fragile alliance continued between the IRA and Sinn Féin under the form of a special advisory council, the IRA was now virtually an independent militant organisation separate from any political forces.47 As these events unfolded in Ireland much uncertainty existed in the Clan. After reading a letter from an Irish friend with details of the recent events, Luke Dillon declared to Joseph McGarrity that ‘the people at home are as much at sea as we are’.48 With the republican movement in Ireland no longer a united political and military front, both the IRA and Sinn Féin immediately turned to the US for financial support.49 During December de Valera decided to send Aiken and Joseph O’Doherty to the US in order to bolster the anti-Treaty republican government mission. They were joined by Con O’Leary who effectively replaced Liam Pedlar as the IRA representative. However, instead of being known as the military attaché to the republican mission, O’Leary was referred to as ‘Timthire

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Oglaigh Na hÉirean’, or simply as An Timthire. Sent independently by the IRA but in consultation with Sinn Féin officials, O’Leary communicated ‘directly with his own immediate chief’, Andrew Cooney. He was not directly controlled by anyone in the republican mission in the US, but would in fact be paid $40 per week by them. According to de Valera, O’Leary would ‘work more or less secretly’.50 Cooney, however, in a note to McGarrity stated that O’Leary was to seek ‘the loyal co-operation of all exiled comrades in America’.51 In other words, he wanted to shore up republican support publicly by directly influencing the recently arrived IRA members who were now joining the Clan. As the various republican representatives arrived and competed for attention in the US a new fundraising drive, led by the Clan to pay for the legal costs of $10,000 incurred from the reclaimed Thompson submachine guns and ammunition, was initiated throughout the country.52 By the end of January over $7,000 had been collected.53 Correspondence between Dillon and McGarrity shows a concerted effort by the Clan to keep this fund a secret from the Sinn Féin representatives as Dillon did not want ‘all the world knowing that the money is for Arms’. It appears that a certain amount of Clan proceeds was also allocated for the visiting republican emissaries.54 On 23 January Dillon informed McGarrity that Cleveland Clan leader, John Stanton, had held ‘three hundred back for some time to make a show when Aiken is in his city’.55 According to Dillon, Michael Enright, the Chicago Clan leader, contemplated similar action.56 At the Sinn Féin Ard Fheis in early March de Valera resigned as president of Sinn Féin in what he described as ‘a bad day for Ireland’.57 Within two days messages from de Valera were sent to American newspapers and news services declaring that the ‘friends of Ireland need not be perturbed. This step [is] the necessary prelude to uniting the nation in new advance to secure complete Independence ... Those interested in [the] Republican cause in the United States need only stand fast’.58 During April McGarrity drafted a statement meant for the members of the Clan and passed it on to Dillon. McGarrity seemed to underplay the dramatic events that had occurred in Ireland weeks earlier. Upon reading this Dillon grew upset and wrote to McGarrity that ‘after going over it a couple of times I was wondering whether it was intended for our Organization or for the A.A.R.I.R … You no longer write as a Clan na Gael man’.59 Three days later, after attending an organisation reunion in Philadelphia, Dillon made it clear to McGarrity that he believed the Clan should end all ties with the AARIR and de Valera’s allies. In Dillon’s mind he did not understand how the Clan could ‘stand or cooperate with the present outside Organization’.60 In the final draft of the circular delivered to all Clan clubs McGarrity acquiesced to Dillon’s wishes. He unequivocally announced that ‘maximum assistance’ would be given to the IRA, with all money raised by the Clan going directly to them.61

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Further support for the IRA occurred in June when the executive members of the Clan agreed to the necessity of armed revolution in Ireland.62

Militant alliance In the weeks following the creation of the new Fianna Fáil party the drama in Ireland moved across the Atlantic. Andrew Cooney travelled to the US in order to work with the Clan. During the first month of his visit he consulted with Frank Aiken and Seán T. O’Kelly and clearly wanted it to be known that the Army Council was not neutral and would ‘never sanction’ the political proposals set forth by de Valera.63 Throughout this period the Clan continued to be courted by republican officials on both the political and military fronts. In July Aiken sent an open letter to all IRA veterans living in the US and expressed sympathy that they had been forced to leave Ireland over the last few years due to ‘irresistible economic pressure’. In an effort to publicise Fianna Fáil’s future political aims, as well as to show some support for the Clan, Aiken asserted that ‘Ireland needs both a military and a political organisation’ and requested that men join up with organisations in the US supporting the IRA as well as organisations supporting Fianna Fáil.64 In late July Aiken sent McGarrity a copy of the open letter and conveyed to him that he hoped ‘that the policy outlines will meet with your approval’.65 Nearly three years had passed since Aiken first passed on de Valera’s expression of support for unity between the Clan and the AARIR. However, as was evident in the spring of 1926 McGarrity, Dillon and their executive members had moved forward from any possible connection with a political body and thus fully committed themselves to the militant republican movement. The Clan had physically confirmed its growing alliance with the IRA in late May when McGarrity handed over one of the Clan’s reclaimed Thompson submachine guns along with ammunition to the departing An Timthire, Con O’Leary.66 As the summer progressed Aiken continued his Fianna Fáil publicity campaign in the US and still attempted to attract IRA veterans into the re-energised political movement. On 14 August Cork IRA veteran Dan O’Donovan, the new An Timthire in the US, publicly confronted Aiken on his seemingly ambiguous comments published weeks earlier in the Irish World regarding the relationship between the IRA and Fianna Fáil. O’Donovan, using the alias of ‘Daniel O’Byrne’, publicly declared that he was directed by the IRA to make it known that they had ‘no connection or association in any way whatever with the political party known as Fianna Fáil’. The IRA felt that Aiken’s comments could cause confusion and were unclear.67 In a response to O’Donovan’s accusation

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Aiken affirmed that the IRA was indeed ‘an absolutely separate and independent organization’.68 Four weeks after the public IRA statement, the Clan leaders met for their annual convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Between 12 and 14 September they discussed the political and military developments in Ireland over the previous twelve months. It was agreed that the division in the republican movement did ‘little to inspire’ the members and instead had resulted in a decrease in membership by about 300. In an effort to once again clarify the position of the IRA Andrew Cooney attended the gatherings and spoke on the first day. He outlined the position of the IRA and spoke of the numerous difficulties that the IRA members faced in Ireland.69 One day after the convention Cooney and Luke Dillon signed an agreement officially aligning the IRA and the Clan. Both organisations recognised each other as ‘having for its objects the securing by force of arms the absolute and complete independence of Ireland’ and the Clan was recognised ‘as the only Irish Revolutionary Organisation in America’. Furthermore, the Clan agreed to support the IRA both ‘morally and financially’. Most importantly, the IRA would direct its appointed American representative to arrange for IRA members residing in the US to ‘be transfered to the Clan na Gael’.70

Notes   1 Tim Pat Coogan, De Valera: long fellow, long shadow (London, 1995), 339; Laffan, The resurrection of Ireland, 425–6; Whelan, United States foreign policy, 384–6; Hopkinson, Green against green, 253.   2 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,466 (1), Liam Lynch to Seán Moylan, 6 February 1923; NAB, RG 85, PCLNY, 1897–1957, entry for ‘Donal O’Leary’, arrived 1 March 1923 on SS President Polk, T715, 3260, 169, 14 (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 20 June 2012).  3 United States Department of Justice (hereafter USDOJ), Federal Bureau of Investigation (hereafter FBI), Joseph McGarrity File, ‘Re: A.H. Hickland, et al – Probable violation section 37, U.S.C.C. shipping arms and ammunition to Ireland’, 27 February 1923, 12 March 1923, 13 March 1923. For more background information on McGee, see Fitzpatrick, Harry Boland’s Irish revolution, 166, 214; Alfred Isaacson, O. Carm., Always faithful: the New York Carmelites, the Irish people and their freedom movement (Middletown, 2004), 103–7.  4 New York Times, 22 January 1919; NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,637 (1), ‘Cousin’ [John T. Ryan] to ‘Phil’ [Joseph McGarrity], 22 February 1923; UCDA, ÉdVP, P150/1268, Moylan to de Valera, undated.   5 NAB, RG 85, PCLNY, 1897–1957, entry for ‘John Morris’ [Seán Moylan], arrived 6 July 1923 on SS Laconia, T715, 3324, 24, 27 (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 20 June 2012).

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  6 For a detailed account of the Clan’s efforts in Germany, see Troy D. Davis, ‘The Irish Civil War and the “International Proposition” of 1922–23’, Éire-Ireland, 29:2 (Summer 1994), 92–112.  7 Hopkinson, Green against green, 238; Davis, ‘The Irish Civil War’, 109–11; UCDA, ÉdVP, P150/1268, Moylan to de Valera, undated; UCDA, ÉdVP, P150/1268, Dáil Éireann to the President, Clan-na-Gael Reorganised, 4 June 1923.   8 NLI, ÉdVP, P150/1221, de Valera to Castellini, Esq., 4 July 1923; T. Ryle Dwyer, Eamon de Valera: the man and the myths (Paperview ed., London, 2006), 140; Tim Pat Coogan, The IRA: a history (1st US ed., Niwot, 1994), 81..   9 NAB, RG 85, PCLNY, 1897–1957, entry for ‘John Morris’ [Seán Moylan], arrived 6 July 1923 on SS Laconia, T715, 3324, 24, 27 (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 20 June 2012). 10 UCDA, ÉdVP, P150/1268, Dáil Éireann to the President, Clan na Gael Reorganised, 4 June 1923; NLI, Austin Stack Papers (hereafter ASP), Ms. 17,080, President, Irish Republic to O’Callaghan, 19 June 1923; Whelan, United States foreign policy, 264–6. 11 NLI, ASP, Ms. 17,080, President, Irish Republic to Donal O’Callaghan, 19 June 1923. 12 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17.466 (3), Circular to members of the Clan na Gael from Seán Moylan, 28 July 1923. 13 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,526 (3), Report of Clan na Gael convention, 1 September 1923; UCDA, ÉdVP, P150/1777, ‘Clan summary of direct remittances, 1923’, c. 1925. 14 Coogan, De Valera, 358–60; Tarpey, The role of Joseph McGarrity, 209–10. 15 Irish World, 13 October 1923. 16 UCDA, Kathleen O’Connell Papers (hereafter KOP), P155/12 (3), handwritten notes, 17 January 1924; UCDA, KOP, P155/12 (4), handwritten notes, 24 January 1924; Whelan, United States foreign policy, 437, n. 5. 17 The Earl of Longford and Thomas P. O’Neill, Eamon de Valera (Arrow ed., Dublin, 1974), 225; Lee, Ireland 1912–1985, 67. 18 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,421, Aiken, Chief of Staff, IRA (hereafter C/S), to Joseph McGarrity, 1 October 1923. 19 UCDA, MTP, P69/37 (134–135), McGarrity, Dillon and John T. Ryan to President, Irish Republic, c. September 1923. 20 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,426, Breen to McGarrity, 14 February 1924. 21 Joanne Mooney Eichacker, Irish republican women in America: lecture tours, 1916–1925 (Dublin, 2003), 156–80; NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,638, Hanna Sheehy Skeffington to Joseph McGarrity, 18 June 1923. 22 MacEoin, Survivors, 51; NLI, John Hearn Papers, Ms. 15,994, Comerford to unknown, 22 July 1924. 23 Irish World, 26 January 1924. 24 Ibid.; Irish World, 19 January 1924. 25 Irish World, 31 May 1924. 26 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,637 (1), John T. Ryan to McGarrity, 9 February 1924.

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27 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,466 (3), ‘General Moylan’s views on our duty and Clan position’, taken from ‘The Strong Hand’, No. 5, undated. 28 UCDA, MTP, P69/37 (166–169), UCDA, MTP, P69/37 (166–169), extracts of letter from Moylan written in a separate note from an unknown individual to C/S (the author’s signature in the note is illegible), 5 June 1924. 29 UCDA, MTP, P69/37 (142), unsigned [Moylan] to ‘Salesman’, 14 September 1923; UCDA, MTP, P69/37 (120), President and Minister for Defence to Pedlar, 1 September 1924; Hanley, The IRA, 1926–1936, 161. 30 UCDA, MTP, P69/37 (232), Acting 1st Lieutenant Adjutant, Committee for the IRA Veterans’ Association, New York City to President, Irish Republic, 14 January 1925. 31 UCDA, MTP, P69/37 (142), unsigned [Moylan] to ‘Salesman’, 14 September 1923. 32 UCDA, MTP, P69/37 (232), Acting 1st Lieutenant Adjutant, Committee for the IRA Veterans’ Association, New York City to President of the Irish Republic, 14 January 1925. 33 Irish World, 28 June 1924. 34 UCDA, MTP, P69/37 (166–169), extracts of letter from Seán Moylan written in a separate note from an unknown individual to C/S (the author’s signature in the note is illegible), 5 June 1924; UCDA, MTP, P69/37 (117), de Valera and Aiken to Pedlar, 1 September 1924. 35 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,466 (1), Moylan to McGarrity, 5 September 1924. 36 UCDA, MTP, P69/37 (117), de Valera and Aiken to Pedlar, 1 September 1924; UCDA, MTP, P69/37 (118–119), de Valera and Aiken to Pedlar, 1 September 1924. 37 Mooney Eichacker, Irish republican women, 192; Irish World, 7 February 1925. 38 Mooney Eichacker, Irish republican women, 192. Although received favourably by the majority of Irish republicans in the US, MacSwiney did manage to upset Luke Dillon after speaking out against secret societies at the Irish-American Club in Philadelphia. See UCDA, ÉdVP, P150/1270, Pedlar to de Valera, 20 May 1925. 39 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,481, Dillon to Pedlar, c. early 1925. 40 Irish World, 4 October 1924; NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,447, O’Kelly to Dillon, 10 August 1925. 41 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,447, O’Kelly to Dillon, 10 August 1925. 42 For information on the 1921 seizure, see J. Bowyer Bell, ‘The Thompson submachine gun in Ireland, 1921’, The Irish Sword: The Journal of the Military History Society of Ireland, 8:31 (Winter 1967), 98–108; Peter Hart, ‘The Thompson submachine gun in Ireland revisited’, The Irish Sword: The Journal of the Military History Society of Ireland, 19:77 (Summer 1995), 161–70; Patrick Jung, ‘The Thompson submachine gun during and after the Anglo-Irish war: the new evidence’, The Irish Sword: The Journal of the Military History Society of Ireland, 21:84 (Winter 1998), 190–218. 43 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,530 (2), United States District Court of New Jersey, USA vs 495 Thompson Guns, 14 September 1925; NLI, JMcGP; Ms. 17,530 (1), Luke Dillon to Joseph McGarrity, 11 November 1925. Of the original shipment, three guns were shipped to officials in Washington, DC, one was given to the US attorney in

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Trenton, New Jersey and another was ‘lost overboard’ by the Customs Marine Patrol. Two guns also appear to have mysteriously disappeared while under government control. See NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,530 (2), Bradley, Acting Deputy Collector, Treasury Department to McGarrity, 29 October 1925; NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,530 (2), McGarrity to Bradley, Acting Deputy Collector, Treasury Department, 9 November 1925; NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,530 (3), ‘Total of Articles Received in United States vs 495 Thompson Machine Guns’, c. 1925. 44 NLI, JMcGP, 17,530 (3), Brochure of the Manhattan Storage & Warehouse Co., undated. The machine guns had a value of $175. Ammunition ranged in price from $2 to $18. See NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,530 (1), Figures of values for Thompson guns and ammunition, undated. 45 Tarpey, The role of Joseph McGarrity, 226–7. 46 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,529, Constitution of Óglaigh Na hÉireann (IRA), 14–15 November 1925. 47 UCDA, ÉdVP, P150/1777, de Valera to O’Kelly, 16 December 1925; Tarpey, The role of Joseph McGarrity, 226–7; Hanley, The IRA, 1926–1936, 113; Cronin, The McGarrity papers, 139. 48 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,444, Dillon to McGarrity, 10 November 1925. 49 Donnacha Ó Beacháin, Destiny of the soldiers: Fianna Fáil, Irish republicanism and the IRA, 1926–1973 (Dublin, 2010), 34; Michael MacEvilly, A splendid resistance: the life of IRA Chief of Staff Dr. Andy Cooney (Dublin, 2011), 162. 50 UCDA, ÉdVP, P150/1777, President, Irish Republic to Envoy, 16 December 1925; CCCA, CNP, PR7/7, Connie Neenan memoirs, 128. 51 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,528, ‘PB’ [Andy Cooney], Chairman, Army Council (hereafter A/C) to Chairman, Clan na Gael, 31 December 1925. 52 Over $10,000 was spent to pay the legal costs to secure these weapons. With only $2,200 in the Clan’s treasury, Joseph McGarritty was forced to loan a considerable amount of money and a special collection was organised to reimburse him. See NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,530 (1), Lansdowne to McGarrity, 30 December 1925; NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,530 (1), Dillon to McGarrity, 11 November 1925; NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,530 (1), Y. of D.A. of V.C. [Dillon] to McGarrity, 23 November 1925. 53 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,444, Dillon to McGarrity, 23 January 1926. 54 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,444, Dillon to McGarrity, 11 January 1926. 55 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,444, Dillon to McGarrity, 23 January 1926. 56 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,444, Dillon to McGarrity, 11 January 1926. 57 UCDA, ÉdVP, P150/586, Statement from de Valera, 10 March 1926. 58 UCDA, ÉdVP, P150/586, Cablegrams from de Valera to Boston Post and America International News Service, 12 March 1926. 59 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,444, Dillon to McGarrity, 2 April 1926; Tarpey, The role of Joseph McGarrity, 229. 60 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,444, Dillon to McGarrity, 2 April 1926. 61 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,531, Clan na Gael circular, 16 April 1926. 62 Cronin, The McGarrity papers, 144.

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63 UCDA, Frank Aiken Papers (hereafter FAP), P104/2572 (4–5), Chairman, A/C to Envoy of the Republic of Ireland, 9 June 1926; Tarpey, The role of Joseph McGarrity, 230; MacEvilly, A splendid resistance, 164. 64 UCDA, FAP, P104/2573 (2–5), Aiken to ‘all old I.R.A. men’, c. July 1926. 65 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,421, Aiken to McGarrity, 29 July 1926. 66 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,530 (1), McGarrity to O’Leary (Thompson submachine gun receipt), 26 May 1926. On 4 July 1926, an unsigned letter was sent to the republican envoy, stating that ‘I wish to discontinue my official connection with the Mission from to-day’s date’. This was most likely sent from Con O’Leary. See UCDA, FAP, P104/2586 (9), unsigned to the Envoy, 4 July 1926. 67 Irish World, 14 August 1926. It can be deduced through an analysis of various documents and handwriting samples that O’Donovan used this alias while living in the US. See Tom Mahon and James J. Gillogly, Decoding the IRA (Cork, 2008), 218–22, 271–3; CCCA, CNP, PR7/7, Connie Neenan memoirs, 128; NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,447, O’Byrne to Dillon, 16 November 1926; NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,533, O’Byrne to McGarrity, 27 March 1928; HSP, Dennis Clark Papers (hereafter DCP), MSS 37, Box 2, Folder 2, Luke Dillon research materials, 1902, 1930, 1946, 1982, Copy of hand embossed Luke Dillon booklet, c. 1930. 68 Irish World, 14 August 1926. 69 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,531, Synopsis of Clan na Gael convention, 12–14 September 1926 (report created on 30 September 1926). 70 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,531, Agreement between Óglaigh Na hÉireann and Clan na Gael, signed by Andrew Cooney and Luke Dillon, 15 September 1926.

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3 Irish departures, American arrivals, 1923–6 When Andrew Cooney addressed the Clan na Gael convention in September 1926 he noted that those in the audience consisted of a large ‘number of young men’ who were IRA veterans.1 Once the IRA and Clan had officially and collectively aligned in 1926 these individual men represented the future of the militant republican movement in the US. However, for republicans in that audience and scattered across the US, their lives represented first-hand evidence of the difficult and sometimes complicated transition that many involved in the republican movement faced after the end of the Irish Civil War.

‘No hope for him unless he can be got out of the country’: American rehabilitation Life on the run for an IRA member could often be hazardous. Evading capture meant depending on the generosity of others while sometimes nursing health ailments. Dan Breen’s account of his period as a fugitive during 1919 portrays the hardships certain wanted men faced. Breen depended constantly on the hospitality of strangers, slept one night in an ‘old ruined castle’ and entered Dublin disguised as a priest.2 Throughout the course of these events Breen was nursing a bullet wound.3 If captured and placed in prison, conditions could become worse. Tipperary republican Michael Flannery, detained in 1922 by Irish Free State troops, years later remembered the dampness in his cell at Mountjoy Prison.4 After awaking each morning Flannery’s standard routine included drying out his mattress. The bedding became so waterlogged that an oat grain embedded in the fabric actually started to sprout.5 Prisoner hunger strikes only exacerbated the difficult conditions. The physical effects of malnourishment, as described by IRA officer Ernie O’Malley, included a slow and steady deterioration of the body’s facilities: ‘The unimportant tissues, seemingly, are first affected; the unimportant muscles waste, then more vital organs are attacked,

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memory and sight impaired’.6 After sustaining forty-one days without food in a co-ordinated prisoner strike, O’Malley barely survived.7 His ordeal continued as he was forced to endure an operation with limited anaesthesia to remove bullet fragments from his back.8 He recalled that the surgeon’s knife ‘seared like a red-hot iron, and the forceps and probe produced the sensation of a hammer hitting me hard in the back’.9 Overall, the Irish health care facilities which O’Malley and other wounded and sick republicans entered were severely inadequate. As the new Irish Free State attempted in the early 1920s to centralise and amalgamate the country’s health networks, the Local Government Board system was essentially dissolved. The transformation of health care after the Anglo-Irish Treaty proved arduous and was further set back by the events of the Civil War.10 Medical institutions, especially those which offered tuberculosis treatments also diminished.11 Consequently, IRA members who were exposed to infections and diseases while in prison or from their rigorous lifestyles were oftentimes not afforded proper treatment in Ireland. In certain cases, these disabled men were rehabilitated in the US.12 For example, Cork IRA leader Michael Leahy, who had arrived in the US during late 1922 was, by the spring of 1923, suffering with health issues. In April 1923 he revealed to Joseph McGarrity that he was covered with a ‘bad rash’ on his ‘back and chest’. Leahy would occasionally ‘wake up with a terrible sore feeling’ and suffered difficulties swallowing.13 To combat these ailments he had moved to California and ‘rented a nice little cottage up in Sierra Madre’. Leahy believed this area to be ‘the healthiest part’ of the state.14 In 1924 Tucson, Arizona, resident and Irish republican supporter, Francis Joseph Cunningham, offered republican officials his opinion ‘regarding the feasibility of sending several disabled I.R.A. veterans … suffering from tuberculosis to Arizona’. Men who received ‘proper food and attention’ upon arrival, according to Cunningham were ‘reasonably assured of a cure provided always that they are not too far gone’.15 However, carrying tuberculosis oftentimes meant that securing employment was extremely difficult. The contagious nature of the disease could place co-workers at risk, and the debilitating physical effects limited the nature of work available.16 Cunningham described securing work as ‘like the proverbial “hen’s tooth” – hard to find’. It was thus imperative that sick IRA members arriving in Tucson or other western US cities were provided with local assistance.17 Support for individual IRA members arriving in the western US often involved co-ordination between republicans in Ireland and the US. On numerous occasions members of the AARIR in Los Angeles offered unconditional aid to individual IRA members sent to the US for rehabilitation. Transportation to California, local accommodation and everyday comforts including food

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were provided. Medical arrangements along with hospital expenses were also collected from donors. 18 This transatlantic co-operation was evident with the assisted emigration of Joseph Blake, a Dublin IRA veteran who remained neutral during the Civil War. In July 1924 Nora O’Daly, a former Cumann na mBan member and the wife of Blake’s former lieutenant in the ‘F’ Company, Second Dublin Brigade, requested financial assistance from the Irish Free State government in order to cover the cost of Blake’s emigration.19 O’Daly had first reached out to Josephine ‘Min’ Mulcahy, a one-time pro-treaty Cumann na mBan member and the wife of former Irish Free State Minister for Defence Richard Mulcahy.20 Upon receiving permission from Mulcahy ‘to use her name in … the [medical] case’, O’Daly notified William T. Cosgrave, the president of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State, and stated that Blake was currently ‘threatened with consumption’. Because Blake’s doctor had ‘no hope for him unless he can be got out of the country’, O’Daly asked the government to provide for ‘his fare to Canada or California’.21 Blake’s non-participation in the Civil War along with the support offered by Josephine Mulcahy provided the government with circumstances in which to consider the case. Upon consulting with Josephine Mulcahy, it was agreed in September 1924 that £75 would be provided for Blake’s ocean crossing.22 After this money was personally secured by Blake it appears that the republican transatlantic networks quietly assumed and orchestrated his emigration. He was subsequently granted permission by the IRA to emigrate in November 1924 and arrived in New York on 17 January 1925. According to his passenger record he was to travel further westward to Oakland, California.23 It seems as if Blake bypassed Oakland and landed in Los Angeles instead. Here he lived with AARIR leader Peter Murray for six months and developed an alias, ‘Tom Fay’. He was subsequently placed into a local hospital before being admitted to Pottenger Sanatorium.24

‘I know a few jobs are to be had’: seeking employment Of the estimated 12,000 republicans interned during the Civil War, many simply hoped to get out of prison and find employment.25 In June 1923, one month after the IRA ceasefire, Éamon de Valera noted to Joseph McGarrity that republican officials should ‘concentrate just now on ... shepherding ... our men back to civil employment’. However, with the country ‘economically in a very bad condition’ de Valera realised this endeavour would be ‘extremely difficult’.26 During the years of conflict republicans throughout Ireland together

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‘resisted economic, social and clerical pressure’.27 As described succinctly by Ernie O’Malley, the collective ‘hardness in … idealism … made us aloof from ordinary living’. Once republicans were cast into prisons, however, individual thinking slowly emerged. Discipline, according to O’Malley, often evaporated and was replaced by an ‘element of disillusion and … cynicism’.28 These feelings were further exacerbated as men were released and forced to re-assimilate into Irish society and ‘make a living’.29 First-hand accounts from the period describe the difficult conditions which afflicted many republicans. In January 1924, only weeks after being released from Tintown internment camp, Cork IRA member Cecil H. Keyes detailed in the republican orientated newspaper, Éire, that twenty recently released IRA veterans were unemployed and aimlessly ‘walking the streets’ of his hometown of Bantry, county Cork.30 Second Kerry Brigade member Jeremiah Murphy recalled years later that ‘those who had farms, or would inherit them, got busy working on them’. However, ‘the future looked bleak’ for those republicans without land or employment options.31 Overall, republicans released from prison attempting to reclaim their lives were cast into a struggling Irish society. The economic policies of the Cumann na nGaedheal government after the 1923 election focused primarily on reducing public spending. The abatement of government expenses and civil service salaries formed the core policies of an administration concerned with stability and maintaining British financial investment. Social assistance for the poor was virtually eliminated.32 Letters from IRA members during the period detailed the lack of employment opportunities and the devastating consequences on individual lives. Michael Tierney, a school teacher from county Tipperary, lost his position after being taken prisoner at the outbreak of the Civil War.33 Remaining without work after being released from prison, by 1924 Tierney was ‘fed up with being a burden on the parents’.34 Similarly, married Dublin tailor and IRA volunteer James Browne, released from Hare Park internment camp in October 1923, painfully discovered that lack of work made ‘it practically impossible to pay even the rent’.35 In addition to stabilising finances the Cumann na nGaedheal government was committed to weakening the IRA. Measures from the Public Safety Act enacted between 1923 and 1925 effectively outlawed the IRA and forced republicans to move underground.36 Men who would have been recognised as involved in the republican movement in their local communities became a liability for employers. IRA member Liam Carroll from county Tipperary, remembered years later ‘it was next to impossible’ for republicans ‘to get a job’. He also recalled: ‘If you did get one you might only have it when you would be arrested for something and your chances spoiled again.’37 Others, including Michael and John Quill from Kilgarvan, county Kerry, believed their IRA membership ostracised them.38

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For republicans who faced dire employment prospects the sense of exclusion from Irish society strengthened their bitterness against the Irish Free State government. With the ‘stream of emigration’ once again becoming part of Irish society, as seen in the summer of 1924 when 8,000 US visa applications were received by the US Consulate in Dublin, unemployed IRA veterans began to seriously consider departing Ireland.39 However, for the IRA, emigration was the most serious risk to the quality and strength of its organisation and all efforts were made to prohibit men from leaving.40 Official protocol required an IRA member to notify and ask permission from IRA General Headquarters. For instance, during late February 1924 Tyrone volunteers Patrick McConnell and Seán Gallagher requested permission to emigrate to the US. These two men had recently been released from prison and believed that they could not return to their homes in Northern Ireland due to their IRA involvement. Neither could find employment in Dublin and their health was ‘still somewhat below par’. Assisted by a medical officer who served as an intermediary, permits were requested from IRA Chief of Staff Frank Aiken.41 After receiving the note Aiken contacted Gallagher directly and clearly outlined the firm policy of the IRA: ‘Permits cannot be issued to emigrate unless it is absolutely necessary for your health. If you are in middling health and can recover completely in this country it is your duty to stay in it’. McConnell and Gallagher were ordered to ‘proceed to Tyrone without delay’ and return to their units.42 A direct order such as this was meant to instil obedience in IRA members. However, the IRA after the Civil War was largely disorientated.43 IRA leadership realised by the summer of 1924 that republicans ‘in the West of Ireland, West Clare, Kerry and West Cork’ were ‘hard hit’, but little was done to assist them. IRA and Sinn Féin-led employment services in Dublin were not expanded to include men in the isolated western ‘poorer areas’. Estimates gathered by republican officials indicated that 600 republicans had already emigrated by this time.44 By the end of the year an IRA staff commandant noted that emigration due to ‘the bad economic position at home’ was causing ‘a good deal of concern’.45 An April 1925 report from the Fourth Western Division provided further evidence of the devastating effects of emigration for republican forces in Connemara. It had become ‘impossible to prevent the flow of emigration’ due ‘to the lack of employment and the poverty in the area’. The future of IRA units in the area also seemed precarious as the despatch noted that ‘very few who took part in the fight for independence in recent years will be left’.46 Jeremiah Murphy’s perspective from his home town of Headford in Kerry offers a local insight to the period: there was a strange air of emptiness around the place. Although my family had remained intact, there seemed to be a lack of excitement and the whole

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neighbourhood was very quiet. Gone were the familiar faces from the village and the list of those who had departed for other parts of the world was a long one. However, many letters had been received indicating the exiles were doing pretty well and seemed to have no regrets.47

Murphy’s motivation for emigration proved to be the letters he received from family and friends in the US that referred to ‘dances and gatherings which smacked of the gaiety of the past’. Murphy recalled that these letters ‘were very influential in nourishing the idea in my head’.48 By September 1925 Frank Aiken reported to the Army Council that a ‘large number of Volunteers from all along the west coast emigrated, and a considerable number also from other parts of the country ... because there was no hope of their obtaining a livelihood in Ireland in the immediate future’.49 As Aiken and other republican leaders focused on maintaining the structure of the IRA, viable assistance was ultimately unavailable to assist those unemployed. Thus, many of these republicans, instead of being shepherded collectively back into the republican movement like de Valera hoped for had, as described by Jeremiah Murphy, joined the emigration queues and sought ‘the security of greener pastures’.50

‘I was in anything but a happy frame of mind’: American immigration In February 1925 Jeremiah Murphy travelled to Cobh, county Cork, to begin the administrative process of receiving his US visa. Murphy’s initial consular appointment would have included an interview with consular officials as well as a routine medical examination.51 He cleared these standard immigration protocols and three months later, after a final visit to the US Consulate on 14 May, officially secured a visa and waited one week until his departure.52 Murphy was not the only Kerry republican securing a passage to the US. During his first visit to the US Consulate in Cobh in February, he recalled meeting other IRA members ‘on the same passport business as myself’.53 While awaiting his departure, Murphy bid farewell to friend and fellow Kerry IRA member Daniel Hayes, who was emigrating to Waltham, Massachusetts.54 Murphy recalled that Hayes commented that ‘when my foot leaves this pier, it has stood for the last time in Ireland!’55 He believed this was not surprising because Hayes ‘had served his country, backed up his ideals with action and was leaving it in the same frame of mind as many others like him – disappointed’.56 For republicans who recorded their departures from Cobh and the subsequent Atlantic Ocean crossing, feelings of regret and bitterness greatly affect their

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recollections. Cork IRA veteran Connie Neenan correctly recalled his date of departure along with his feelings years later: ‘The date was the 9th of April, 1926 – and I was in anything but a happy frame of mind’.57 Kilgarvan, county Kerry, republican Michael Quill, as detailed by his widowed wife, watched the Irish shoreline disappear from the SS Pittsburgh in March 1926 and thought of how his youth was offered for ‘freedom’. Sleeping in small quarters adjacent to the boiler room, he quickly grew homesick and was overwhelmed by ‘the stench of steerage’.58 Roscommon republican Joseph O’Connor recalled in his memoirs how he was arrested in Cobh the night before departing. After punching a British officer standing outside a pub O’Connor was detained overnight before being released and escorted to the tender for his outbound ship, SS Celtic. He remembered that ‘the ship, like all things British in those days, was segregated – first, second, and third-class, or steerage ... The odor of sickness permeated the air, whatever there was of it, some twenty feet below deck’.59 During this period immigration protocol required that proper documents and medical examinations be processed in overseas consulates, which meant that the emigrant’s physical arrival into the US was a straightforward process that included one final clearance and then reunions with respective American sponsors. For example, Michael Quill and Joseph O’Connor were met by a family member waiting for them in New York and Boston respectively.60 However, for Jeremiah Murphy, his arrival was not as straightforward. After being processed by immigration officials and landing at Battery Pier in New York City, Murphy failed to re-unite with his cousin. Forced to navigate the city on his own he received a map from a Travellers and Society Hall, took an elevated train to midtown Manhattan and walked to his cousin’s apartment.61 Republicans destined for locations outside of the New York area endured an additional overland leg to their journey. Arriving in New York aboard the SS Scythia on 14 October 1924, Martin Shannon of the Fourth Battalion Clare Brigade set out for Chicago to join his brothers Michael, Peter and John.62 Sailing on the same ship was Achill Battalion member Patrick O’Malley, destined for Cleveland.63 Brothers Anthony and Michael McGinty, also from Achill Island and members of ‘C’ Company, North Mayo Brigade emigrated to Cleveland as well. Both men received their American visas from Dublin and departed from Cobh aboard the SS Samaria in 1926.64 Oftentimes discrepancies on travel documents could slow the immigration process.65 Surviving US Department of State visa case files provide numerous reasons why visas would not be issued during the period. One surviving dossier details how former IRA Fourth Northern Division Quartermaster Pádraig Quinn arrived in the US. After sacrificing his medical studies to join the IRA, Quinn was wounded and subsequently taken prisoner during the Civil War.

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While in the prison hospital he witnessed the death of his brother and underwent two surgeries to repair his damaged leg.66 Upon being released he returned to study medicine and married Margaret McGuinness, originally from Chicago. By the end of 1926 the couple, then living in Rome, decided to permanently emigrate to the US. Visa correspondence reveals that this decision was made in haste for Quinn did not have enough time to receive proper clearance from the US Consulate in Rome. A British passport was promptly issued and he and his wife arrived in New York aboard the SS Mauretania on 26 November.67 After presenting his passport to immigration inspectors Quinn was granted the standard three month visitor’s stay allowance. However, according to an attorney who represented Quinn, the republican doctor desired to ‘remain in the United States’, become a citizen, and ‘take the required examination for a medical license in the State of New York’.68 As part of new immigration restrictions, by 1924 US officials required applicants to provide proof that they could be self-sufficient upon arrival. It was also protocol for applicants to submit a number of documents including a birth certificate, a properly issued Irish Free State passport, and any material related to prison time or military service.69 It is important to note that the visa case file of Pádraig Quinn does not contain any record of his IRA service or prison stay. In fact, the wide variety of IRA members who received visas during the 1920s provides evidence that an applicant’s republican ties and, for some, time in prison may have never been revealed during the visa process.70 For instance, Cork republican, Cecil H. Keyes, after being released from Tintown internment camp in December 1923, emigrated legally to the US with a visa in November 1925.71 In his visa declaration form Keyes declared that he had ‘never been in prison’. This disclosure was supported with a letter from a local solicitor, John J. Foley, who also noted that Keyes had ‘not served in any armed forces’.72 Similarly, surviving documents show that married Dublin republican tailor, James Browne, did not divulge his Hare Park internment to US consular officials. Ten months after being released from prison he received a US visa issued from the Dublin Consulate in August 1924 and departed from Liverpool, England, for New York on 15 November 1924.73 Visas were also given to higher ranking IRA officers. Michael McLoughlin, the former brigadier general from the Carrick-on-Shannon Brigade, arrived in New York in October 1925.74 James Brislane from Charleville, county Cork, who was an officer in command during the Civil War, joined his brother David in New York in early November 1926.75 Similarly, a Clare brigade officer in command, Martin Shanahan, arrived in New York in August 1926.76 Cork IRA leader Connie Neenan, noted by British authorities in 1925 as being involved in intelligence operations, was provided with a visa in 1926 for his US

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emigration.77 Even when fully aware of a republican’s background US consular officials were sympathetic to the individual’s plight. Tipperary IRA veteran Michael Flannery recalled how, after applying for a visa, he received a letter from the US Consulate in Dublin detailing how he was ‘not a fit subject to enter America’. He returned to Dublin and met with consular officials who rescinded their decision. According to Flannery, he was permitted to enter the US as ‘a partial refugee’, but was also warned ‘to keep entirely away from the Irish, to get a job and keep a clean nose’.78

Entering the US under cover IRA members on the run from Irish Free State authorities did not have the option of emigrating through appropriate legal channels. Their departure from Ireland was often swift, sometimes under a disguise, and as quiet as possible. In June 1922 Martin Lavan, a Mayo republican, was involved in a shooting incident in which he killed an Irish National Army officer as well as a fellow IRA member. After quickly fleeing from his Kiltimagh, county Mayo, home, Lavan dyed his hair black and changed his identity to ‘Michael Mulderrig’. After escaping to Liverpool he arrived illegally in New York and remained there for one month before travelling to Cleveland and being placed in a local hospital.79 In late April 1923 he contacted Joseph McGarrity and explained that while convalescing he ‘was arrested by Federal authorities and placed in prison’. Released back to the hospital Lavan was ‘still within the clutches of the Federal Government’ and threatened with deportation.80 Irish Free State government Minister Plenipotentiary Timothy Smiddy believed that Lavan’s illegal US arrival was ‘facilitated by a stewardess’ employed on the ship.81 A ship manifest from the SS Scythia, which departed from Liverpool on 11 November 1922, provides evidence that Lavan most likely also used a fake passport for a ‘Michael James Mulderrig’ was amongst the passengers listed.82 Simple methods were often used by the IRA to falsify passports. In some cases a substitute photo was applied to an authentic passport. Other practices included utilising a travel agency to forward forged documents to the respective passport office.83 Kerry republican Seamus O’Connor simply applied for a birth certificate in England using the identity of a British serviceman stationed in India. O’Connor presented his application, had a photograph taken of himself and received a birth certificate under the name of ‘Martin Murphy’. He then presented his documents to a British justice of the peace who was an acquaintance of a friend and promptly received a passport.84

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For republicans who did not avail of forgeries, entering the US illegally through the Canadian frontier also proved a viable, albeit risky, option. As US prohibition and immigration laws were tightened Canada became a centre for bootleggers and human smugglers, with Montreal serving as the ‘chief northern base’. Newspaper articles written during this period reported that smugglers crossed the border by driving ‘fast automobiles’ full of alcohol or people. One smuggler interviewed in 1925 believed that around 25,000 people were brought into the US illegally around this region.85 Trains crossing the border were also used to transport illegal immigrants, with railroad employees occasionally suspected of offering assistance. In 1925 First World War Victoria Cross award recipient, Michael O’Leary, who worked as a railway detective on the Michigan Central Railroad, was accused of transporting illegal immigrants into the US by secretly placing them into freight cars.86 Individuals who illegally entered the US, without organised assistance, were oftentimes exposed to even more dangerous situations. For example, Pat ‘Belty’ Williams, a member of the First Kerry Brigade, arrived in Quebec in June 1924 aboard the SS Megantic.87 Williams, along with another Clare republican, walked across the US border in a desolate region on the Canadian frontier carrying only a compass and a few sandwiches. Upon arriving at the train station in Chazy, New York, the two men were apprehended by police and eventually sentenced to three months imprisonment in a local federal jail. Faced with a deportation back to Ireland Williams and another prisoner managed to escape. After walking five hours they procured transport on a milk truck to Binghamton, New York, and from there took a train to Manhattan.88 In an effort to inform republicans of the dangers of these illegal border crossings the IRA publicised alarming stories through the newspaper, Éire. In July 1924 a letter from Irish-American republican activist, Peter Golden, described the large numbers of young men walking around the streets of Toronto and Montreal ‘homeless and friendless and jobless’. These men, Golden believed, would ‘in a little while be penniless’. Emigrants eager to enter the US illegally were supposedly paying $25 to $50 to avail of smugglers who would drive for hours and not even enter the US. Golden also warned that smugglers would drive men across the border and then alert US authorities of their arrival, where the illegal immigrant would then be promptly arrested and placed in an American jail.89 The advice offered by Golden was supported a few weeks later through another letter, which again appeared in Éire. Garrett O’Connor, a resident of Bridgeburg, Ontario, stated that ‘Irish boys should not come out to Canada with the idea of crossing into the States for it is next to impossible without credentials’.90

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Although the IRA attempted to dissuade members from attempting these daring journeys the organisation did have contacts in Canada which were used for smuggling purposes. Correspondence from around 1924 portrays that the republican networks in the US were ‘bringing men from Canada’.91 Around this time republican Edward Malone entered the US from Canada under the disguise of a student. Malone, as described to republican envoy J.J. O’Kelly, believed this was the ‘only proper way to get into [the] U.S. without a passport’.92 By September 1925 IRA Staff Captain Owen Moore, who was in the US for ‘organisation work’ in early 1924, was living in Cornwall, Ontario, and employed at a silk mill.93 In June 1926 Moore drove a car from Boston to Montreal, picked up visiting IRA leader Andrew Cooney and managed to evade customs authorities while crossing the border into the US.94 One of the most dramatic evacuations of republicans to the US occurred after a 21 March 1924 incident in Cobh. On this day five IRA volunteers dressed as Free State officers arrived in a Rolls Royce at Spike Island and indiscriminately fired upon a group of people, including a number of enlisted British servicemen, who were disembarking from a British naval vessel. One British officer died while eighteen others were injured from gunshot wounds.95 A £10,000 reward was issued for information related to the attackers, believed to be Dan O’Donovan, Frank Busteed, Jim Grey, Jeremiah Grey and Peter O’Shea.96 According to Wexford IRA member Tom Heavey, IRA General Headquarters ‘decided to get the lads to America’. 97 Although it is unclear when and how the Grey brothers, Busteed and O’Shea, escaped to the US, Irish consular officials learned from an unidentified informer that O’Donovan supposedly arrived in New York ‘as a member of the ship’s crew and deserted the ship’ after landing.98 Another highly publicised IRA incident which eventually included an escape to the US began on 13 May 1926 when Ballinasloe, county Galway, republican John Keogh, ‘sentenced’ two years earlier ‘to ten years penal servitude on three counts for feloniously wounding, arson and burglary’ was rescued from the Central Lunatic Asylum in Dundrum, county Dublin, by IRA member George Gilmore.99 For months Irish government officials could not locate the ‘notorious armed bandit’ until November 1926 when a letter written by Keogh to his father was found in his family’s Ballinasloe home.100 The note, sent from New York, included a photo of him with dyed black hair and detailed that, after spending time in London and Canada, he had crossed the US border near Niagara Falls.101 Irish Department of Justice officials suspected that he ‘entered the United States from Canada without inspection and without the production of a passport’. It was hoped that Keogh would subsequently be arrested in the US and deported in order for him to finish his sentence.102 However, according to Secretary of the Irish Free State Legation William Macaulay, Irish-American inspectors did not

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make a ‘very determined effort’ and Keogh slipped from surveillance and was never apprehended.103

‘An awful place far beyond my imagination’: IRA veterans in New York Surviving IRA Foreign Reserve applications provide evidence that IRA veterans who emigrated to the US settled throughout the country. Smaller cities – including Kansas City, Kansas; Rochester, New York; Buffalo, New York; Scranton, Pennsylvania and Cleveland, Ohio – along with the much larger IrishAmerican centres of New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Detroit, Chicago and San Francisco, became the destination spots for emigrating republicans. The applications provide the names of 414 IRA veterans who had settled in the US by 1926.104 Overall these applications provide a limited snapshot of the republican emigration that took place due to the failures in record keeping at the time.105 Nonetheless, it is clear that these applications offer a starting figure for the actual number of republicans who emigrated from Ireland during the mid-1920s, as well as a clear representation of where republicans settled in the US. According to the applications, 192 IRA veterans had settled in the five boroughs of New York City by 1926, making this city the leading destination spot for emigrating republicans.106 For these men, New York City, with a population of around six million people, represented an extremely different environment than they would have been accustomed to in their native Ireland.107 Formerly recognised by everyone in their small Irish communities, these republicans had become another face in the crowd. In Ireland their association with the IRA would have been a source of pride. In New York, amongst 200,000 other Irish emigrants, they were simply known as ‘greenhorns’.108 Kerry IRA veteran Michael Quill spent his first full day in New York on 17 March walking around the city streets and watched the Saint Patrick’s Day parade pass by on Fifth Avenue. He was astonished at the massive crowds. Returning to his aunt’s flat on his own he felt a strong sense of independence.109 Other recently arrived republicans felt fear and trepidation. Kerry IRA veteran Jeremiah Murphy told his mother in a letter that New York was ‘an awful place far beyond my imagination ... Don’t be expecting a letter every minute ... I’m in some fierce form’.110 Young Cork republican Austin Dilloughery, who arrived in the city during the summer of 1925, was initially greeted by his brother and taken to a boarding house in Greenwich Village. A few days later Dilloughery was forced to care for himself as his brother, a marine engineer, left to undertake work in a foreign port.111 Men who arrived illegally and alone in New York would have

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felt even more disconnected. Kerry republican Pat ‘Belty’ Williams’ first few nights in New York were spent ‘sleeping rough’ in the city’s Central Park.112 For Williams, his introduction to the city’s Irish-American networks began after purchasing an Irish-American newspaper which included an advertisement for a dance held especially for Kerry emigrants. Upon arriving at the dance hall he recognised friends, including IRA veterans who had previously arrived in the US.113 Similarly, Michael Quill enjoyed his first night in the US by attending a dance held by the Kerrymen’s Benevolent Association.114 These numerous city dances sponsored by Irish-American organisations offered plenty of opportunities for Irish immigrants to meet and re-connect with old acquaintances. But the IRA leadership felt threatened by these organisations, many of which were not affiliated with the republican movement. This feeling of distrust also extended to certain individual IRA veterans, who still believed that money collected in the US for republican purposes was not being sent directly to the IRA.115 Correspondence from IRA veterans in New York during 1924 supports these claims of apathy and neglect. One republican who attempted to organise a group of veterans in New York, reported ‘that he personally tried to get 25 different I.R.A. men to come into his club and received the same answer: “they’d have nothing to do with any Organization in America”’.116 Similarly, in August 1925, the New York Times detailed an organisation formed to assist IRA veterans who had recently arrived in New York. Meeting at the Central Opera House, these men ‘denounced’ the lack of support for republicans who arrived in the US ‘without funds’.117 The inability and failure of the IRA in the immediate years after the Civil War to deal with the unemployment issues of its members and subsequent emigration meant that rumours had an opportunity to expand even in a foreign setting. Once the IRA Foreign Reserve was formed in the summer of 1925 and the IRA began working actively with the Clan, a deliberate attempt to re-inspire and reunite the republican forces in New York began. In October the Mayo Dance Halls, which ‘operated solely for the benefit of the I.R.A.’, were opened at 201 and 203 East Sixty-seventh Street. One of the first gatherings welcomed all ‘Irish Republicans who recognize the leadership of the movement in Ireland and the Envoys of the Republic in America’.118 In December these halls held the IRA Ball. ‘Officers in charge’ of the dance included ten leading IRA members. Two commandants from the Northern Division as well as the Western Division were represented, along with leaders from the Kerry brigades. Commandant Peter Kearney, described by a contemporary as ‘nearly a legend in our circles’, represented the Cork Third Brigade.119 Further attempts to place recognisable and highly regarded IRA veterans into leading roles in New York occurred in early February with the formation of the Brian MacNeil IRA Club. ‘Composed

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of all Western men’, the club’s president was Michael McLoughlin, the former brigadier general from the Carrick-on-Shannon Brigade.120 Based on newspaper accounts during this period, IRA veterans were indeed attracting support. In further detailing the actions of the new Brian MacNeil IRA Club the Irish World also noted that ‘members of the Leitrim Men’s Association’ had assisted IRA veterans in this club during their first dance in February.121 By June 1926 a number of republicans were listed as members of the Leitrim Men’s Association. These men had formed the ‘Cullen flying column’, also known as the ‘Right Wing of the Leitrim Club’.122 An ‘Easter Week Anniversary Ball’ at the Central Opera House was held ‘under auspices of Irish Republican Army Men’s Clubs of Greater New York’. As with the New Year’s Eve celebrations four months earlier, organisers of this event included leading IRA veterans such as Michael McLoughlin and Peter Kearney, Kerry republicans, Moss Galvin and Tadg Brosnan, and also Fourth Northern Division republicans, Thomas (Tom) McGill and Seamus (James) Conaty.123 In 1926 republican activities in New York also occurred in the Clan na Gael Hall at 149 East Forty-second Street, known publicly as the Clan’s official ‘headquarters’.124 Galway IRA fugitive John Keogh in autumn 1926 noted to his father that he was attending ‘two dances per week’ at this venue.125

‘Christ, is this America?’: IRA veterans in Cleveland In spring 1926 North Mayo Brigade member Anthony McGinty accompanied by his mother, Catherine, and fellow republican brother, Michael, arrived by train at Cleveland’s Union Depot train station. McGinty vividly recalled in an interview years later that a railroad employee placed a wooden box outside the train door to assist the passengers stepping onto the platform. Amazed at the simple courtesy McGinty exclaimed, ‘Christ is this America?’126 Anthony and Michael McGinty were two of thirty-three IRA veterans documented amongst the IRA Foreign Reserve applications who arrived in Cleveland between 1923 and 1926.127 What distinguished Cleveland from other US destinations, including New York, however, was the fact that thirty-one of these thirty-three republicans who arrived in the city were from county Mayo, displaying a clear pattern of chain migration.128 Cleveland began attracting Irish emigrants during the construction of the Erie Canal in the mid 1820s.129 As the industrial workforce expanded, Irish communities prospered along western and eastern shores of the Cuyahoga River and also along Detroit Avenue. By 1930 metropolitan Cleveland, with a total population of 900,429, was home to a little over 8,000 Irish-born people still

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situated in these areas.130 This small but close-knit and vibrant Irish community remained stable and, unlike New York, did not have a dramatic shift in settlement after the First World War.131 Irish immigrants moved into residences with family members and would often live alongside former neighbours from Ireland.132 The 1930 US census indicates that Anthony and Michael McGinty lived with their brother and parents at 6109 Lawn Avenue. Next door lived Thomas McIntyre, who had previously served with them in the Second Battalion of the North Mayo Brigade.133 These local republican affiliations on the west side of Cleveland survived collectively through the Terence MacSwiney Clan na Gael Club. This club ensured that republicans who had emigrated to the city remained connected to the local IRA units in Mayo that they had left behind. Money raised by the Clan members was directly appropriated to Mayo-based IRA volunteers and their dependents. For example, on 10 March 1926 the club forwarded ‘Twenty Pounds Ten Shillings’ to Michael Mangan of the Fourth Western Division ‘with regard to [an] appeal for Mrs. Healy, Ardnaree, Ballina’. A sum of £51 had also been previously collected for Mayo IRA veteran William Chambers, who was ‘not given a square deal by the medical department of the I.R.A’. One year earlier these direct contacts drew the ire of IRA General Headquarters, which demanded that funding requests be administered through ‘proper channels’ as set forth by the IRA protocol.134 However, the limits of this policy continued to be tested. In 1926 the club’s treasurer and long-time member, John Gallagher, revealed to Michael Mangan that occasionally ‘surplus funds’ were ‘on hand’. If approved by IRA General Headquarters Gallagher hoped in the future to appropriate this money directly to ‘I.R.A. Units in the Fourth Western Division’, particularly to those areas where IRA veterans now enrolled in the Cleveland Clan ‘formerly lived’.135 The ‘I.R.A. boys … from Newport, Achill, and Western Mayo Areas’, who joined the MacSwiney Club solidified the ‘Fight and Fight only’ militant republican approach of the Clan.136 One report forwarded to Cleveland from a North Mayo Brigade officer declared that twenty-two republicans from Achill Island, county Mayo, were declared ‘eligible’ to join the Clan. Included amongst these individuals was Patrick O’Malley of Currane, Patrick Barrett of Keel, and Joseph Moran of Dooagh.137 During 1926 a dance was held by the MacSwiney Club in order to raise funds for a ‘memorial’ for Moran’s brother Michael who, after being imprisoned in Britain during the Irish War of Independence, died of supposed arsenic poisoning while returning to Achill Island.138 According to John Gallagher, Moran’s ‘former comrades in the I.R.A. and the membership of the C.N.G. [Clan na Gael] were the principal contributors to make the affair a success’.139 These fundraising efforts led by displaced Mayo IRA veterans

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in Cleveland proved highly successful as one year later Moran’s gravestone was erected at Achill Island’s Slievemore Cemetery.140

The Boston IRA ‘Child’ IRA veterans who settled across the US were subsequently subjected to new experiences and opportunities that did not exist in Ireland. Although republican activism remained important for those still dedicated to the cause, all of the men who arrived in the US aspired to find work and in turn obtain greater financial freedom. As the young republicans arrived through 1926, employment most often involved apprenticeships and low scale jobs. In Cleveland, Mayo republican Patrick O’Malley was first employed in the mail room for the local newspaper, Cleveland Plain Dealer.141 Mayo IRA veteran Martin Lavan, after being relieved of deportation charges, found a job delivering groceries.142 Roscommon republican Joseph O’Connor, upon arriving in Providence, Rhode Island, during late 1925, found employment as a machinist apprentice for Browne Sharpe Tool and Machine Company. He earned a ‘starting wage of sixteen dollars a week’ and supplemented his income by also working as an usher at a local cinema.143 Kerry IRA veteran Michael Quill, initially hired to work ten hour days as a labourer for the construction of a new subway line in New York City, traded in his ‘pick and shovel’ after a few months for a salesman’s position with the Shanghai Disinfecting Company.144 Cork republican Austin Dilloughery worked during the days and attended night school studying civil engineering at Cooper Union.145 Overall, the IRA veteran’s initial year in the US was usually characterised by a steady and ordinary existence. Many of their days were spent earning money while also meeting new friends at dances and other social events. The lifestyles portrayed by these republicans contrasted greatly with that experienced by young First Cork Brigade IRA veteran Eugene Sheehan.146 Surviving correspondence and immigration records for July and August 1924 show that Sheehan immigrated illegally by utilising an alias. Using a ticket belonging to Cork IRA member Seán Culhane ‘that was altered to suit him’ and carrying £10, Sheehan left Cobh on 26 July 1924 aboard the Canadian bound SS Megantic. After arriving in Quebec on 2 August as ‘Patrick J. Culhane’, Sheehan eventually entered the US.147 Although the details of his illegal entry into the US are unknown, IRA leadership attempted weeks before to locate assistance and instructions for him ‘to cross the border’, in order for him to connect with family in Boston.148 On 16 May 1925 Sheehan was publicly introduced to readers of the Irish World. Standing alongside Seán T. O’Kelly and others in a publicity photo taken

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in Lexington, Massachusetts, Sheehan wearing a suit and tie appeared as a dignified member of the republican legation.149 Two months later Katherine Enright, an AARIR leader in Boston, wrote privately to Liam Pedlar and expressed her opinion of the young Cork republican: ‘It seems strange to think that he has his whole life ahead of him yet, and must lay the foundation at this time for that life. It is easier to think of him as a big kid who has to taste of some pleasures yet before he settles down. Of course, if he was at home, it would be different’.150 When he was still in Ireland IRA officials believed Sheehan was ‘going to Boston to his people where a job is waiting for him’.151 However, securing steady employment seemed a minor concern for the young IRA veteran who Enright referred to simply as the ‘Child’.152 Sheehan was a young and enthusiastic leader of the IRA veterans in Boston who also revelled in his association with the major figures in the republican movement. He in fact depended a great deal on his older republican mentors and shared a particularly close friendship with Pedlar and Enright. Often referring to Pedlar as ‘Willie’, Sheehan would tease him about his small stature by calling him ‘little PED’.153 Enright, who took a great interest in assisting Sheehan, in many ways treated him as a younger sibling.154 During August 1925 she believed that Sheehan’s lack of desire for securing employment resulted in him getting into ‘a very lazy habit’. She also feared that he was being too coddled.155 Sheehan’s life, however, grew more focused as the weeks continued. In late September 1925 Enright reported excitedly to Pedlar that ‘THE CHILD has gone to work for a living’. After failing to become a member of the local carpenters’ union Sheehan was assisted with employment by Tom Collins, ‘an old timer’ of the republican movement in Boston, who was a superintendent of Simpson and Son, ‘a large contracting and building firm’. Making ‘65 cents an hour as a helper’, Sheehan would awake during the week at 6:30 a.m. and work from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. He was also employed by Collins during the weekends, in which he guarded a building site.156 Sheehan’s close relationship with Pedlar meant that his local republican activism in Boston would occasionally expand to other areas of the US. Adept at driving, Sheehan was occasionally given a car and would travel throughout the east coast of the US.157 In Boston this car was also used as a publicity tool. On one occasion he advertised a dance for IRA veterans on its bumper.158 Sheehan had multiple republican connections and in late October 1925 he reported to Pedlar of ‘an invitation’ he had received ‘to go to Florida’.159 The reasons for this overture are unclear, but another letter to Pedlar portrays the distinct possibility that he was involved in certain illegal activities, for he requested that Pedlar ask an individual ‘to send on further particulars with reference to birth certificates’.160 Sheehan also spent much time organising IRA veterans in the area. Possessing an extremely

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jovial personality, he befriended other young republicans and in 1925 attempted to bring them into the newly created IRA Foreign Reserve. He also encouraged them to become publicly active through IRA veterans’ meetings and dances.161 During 1925 the most significant public event which Sheehan participated in centred on the Boston arrival of former Irish Free State Minister for Defence Richard Mulcahy.162 During the course of Mulcahy’s October visit Sheehan was involved with the organisation of protests, which included republican activists supplying demonstrators with ‘4 cases of eggs’ and renting a hall adjacent to Boston’s city centre Copley Plaza Hotel. Initially, republicans in the city were greatly excited at the prospects of an invigorated display of anger. However, to the disgust of Sheehan, when the planned protest occurred on a cold Sunday morning, ‘ninety percent’ of the people ‘stuck valiantly to their beds’. The others were ‘lost in the vast wilderness of Copley Square, with blue noses and red eyes, and empty stomachs’. By early afternoon the fifty remaining demonstrators began to picket, but once again were disheartened after receiving notice that Mulcahy had entered the hotel from a different entrance. The planned protests continued, however, until five police officers arrived. After initial ‘excitement for a few minutes’ the republicans were ordered to ‘disband’ and ‘leave the vicinity’. Retiring to their rented hall the protestors, once again to the disillusionment of Sheehan, celebrated the ‘MORAL victory over the General’. The following day Mulcahy departed from Boston’s Trinity Place train station without any disruptions. Sheehan, who hoped to organise one final protest before Mulcahy’s departure, was diverted from his own personal endeavour when ‘a kind horse’ got in the way and ‘kicked’ the car he was driving.163 The efforts displayed by Sheehan after arriving in the US would have been considered by the IRA as the ideal example of republican activism for a recently arrived IRA veteran. As someone who was determined, enthusiastic and committed to the republican ethos, Sheehan provided an instant attraction to IRA veterans and also Irish-Americans in Boston. His leadership and charisma was important in sustaining and further developing the ideals associated with militant republicanism. The IRA could only hope that the other IRA veterans who arrived in the US would offer the same determination and leadership that Sheehan exhibited, especially as these men now represented the new voices of the militant republican movement.

Notes    1 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,531, Synopsis of Clan na Gael convention, 12–14 September 1926 (report created on 30 September 1926).

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  2 Dan Breen, My fight for Irish freedom (3rd ed., Dublin, 1989), 72–4.   3 Ibid., 66.    4 Dermot O’Reilly (ed.), Accepting the challenge: the memoirs of Michael Flannery (Dublin, 2001), 101, 104–6.   5 Ibid., 112.   6 Ernie O’Malley, The singing flame (2nd ed., Dublin, 1992), 258.   7 Ibid., 258–63.   8 Ibid., 264–8.   9 Ibid., 268.   10 Ruth Barrington, Health, medicine and politics in Ireland 1900–1970 (Dublin, 1987), 90–6; Greta Jones, ‘Captain of all these men of death’: the history of tuberculosis in nineteenth and twentieth century Ireland (New York, 2001), 130–1.  11 Jones, ‘Captain of all these men of death’, 130–1, 137.   12 Timothy J. Sarbaugh, ‘John Byrne: The life and times of the forgotten Irish republican of Los Angeles’, Southern California Quarterly, 63:4 (Winter 1981), 383.   13 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,526 (1), Leahy to McGarrity, 18 [April 1923].  14 Ibid.   15 UCDA, MTP, P69/37 (103), copy of letter from Francis Joseph Cunningham to unknown (copy sent to Military Attaché, USA), c. 1924.   16 Emily K. Abel, Tuberculosis and the politics of exclusion: a history of public health and migration to Los Angeles (New Brunswick, 2007), 58.   17 UCDA, MTP, P69/37 (103), copy of letter from Francis Joseph Cunningham to unknown (copy sent to Military Attaché, USA), c. 1924.   18 Sarbaugh, ‘John Byrne’, 383.   19 National Archives of Ireland (hereafter NAI), Department of the Taoiseach (hereafter D/T), S 7714, O’Daly to President, Dáil Éireann, 20 July 1924.   20 Ibid. For more information on Mulcahy’s attempts to prevent division in Cumann na mBan after the Anglo-Irish Treaty, see Ann Matthews, Renegades: Irish Republican Women 1900–1922 (Cork: Mercier Press, 2010), 317–18.   21 NAI, D/T, S 7714, O’Daly to President, Dáil Éireann, 20 July 1924.   22 NAI, D/T, S 7714, Cosgrave to McGrath, College of Science, 15 September 1924.   23 MTP, UCDA, P69/183(126–128), Despatch from An Timthire, 1 February 1927; NAB, RG 85, PCLNY, 1897–1957, entry for ‘Joseph Blake’, arrived 17 January 1925 on SS Olympic, T715, 3595, 108,13 (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 13 April 2010).   24 Sarbaugh, ‘John Byrne’, 383; An Phoblacht, 8 September 1928; UCDA, MTP, P69/183 (126–128), Despatch from An Timthire, 1 February 1927.  25 Hopkinson, Green against green, 268; J.J. Lee, ‘Emigration: 1922–1998’, in M. Glazier (ed.), The encyclopedia of the Irish in America, 264; J. Bowyer Bell, The secret army: the IRA (3rd ed., New Brunswick, 1997), 47.  26 New York Public Library Manuscripts and Archives Division (hereafter NYPL), Maloney Collection of Irish Historical Papers (hereafter MCIHP), MssCol 1854, Box 7, Folder 6, de Valera to McGarrity, 4 June 1923 (original letter was written on 31 May 1923, but de Valera added an amendment on 4 June).

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 27 O’Malley, The singing flame, 286.   28 Ibid., 285.   29 Ibid., 286.  30 Éire, 26 January 1924.   31 Jeremiah Murphy, When youth was mine: a memoir of Kerry 1902–1925 (Dublin, 1998), 280.  32 Lee, Ireland 1912–1985, 108–9; Cormac Ó Grada, A rocky road: the Irish economy since the 1920s (Manchester, 1997), 91.   33 UCDA, MTP, P69/124 (46), Tierney to unknown, c. 1924.   34 UCDA, MTP, P69/124 (45), Tierney to ‘Paddy’, c. 1924.  35 UCDA, MTP, P69/132 (168–169), Browne to Officer in Command (hereafter O/C), Third Battalion, Dublin Brigade c. July 1924.  36 Bell, The secret army, 41–5.  37 MacEoin, Survivors, 274.   38 Shirley Quill, Mike Quill – himself: a memoir (Greenwich, 1985), 34.  39 Leitrim Observer, 30 August 1924.  40 Hanley, The IRA, 1926–1936, 161. For an in-depth analysis on the reasons for IRA emigration and its impact on the IRA during this period, see Gavin Foster, ‘“No ‘Wild Geese’ this time”?: IRA emigration after the Irish Civil War’, Éire-Ireland, 47 (Spring/Summer 2012), 94–122.   41 UCDA, MTP, P69/43 (108), Medical Officer, Released Prisoners to Chief of Staff, IRA (hereafter C/S), 26 February 1924.   42 UCDA, MTP, P69/43 (107), C/S to Seán Gallagher, 6 March 1924.  43 Hanley, The IRA, 1926–1936, 11.   44 UCDA, MTP, P69/179 (110), ‘Unemployment and emigration’, August 1924; Brian Hanley, ‘Irish republicans in interwar New York’, Irish Journal of American Studies, 1 (Summer 2009) (www.ijasonline.com/BRIAN-HANLEY.html) (accessed 8 July 2013).   45 UCDA, MTP, P69/37 (105), Staff Commandant to ‘Mrs. Maloney’, 31 December 1924.   46 UCDA, MTP, P69/207 (95–97), Headquarters, Fourth Western Division to A/G, 28 April 1925.  47 Murphy, When youth was mine, 299–300.   48 Ibid., 300.  49 Hanley, The IRA, 1926–1936, 12; UCDA, MTP, P69/206 (16–17), C/S to members of A/C, 29 September 1925.  50 NYPL, MCIHP, Mss Col 1854, Box 7, Folder 6, Éamon de Valera to Joseph McGarrity, 4 June 1923 (original letter was written on 31 May 1923, but de Valera added an amendment on 4 June 1923); Murphy, When youth was mine, 318.  51 Murphy, When youth was mine, 301; Whelan, United States foreign policy, 494–5.   52 Murphy states in his memoirs that he departed from Cobh three days after his last appointment with the US Consulate. However, passenger and visa records show that Murphy received his visa on 14 May and departed from Cobh on 21 May. See Murphy,

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When youth was mine, 314–15; NAB, RG 85, PCLNY, 1897–1957, entry for ‘Jeremiah Murphy’, arrived 29 May 1925 on SS President Harding, T715, 3659, 109, 20 (www. ancestry.com) (accessed 26 February 2010); US Department of Homeland Security, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (hereafter USDOHS), Visa File Series, File 164259, Immigration visa for ‘Jeremiah Murphy’, 14 May 1925; Murphy, When youth was mine, 315.   53 Ibid., 301.   54 Ibid., 314–15; UCDA, MTP, P69/170 (84), ‘Application for enrolment on Foreign Reserve List’, Form FR 2 (hereafter FR 2), ‘Daniel Hayes’, 16 April 1926; NAB, RG 85, PCLNY, 1897–1957, entry for ‘Daniel Hayes’, arrived 21 May 1925 on SS President Roosevelt, T715, 3656, 91, 23 (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 5 January 2010).  55 Murphy, When youth was mine, 315.  56 Ibid.   57 CCCA, CNP, PR7/7, Connie Neenan memoirs, 127.  58 Quill, Mike Quill, 37. NAB, RG 85, PCLNY, 1897–1957, entry for ‘Michael Quill’, arrived 16 March 1926 on SS Pittsburgh, T715, 3813, 235, 7 (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 26 February 2009).   59 J.F. O’Connor, An Irish Civil War exile (New York, 1989), 20.   60 Ibid., 26; Quill, Mike Quill, 37.  61 Murphy, When youth was mine, 323–4.  62 These four brothers, originally from Bolooghra, Kilfiddane, county Clare and members of ‘A’ Company, Fourth Battalion, Clare Brigade, were by 1926, living at 1531 East Sixty-sixth Place in Chicago. NAB, RG 85, PCLNY, 1897–1957, entry for ‘Martin Shannon’, arrived 14 October 1924 on SS Scythia, T715, 3557, 209, 30 (www.ancestry.com) (26 February 2009); NAI, Census of Ireland, 1911, ‘residents of house number 10 in Bolooghra Kilfiddane, Clare’ (www.census.nationalarchives. ie/pages/1911/Clare/Kilfiddane/Bolooghra/362225/) (accessed 26 January 2010); UCDA, MTP, P69/169 (21–24), ‘Transfer to foreign reserve list in U.S.A’., Form FR 3 (hereafter FR 3), ‘Martin Shannon’, ‘John Shannon’, ‘Peter Shannon’, ‘Michael Shannon’, 8 March 1926.   63 NAB, RG 85, PCLNY, 1897–1957, entry for ‘Patrick O’Malley’, arrived 14 October 1924 on SS Scythia, T715, 3557, 207, 18 (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 9 October 2009); UCDA, MTP, P69/170 (134), FR 3, ‘Patrick Joseph O’Malley’, undated.   64 UCDA, MTP, P69/170 (40–41), ‘Application for transfer to Foreign Reserve List’, Form FR 1 (hereafter FR 1), ‘Michael McGinty’, ‘Anthony McGinty’, 27 April 1926; NAB, RG 85, PCLNY, 1897–1957, entry for ‘Anthony McGinty’, arrived 10 May 1926 on SS Samaria, T715, 3845, 207, 13 (www.ancestry.com) (26 February 2009); NAB, RG 85, PCLNY, 1897–1957, entry for ‘Michael McGinty’, arrived 10 May 1926 on SS Samaria, T715, 3845, 207, 15 (www.ancestry.com) (26 February 2009); Interview with Anthony McGinty, c. 1995, ‘Cleveland’s Irish blessings: immigrant interviews’ (VHS recording, Cleveland, 1995).  65 Whelan, United States foreign policy, 498.   66 See O’Malley, The singing flame, 164–5; Éire, 12 January 1924.

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  67 NAB, RG 85, PCLNY, 1897–1957, entry for ‘Patrick Quinn’, arrived 26 November 1926 on SS Mauretania, T715, 3970, 82, 5 (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 21 August 2009).   68 National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD (hereafter NACP), General Records of the Department of State, Record Group 59 (hereafter RG 59), Visa Division, Visa Case Files, 1924–32 (hereafter VCF), 1924–32], Box 776, 811.111, McNaboe, Counsellor at Law to Dubois, Chief Visa Office, 1 December 1926.  69 Whelan, United States foreign policy, 498.  70 A possible reason for these undeclared prison sentences was the fact that on 4 November 1924 the Irish Free State government declared amnesty for all IRA members involved with the ‘state of rebellion’ from 6 December 1921 to 12 May 1923. See NAI, D/T, S/4120, Amnesty Resolution, 4 November 1924; Bill Kissane, The politics of the Irish Civil War (Oxford, 2005), 166–7.   71 NAB, RG 85, PCLNY, 1897–1957, entry for ‘Cecil H. Keyes’, arrived 1 December 1925 on SS Doric, T715, 3766, 42, 1 (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 19 January 2010); USDOHS, Visa File Series, File 253149, Immigration visa for ‘Cecil Hugh Keyes’, 18 November 1925.   72 USDOHS, Visa File Series, File 253149, Visa declaration of ‘Cecil Hugh Keyes’, 18 November 1925; USDOHS, Visa File Series, File 253149, Letter of reference for ‘Cecil H. Keyes’, signed by Foley, Solicitor, 14 November 1925.   73 USDOHS, Visa File Series, File 68855, Visa declaration of ‘James Browne’, 14 August 1924; USDOHS, Visa File Series, File 68855, Immigration visa for ‘James Browne’, 14 August 1924; NAB, RG 85, PCLNY, 1897–1957, entry for ‘James Browne’, arrived 24 November 1924 on SS Laconia, T715, 3575, 81, 18 (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 14 December 2010).  74 USDOHS, Visa File Series, File 233800, Immigration visa for ‘Michael P. McLoughlin’, 14 August 1925; NAB, RG 85, PCLNY, 1897–1957, entry for ‘Michael McLaughlin [McLoughlin]’, arrived 27 October 1925 on SS President Harding, T715, 3747, 206, 1 (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 2 February 2009); UCDA, MTP, P69/169 (5), FR 1, ‘Michael McLoughlin’, 10 March 1926.   75 USDOHS, Visa File Series, File 417216, Immigration visa for ‘James Brislane’, 14 October 1926; NAB, RG 85, PCLNY, 1897–1957, entry for ‘James Brislane’, arrived 5 November 1926 on SS Republic, T715, 3960, 130, 17 (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 31 March 2009). For more information on Brislane, see Liam Deasy, Brother against brother (Cork, 1998), 59, 66; Peter Hart, The I.R.A. and its enemies: violence and community in Cork, 1916–1923 (Oxford, 1998), 252.   76 USDOHS, Visa File Series, File 374240, Immigration visa for ‘Martin Shanahan’, 23 April 1926; NAB, RG 85, PCLNY, 1897–1957, entry for ‘Martin Shanahan’, arrived 29 August 1926 on SS Adriatic, T715, 3914, 161, 11 (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 26 February 2010); UCDA, MTP, P69/167 (4), FR 2, ‘Martin Shanahan’, 22 September 1926; Hanley, The IRA, 1926–1936, 163.   77 Paul McMahon, British spies and Irish rebels (Woodbridge, 2008), 208; NAB, RG 85, PCLNY, 1897–1957, entry for ‘Cornelius Neenan’, arrived 19 April 1926 on SS

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Republic, T715, 3832, 59, 13 (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 16 December 2009); UCDA, MTP, P69/169 (2), FR 3, ‘Cornelius Neenan’, 5 March 1926.   78 O’Reilly (ed.), Accepting the challenge, 119. Flannery’s visa application states that he was ‘a political prisoner in Curragh Camp during September 1922.[sic] till 1924’. See USDOHS, Visa File Series, File 462471, Visa declaration of ‘Michael Flannery’, 20 December 1926; USDOHS, Visa File Series, File 462471, Immigration visa for ‘Michael Flannery’, 8 January 1927.  79 Cleveland Plain Dealer, 4 April 1923; ‘A Martin Lavan Story’ (www.rte.ie/radio1/ doconone/martin_lavan.html) (accessed 4 February 2010).   80 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,526 (1), Lavan to McGarrity, 20 April 1923.   81 Timothy A. Smiddy to Desmond Fitzgerald, 20 April 1923, Documents on Irish Foreign Policy online (www.difp.ie/docs/Volume2/1923/405.htm) (accessed 18 December 2009).   82 NAB, RG 85, PCLNY, 1897–1957, entry for ‘Michael James Mulderrig’, arrived 20 November 1923 on SS Scythia, T715, 3220, 110, 13 (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 20 May 2011).   83 Mahon and Gillogly, Decoding the IRA, 175–6.   84 Seamus O’Connor, Tomorrow was another day: the irreverent, humorous earthy memoirs of an Irish rebel schoolmaster (Tralee, 1970), 118.  85 Oakland Tribune, 20 May 1925 (www.newspaperarchive.com) (accessed 14 December 2009).   86 National Archives at New York City, United States District Court Records, The United States of America vs. Michael J. O’Leary, 000-06-0002, Folder CR 6429/6430, Box 162, c. January 1925. O’Leary was acquitted of any wrongdoing. See Oakland Tribune, 25 May 1925 (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 26 February 2010).   87 Library and Archives Canada (hereafter LAC), Records of the Immigration Branch, Record Group 76 (hereafter RG 76), Form 30A, Ocean Arrivals (Individual Manifests), 1919–24, Rolls T-14939 through T-15248, entry for ‘Patrick Williams’, arrived c. June 1924 on SS Megantic (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 15 February 2010); UCDA, MTP, P69/167 (70), FR 2, ‘Paddy Williams’, 22 February 1926.   88 T. Ryle Dwyer, Across the waves: a true story of love and loss in a time of war (Cork, 2002), 25–6.  89 Éire, 12 July 1924.  90 Éire, 16 August 1924.   91 P69/37 (113), ‘A chara: No. 2’ (signature is illegible), c. 1924.   92 P69/37 (114), Malone to O’Kelly, c. 1923.   93 UCDA, MTP, P69/167 (104), FR 1, ‘Owen Moore’, 8 February 1926; UCDA, MTP, P69/43 (102), Moore to C/S, 12 April 1924; NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,481, Moore to Pedlar, 6 September 1925.   94 Michael MacEvilly, A splendid resistance, 165.  95 Cork Examiner, 24 March 1924; Kieran McCarthy, Republican Cobh and the East Cork Volunteers (Dublin, 2008), 220–1.

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 96 McCarthy, Republican Cobh, 221–4; Uinseánn MacEoin, The IRA in the twilight years, 1923–1948 (Dublin, 1997), 101.  97 MacEoin, The IRA in the twilight years, 101. For more information on Heavey, see Hilary Murphy, ‘Wexfordmen interned after the 1916 rising and Old IRA pensioners, 1916–1923’, The Past: the organ of the Uí Cinsealaigh Historical Society, 27 (2006), 30.   98 NAI, Department of Foreign Affairs (hereafter DFA), 44/9, Macaulay to Secretary, Department of External Affairs, 21 December 1931; NAI, DFA, 44/9, Macaulay to Secretary, Department of External Affairs, 7 January 1932.   99 NAI, DFA GR 853, Department of Justice to Secretary, Department of External Affairs, 26 November 1926; Mahon and Gillogly, Decoding the IRA, 156–7. 100 NAI, DFA, GR 853, Department of Justice to Secretary, Department of External Affairs, 26 November 1926. 101 NAI, DFA, GR 853, ‘Jack’ to ‘Father’, 19 [October 1926]. 102 NAI, DFA, GR 853, Department of Justice to Secretary, Department of External Affairs, 26 November 1926. 103 NAI, DFA, GR 853, Macaulay to Secretary, Department of External Affairs, 11 March 1927. 104 This figure is based on Foreign Reserve applications that were either signed during or before 1926, or applications which specifically stated that the IRA member had departed Ireland during or before 1926. See UCDA, MTP, P69/149 (123–125), P69/149 (127–130), P69/149 (132–134), P69/167 (2–5), P69/167 (46–49), P69/167 (52–93), P69/169 (3), P69/169 (5–6), P69/169 (8–12), P69/169 (15–59), P69/169 (61–189), P69/169 (191), P69/169 (193–219), P69/169(221), P69/169(223–225), P69/170(3–9), P69/170(12–15), P69/170 (17–19), P69/170 (22–24), P69/170 (28–46), P69/170 (53–56), P69/170 (73–79), P69/170 (58–61), P69/170 (63–72), P69/170 (80–96), P69/170 (98–138), P69/171 (24), P69/183 (11–18), P69/183 (20–22), P69/183 (145–146), P69/183 (149–154), P69/183 (177), Foreign Reserve applications. 105 Hanley, The IRA, 1926–1936, 162. For example, IRA veterans from Cork city and Dublin city are not adequately represented. Connie Neenan is the only republican from Cork city documented on an application and Pat McEnroe is the lone Dublin city IRA veteran listed. See UCDA, MTP, P69/169 (2), FR 3, ‘Cornelius Neenan’, 5 March 1926; UCDA, MTP, P69/169 (114), FR 3, ‘Pat McEnroe’, 10 March 1926. 106 The five boroughs of New York City include Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island (referred to at the time as Richmond Hill). This figure is based on applications that that were either signed on or before 1926, or applications which specifically stated that the IRA member had departed Ireland during or before 1926. Also included were applications which simply stated ‘New York’ for, in most instances, this referred to New York City. See UCDA, MTP, P69/149 (132–133), P69/167 (2–5), P69/167 (53–54), P69/167 (56), P69/167 (63), P69/167 (81), P69/167 (93), P69/169 (3), P69/169 (5–6), P69/169 (9–11), P69/169 (15–17), P69/169 (19), P69/169 (27–29), P69/169 (33–34), P69/169 (36), P69/169 (39–42), P69/169 (44), P69/169 (46–47), P69/169 (49), P69/169 (51–52),

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P69/169 (54–59), P69/169 (62–67), P69/169 (69), P69/169 (72–74), P69/169 (76–77), P69/169 (80–83), P69/169 (85), P69/169 (87–93), P69/169 (113–117), P69/169 (122–130), P69/169 (139), P69/169 (141–144), P69/169 (151–189), P69/169 (202–204), P69/169 (206–207), P69/169 (219), P69/169 (221), P69/169 (224–225), P69/170 (3), P69/170 (6), P69/170 (14), P69/170 (18), P69/170 (24), P69/170 (29–30), P69/170 (35–37), P69/170 (53–56), P69/170 (58–61), P69/170 (63–67), P69/170 (69–70), P69/170 (72–81), P69/170 (94), P69/170 (105–107), P69/170 (116), P69/170 (137), P69/183 (11), P69/183 (13–18), P69/183 (20–22), P69/183 (145), P69/183 (149), P69/183 (151–153), P69/183 (177), Foreign Reserve applications. 107 Hanley, ‘Irish republicans in interwar New York’. Official census records state that 5,620,048 people were residing in New York city in 1920. Ten years later, this figure would rise to 6,930,446. Figures found in Ira Rosenwaike, Population history of New York City (Syracuse, 1972), 141. 108 Rosenwaike, Population history, 203; Marion R. Casey, ‘“From the east side to the seaside”: Irish Americans on the move in New York City’, in R. H. Bayor and T. J. Meagher (eds), The New York Irish, 396; Quill, Mike Quill, 39. 109 Quill, Mike Quill, 37, 39. 110 Murphy, When youth was mine, 323–4. 111 Quill, Mike Quill, 61. 112 Dwyer, Across the waves, 26 113 Ibid., 26–7. 114 Quill, Mike Quill, 39. 115 Hanley, ‘Irish republicans in interwar New York’. 116 UCDA, MTP, P69/37 (113), ‘A chara: No. 2’ (signatures are illegible), c. 1924. 117 UCDA, FAP, P104/2519 (6), newspaper clipping, New York Times, 7 August 1925. 118 Irish World, 3 October 1925. 119 Irish World, 19 December 1925; Commandant Peter Kearney Memorial Committee (eds), Commandant Peter Kearney: tributes to his memory (Cork, 1970), p 14. 120 Irish World, 13 February 1926. 121 Ibid. 122 Irish World, 12 June 1926. 123 Irish World, 17 April 1926. Conaty is spelled ‘Connatty’ in the advertisement. Galvin, Brosnan and Conaty arrived in the US between late 1924 and early 1925. NAB, RG 85, PCLNY, 1897–1957, entry for ‘Maurice Galvin’, arrived 11 May 1925 on SS Caronia, T715, 3650, 27, 2 (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 26 February 2010); NAB, RG 85, PCLNY, 1897–1957, entry for ‘Timothy [Tadg] Brosnan’, arrived 9 December 1924 on SS Carmania, T715, 3582, 98, 11 (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 26 February 2010); NAB, RG 85, PCLNY, 1897–1957, entry for ‘James Conaty Jr.’, arrived 18 May 1925 on SS Adriatic, T715, 3654, 69, 1 (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 26 February 2010). McGill was from Dromalane, county Down and first arrived in Quebec, Canada. A 1930 US border crossing document for McGill noted that he first arrived in Quebec on 21 November 1926. This date is incorrect on the form since

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McGill was already documented as being in New York during this time. See NAB, RG 85, Card Manifests (Alphabetical) of Individuals Entering through the Port of Detroit, Michigan, 1906–54, M1478, entry for ‘Thomas MaGill’, 7 July 1930; Irish World, 17 April 1926. 124 Irish World, 27 March 1926; Irish World, 12 June 1926. 125 NAI, DFA, GR 853, ‘Jack’ to ‘Father’, Tuesday 19 [October 1926]. 126 Ibid.; UCDA, MTP, P69/170 (40–41), FR 1, ‘Michael McGinty’, ‘Anthony McGinty’, 27 April 1926. 127 See UCDA, MTP, P69/149 (134), P69/169 (109), P69/169 (119), P69/169 (198– 199), P69/170 (19), P69/170 (40–44), P69/170 (82–83), P69/170 (117–136), Foreign Reserve applications. 128 See UCDA, MTP, P69/149 (134), P69/169 (198–199), P69/170 (19), P69/170 (40–44), P69/170 (82–83), P69/170 (117–136), Foreign Reserve applications. 129 Nelson J. Callahan and William F. Hickey, Irish Americans and their communities of Cleveland (Cleveland, 1978), Cleveland State University Library, The Cleveland Memory Project, 54 (www.clevelandmemory.org/irish/) (accessed 26 July 2011). 130 Campbell Gibson, US Census Bureau, Washington, DC, Population Division Working Paper No. 27, ‘Population of the 100 largest cities and other urban places in the United States: 1790–1990’ (www.census.gov/population/www/ documentation/twps0027/twps0027.html) (accessed 2 March 2010); Nelson J. Callahan, ‘Irish’, The encyclopedia of Cleveland history, online edition (http://ech.cwru. edu/ech-cgi/article.pl?id=I6) (accessed 2 March 2010); Callahan and Hickey, Irish Americans, 67–8. 131 Nelson J. Callahan, ‘Irish’, The encyclopedia of Cleveland history, online edition (http:// ech.cwru.edu/ech-cgi/article.pl?id=I6) (accessed 2 March 2010); Casey, ‘‘‘From the east side to the seaside”’, 400–1. 132 Callahan and Hickey, Irish Americans, 239. 133 NAB, Records of the Bureau of Census, Record Group 29 (hereafter RG 29), Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930, Census Place: Cleveland, Cuyahoga, Ohio, Microfilm Serial T626, Microfilm Roll 1763, Page 46B, Enumeration District 44, Image 1036.0 (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 25 July 2011). NAB, RG 85, PCLNY, 1897–1957, entry for ‘Thomas McIntyre’, arrived 17 August 1925 on SS Cedric, T715, 3701, 62, 1 (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 25 July 2011); UCDA, MTP, P69/169 (198), FR 3, ‘Thomas McIntyre’, 1 April 1926. 134 Western Reserve Historical Society (hereafter WRHS), John M. Gallagher Papers (hereafter JMGP), Ms. 4902, Folder 17, note from Liam Pedlar, c. 1925. 135 WRHS, JMGP, Ms. 4902, Folder 17, Gallagher to Mangan, Fourth Western Division, IRA, 10 March 1926. 136 Ibid. 137 WRHS, JMGP, Ms. 4902, Folder 30, ‘Requisition for military or civic records on the following parties’, c. 1926. 138 WRHS, JMGP, Ms. 4902, Folder 17, Gallagher to Mangan, Fourth Western Division, IRA, 10 March 1926; Interview with Anthony McGinty, c. 1995. The details of

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Moran’s death are also based on an account offered by his niece, Peggy Calvey Patton. Email from Peggy Calvey Patton to author, 29 July 2010. 139 WRHS, JMGP, Ms. 4902, Folder 17, Gallagher to Mangan, Fourth Western Division, IRA, 10 March 1926. 140 WRHS, JMGP, Ms. 4902, Folder 18, William Coffey & Sons, Monumental & General Stone Works, Westport, county Mayo to John M. Gallagher, 20 March 1927. 141 See ‘Patrick J. O’Malley was city labour leader’ (www.currane.net/about-currane/ history/patrick-j-o%E2%80%99-malley-was-city-labour-leader) (accessed 2 July 2011). 142 Cleveland Plain Dealer, 4 April 1923; ‘A Martin Lavan Story’ (www.rte.ie/). 143 O’Connor, An Irish Civil War exile, 22. 144 Quill, Mike Quill, 39–40. 145 Ibid., 61. 146 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,480, Sheehan to Pedlar, 28 September 1925. 147 See Tim Pat Coogan, Wherever green is worn: the story of the Irish diaspora (New York, 2002), 341–2; CCCA, CNP, PR7/7, Connie Neenan memoirs, 113; UCDA, MTP, P69/122 (104), unsigned to A/G, General Headquarters, c. July 1924; NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,480, Sheehan to Pedlar, 28 September 1925; NAB, RG 85, Card Manifests (Alphabetical) of Individuals Entering through the Port of Detroit, Michigan, 1906–54, M1478, entry for ‘Eugene Sheehan’, arrived 5 August 1926 . LAC, RG 76, Form 30A, Ocean Arrivals (Individual Manifests), 1919–24, Rolls T-14939 through T-15248, entry for ‘Patrick J. Culhane’, arrived c. August 1924 on SS Megantic (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 23 December 2009). For more information on Seán Culhane, see Kevin Girvin, Seán O’Hegarty, Officer Commanding, First Cork Brigade, Irish Republican Army (Aubane, 2007), 212; NLI, Bureau of Military History (hereafter BMH), Witness Statement, Seán Culhane, WS 746. 148 UCDA, MTP, P69/122 (104), unsigned to A/G, General Headquarters, c. July 1924. 149 Irish World, 16 May 1925. 150 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,479, Enright to Pedlar, 3 August 1925. 151 UCDA, MTP, P69/122 (104), unsigned to A/G, General Headquarters, c. July 1924. 152 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,479, Enright to Pedlar, 13 August 1925. 153 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,480, Sheehan to Pedlar, 3 September 1925. 154 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,479, Pedlar to Enright, 29 October 1925; NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,479, Enright to Pedlar, 3 August 1925. 155 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,479, Enright to Pedlar, 3 August 1925. 156 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,479, Enright to Pedlar, 21 September 1925. 157 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,479, Enright to Pedlar, 3 August 1925. 158 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,479, Enright to Pedlar, 21 September 1925. 159 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,480, Sheehan to Pedlar, 23 October 1925. 160 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,480, Sheehan to Pedlar, c. August 1925. 161 Ibid.; NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,479, Enright to Pedlar, 21 September 1925; NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,480, Sheehan to Pedlar, 28 September 1925. For an example of an IRA veterans’ dance which Sheehan helped organise, see Boston Globe, 25 September 1925.

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162 For more information on Mulcahy’s Boston arrival see Boston American, 17 October 1925. Before arriving in Boston, Mulcahy was physically attacked in New York. See Risteárd Mulcahy, My father, the General: Richard Mulcahy and the military history of the revolution (Dublin, 2009), 176. 163 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,480, Sheehan to Pedlar, 23 October 1925.

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4 Transforming the movement, 1927–30 On 9 February 1927 Cork IRA veteran Connie Neenan was officially named An Timthire of the IRA in the US and Canada.1 The appointment, which was retroactive from 1 December 1926, carried a number of important responsibilities and, as Neenan recalled years later, also included ‘a lot of re-organisation work all over the country’.2 He was to act as an official intermediary between the Clan na Gael and IRA and was responsible for US-based IRA fundraising, publicity and arms shipments. Most importantly, he was required to compel IRA veterans who had emigrated to the US to join the Clan.3 Over the next four years Neenan, along with his trusted associates from the IRA, would attempt to transform the militant republican movement in the US through their own collective ideals.

Leadership duties The installation of Neenan as the IRA representative was not accidental. Born and raised in Cork city and the second oldest of five children, he had been exposed to Irish nationalism at an early age. Neenan’s father, John, was a labour activist and a supporter of James Connolly. His mother, Mary, ‘a fighting type’, transported guns for the IRA and according to Neenan, ‘fought for the national cause … more courageously than most people, even including active soldiers’.4 His older brother, Dan, who had emigrated to New York in 1908 was also a committed republican. In 1921 he shipped several Thompson sub-machine guns and ammunition from New York to the IRA in Cork.5 During the Irish War of Independence Neenan established himself as a dependable local IRA leader in the Cork First Brigade. However, his activism was severely hindered, beginning in late 1919 when he was imprisoned. After enduring incarceration in Cork city jail and various British prisons, he was finally released in early 1921. He immediately resumed his republican activities in London for a number of weeks before returning covertly to Ireland aboard a coal boat.6 During the months leading up to the Anglo-Irish truce in July 1921

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he was active in IRA operations in Cork. The ‘atmosphere of ease’ that followed during the truce period, however, soon turned to personal disgust and bewilderment with the outcome of the Anglo-Irish Treaty.7 According to Neenan, ‘we had pledged our full allegiance to the Irish Republic and that we did not intend ever to be diverted from that course by anyone’.8 Although Neenan was involved in various IRA operations during the Irish Civil War, including fighting in Limerick city, he managed to evade capture by Free State authorities.9 This was significant in its own right, for his freedom during and after the conflict allowed him to increase his local visibility, find employment and assist other republicans. He briefly served as the chairman of the Terence MacSwiney Sinn Féin Club in Cork city and was a member of the Cork Corporation. He also worked for Ford Motor Works in Cork as a clerk, which opened the path for other IRA members to secure employment with the company.10 His subsequent position as a salesman with the Southern Oil Company offered further benefits, including a car, which allowed him to conduct business in Cork, Waterford, Kerry, Limerick and South Tipperary. Once again this job intersected with his IRA connections and years later Neenan recalled that his ‘many Republican friends’ helped create ‘a very effective business operation. Everywhere I went, I was given complete co-operation and help from those friends’.11 Neenan returned to London for ‘some time’ in 1925, where he was suspected by British officials of being an IRA intelligence agent.12 Neenan’s family home in Cork city was also frequently under government surveillance and in June 1924 Free State authorities searched the house and discovered a republican orientated letter addressed to Neenan. This seizure resulted in Neenan’s arrest and brief imprisonment.13 He would later state that frequent raids such as this contributed to the death of his father later in the year.14 In November 1924 Neenan’s two younger brothers, Willie and Jack, along with his future brother-in-law and former Second Battallion officer, Pat Collins, emigrated to the US. After arriving in New York all three men moved into Dan Neenan’s residence at 1573 Third Avenue.15 In 1925 Neenan’s mother and sister, Kathleen, also left for New York. According to Neenan the reason for his entire family’s departure was due to the fact that his brother Dan had a ‘serious illness’.16 With his family now overseas Neenan was soon requested to join them. He recalled that he ‘did not want to leave Ireland and fought against their entreaties … but pressure was getting to[o] strong’. His own personal dilemma was made easier after the IRA introduced the Foreign Reserve. After receiving authorisation to leave Ireland from the IRA leadership on 25 February 1926 Neenan sailed for New York on 9 April. Upon arriving he joined the Liam Lynch Clan na Gael Club and became friendly with Joseph McGarrity, while also securing work as an accountant for Tide Water Oil Company and then in a print shop.17

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Besides having his entire family in New York, a number of Neenan’s friends had also settled in the city. Neenan was particularly close to Dan O’Donovan who he had served with in the IRA in Cork city. After being installed as An Timthire in the middle of 1926 O’Donovan became a vital player in the re-organised transatlantic militant republican movement.18 However, the fact that he had arrived in the US illegally and was forced to assume an alias placed certain limits on his actual visibility. Recently decoded documents also provide ample evidence that O’Donovan was working with certain Soviet spies in New York.19 In autumn 1926 O’Donovan grew tired of his growing responsibilities and requested to be relieved of his duties as the IRA representative.20 In November IRA leadership granted O’Donovan’s request and ‘appointed’ Neenan his ‘successor’. Neenan was notified of this in a letter from the Army Council, which explained that there were ‘difficulties’ in ‘finding a suitable man’ and it was ‘impossible to send a representative over from Ireland’. It was hoped that he would ‘not hesitate to accept the appointment’ which would grant him an ‘allowance’ of forty dollars per week.21 With this promise of financial ‘security’ Neenan accepted.22 His organisational, sales and leadership background, first developed in Ireland, was to now be tested on a much larger and transnational scale.

Organising networks In early 1927 New York had become the unofficial base for the transformed Clan na Gael. Throughout the city IRA clubs directly affiliated with the Clan had become firmly established.23 IRA leadership noted that the city was ‘being run by army men’ and that ‘several new Clubs … had to be formed to cope with the inflow of men to the organisation’.24 However, in order for this trend to continue, and for the success to be mirrored in other parts of the country, it was essential for other IRA veterans to connect with the Clan.25 The most important question confronting the IRA and the Clan leadership during this time was how to attract these men. With telephones still considered dispensable household items, newspapers provided the largest channel for publicity purposes.26 However, newspaper notices were not always efficient because there was no guarantee that the advertised message would reach all republicans. To account for this deficiency the IRA leadership turned to former local leaders who had emigrated to the US and asked them to recruit their former volunteers. For example, in late 1926 Martin Shanahan, a former officer in command of a Clare brigade, was requested to ‘link up’ with other Clare republicans who still had ‘not … been in touch with’ the Clan.27 The IRA, now under the guidance of Chief of Staff Maurice Twomey, also asked the local IRA leadership in Ireland

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to directly contact their overseas members, believing these ‘officers at home … would have influence with them’.28 According to Tipperary IRA veteran Michael Flannery, the IRA attempted to methodically co-ordinate the emigration of certain men who they believed could assist in the US. Flannery recalled a meeting he attended in Thurles, county Tipperary, in October 1926 where ‘it was decided to send representatives to America’ and he was chosen as one such delegate.29 Although this recollection cannot be fully corroborated, Flannery’s arrival in New York during February 1927 occurred only a few weeks after two other well-known IRA members had appeared in the city. On 15 January Connie Neenan notified the IRA leadership that Sligo republican Frank O’Beirne had recently ‘reported’ to him.30 Four days later Cork IRA member Michael Crowley arrived and, according to passenger records, moved into Neenan’s residence at 543 Second Avenue in Astoria, New York.31 Flannery, O’Beirne and Crowley became immediately involved with local Irish republican activities. Upon arriving in New York Flannery was met by ‘all the lads from Tipperary’ and, on his first night in the city, he was brought to Clan na Gael Hall.32 In April O’Beirne chaired the Clan and IRA Clubs’ Easter Week celebration and by October he had become the president of the Western IRA Club.33 Crowley, besides his close association with Neenan, was also re-acquainted with fellow Third Cork Brigade member Peter Kearney and recalled how he at once assisted ‘in the work of organising money-making social functions’.34

Dealing with de Valera After the formation of Fianna Fáil in 1926 Éamon de Valera realised that he had to maintain a certain affiliation with militant republicanism. De Valera was also aware that his supporters in the US were crucial to funding his party.35 He clearly understood that the IRA veterans who had settled into Irish-American communities across the US represented an important conduit through which he could direct his financial and ideological goals. Thus, when he arrived in New York on 5 March 1927, the excitement which arose from his countless US supporters did not extend to those IRA veterans who, over the previous few months, had attempted to lead and organise their displaced men.36 On 11 March Connie Neenan and Michael Crowley met with de Valera and his secretary, Frank Gallagher.37 Neenan expressed his concern to de Valera that ‘the good work which the young men had done here ... could easily be destroyed by his agents’. According to Neenan, de Valera responded that he simply aspired to guide people back to the ‘republican idea’. 38

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For seven weeks de Valera toured the US and publicised his personal and party goals through radio interviews and large rallies.39 Gallagher accompanied him throughout this entire journey and recorded in his diary the various gatherings which occurred. These accounts provide an important glimpse into the existing Irish-American support base and also portray various encounters with IRA veterans. In Boston, Massachusetts, de Valera was ‘invaded with visitors … several [were] I.R.A. men’.40 In Seattle, Washington, ‘a young fellow named Kavanaugh who was in the I.R.A. at Wicklow’ accompanied de Valera and Gallagher ‘all day and helped in everything’.41 In Los Angeles Gallagher noted that ‘two files of ex-Volunteers’ gathered at the train station on 12 April in anticipation of meeting de Valera.42 De Valera’s personal experiences with IRA veterans were also noted in a San Francisco Chronicle article passed on to the British Foreign Office by consular officials, which detailed how, on 10 April, he was ‘escorted’ into the San Francisco Civic Auditorium by the Pearse-Connolly Fife and Drum Corps, ‘composed of men who had served in the armies of the Irish Republic’.43 Before departing the US de Valera spoke publicly at the Boston Chamber of Commerce on 29 April. Aware that a number of attendees were ‘in the [Irish] Volunteers in the old days’ he cajoled these republicans ‘to build up Ireland again in the same spirit’.44 Overall, this visit proved successful and money raised helped Fianna Fáil secure forty-four seats in the June Irish general election.45 De Valera’s effect and influence on the militant republican movement in the US proved to be not as damaging as Neenan and other IRA officials originally expected. In New York Fianna Fáil supporters had ‘created mischief’ at a gathering and a ‘political division’ had occurred in Boston.46 However, essentially the visit renewed the Irish republican movement in the US. Although the leaders of the IRA and Fianna Fáil in Ireland at the time fully understood the major differences that separated the two organisations, many Irish-Americans viewed militant and politically-based Irish republicanism as inter-related.47 Furthermore, it is clear that de Valera’s visit attracted numerous IRA veterans. In certain locations it appears that de Valera renewed their sense of commitment. During this period, in a possible direct correlation, the Clan experienced an increase in membership and funding. Firstly, forty IRA veterans had joined the Waterbury, Connecticut Clan club. Secondly, the New York clubs were ‘increasing membership and Finance’ and thirdly, Philadelphia’s ‘17 men’s clubs’, although consisting of a number of Fianna Fáil supporters, were in fact contributing money and producing ‘good results’ for the Clan.48 The militant Irish republican movement in the US, as in Ireland, was struggling to become perceived as independent of politics and was forced to realise that a large part of its advancement depended on the achievements of de Valera

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and Fianna Fáil. Officially, based on the 1926 Clan and IRA agreement, Clan members were not authorised to partake in outside organisations or political election activities. However, this stipulation was overlooked at the time by Neenan who was so committed to enticing IRA veterans to join the Clan that he believed protocol should be sacrificed.49 It also appears that in the weeks after de Valera’s return to Ireland, the Clan used politically-based republican organisations to further their own events. In Cleveland the local Clan, along with the AARIR, organised a Fourth of July picnic in the city’s Puritas Springs Park.50 In New York the Irish World, on 28 May, publicised a dinner scheduled on 4 June sponsored by the ‘De Valera Reception Committee’. Directly above this notice was an advertisement for the ‘Clan na Gael and I.R.A. Clubs’ Grand Outing and Boat Ride’ organised for the following day.51 During the 1927 Clan convention attempts were made to clearly define the differences between the militant and political republican movements in the US. After consultation with Neenan the Clan agreed ‘to refrain from any participation whatsoever in the work of any organization engaged in political activity’ in support of ‘elections in Ireland’. The Clan also pledged to provide ‘individual support, physically, morally and financially to the I.R.A. so long as the present [physical force] policy is maintained’. Overall, both militant republican bodies would ‘constitute practically one organization’ based on the belief that an independent Ireland could only be achieved ‘by force’.52 Although this agreement portrayed a firm and direct commitment to eliminate Clan members from partaking in any political activities, it appears the strict stipulation was not always followed. In January 1928 de Valera returned to the US in order to raise funds for the establishment of a new daily Irish newspaper, later to be titled the Irish Press.53 After arriving in Philadelphia Frank Gallagher, who once again accompanied de Valera, noted that long time Clan executive leader Harry McCarney was still ‘in favor … of the action of F.F. [Fianna Fáil]’.54

Fundraising for the IRA On 23 May 1927 the Kerry Gaelic football team arrived in New York for the commencement of a nationwide tour. Included amongst the athletes was Kerry IRA leader John Joe Sheehy.55 Before departing Ireland Sheehy had been authorised by the IRA to serve as an ‘accredited representative of the Army Council’.56 He was instructed to meet with Clan members and assist in recruitment efforts.57 Sheehy was also asked to pass an urgent message to Connie Neenan, which explicitly detailed how the IRA were ‘held up for want of money’ and faced ‘debt’.58 Neenan was likely not surprised by this news. Since becoming

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An Timthire much of his effort focused on securing funds for the IRA. In January he and Dan O’Donovan travelled to Boston and attended a Clan meeting to further an ‘appeal for money’.59 He also attempted to open other financial channels, including those available through the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) in the US. The Kerry football tour featuring Sheehy had been partly organised by Neenan on the basis that proceeds from certain matches would be set aside for the IRA.60 Weeks before Sheehy’s arrival the IRA had sent a message to O’Donovan stating that American funds were ‘inadequate’.61 Immediate results were poor considering reports from Neenan detailing that $6,000 had been raised by the Clan for IRA purposes from an estimated 5,000 people.62 By late May Neenan reported that $1,000 had been collected for the Clan’s early June boat excursion.63 Appeals for further funding continued and in August Neenan received a despatch from the IRA with specific details of how insufficient funds were affecting the organisation. Weapons could not be purchased, intelligence operations had been substantially hampered and officers required to inspect individual units had not been paid. An estimated £300 to £350 was reportedly necessary for ‘ordinary administration’. In order to raise this money the IRA urged the Clan to hold a ‘special Appeal’.64 To reinforce this urgent request IRA Inspector Officer Tom Daly, from county Kerry, was sent to the US.65 As an ‘official representative’ of the IRA Daly was instructed to report the exact conditions of the IRA directly to Clan members.66 At a meeting held on 2 August in Philadelphia Daly presented a strong message. After describing the IRA as an organisation ‘weak in numbers’ and a ‘skeleton with its energies completely sapped’, he urged the Clan members to donate money so the IRA could ‘give a good account of themselves’.67 One year after the request was delivered by Daly to Clan members Joseph McGarrity announced that a total of $29,000 had been raised. In what McGarrity believed was ‘a wonderful financial return for our very small membership’, $15,569 was gathered specifically from the ‘Special Call’ for the IRA. Overall $16,000 had been channelled from the Clan to the IRA with an additional $2,750 raised for IRA purposes from San Francisco.68 The IRA Army Council in a letter to the Clan expressed its ‘sincerest thanks ... for the splendid loyalty and support of the Clan Organization’.69 Based on these results the Clan proved to the IRA that it could still provide major financial resources when challenged. However, the large turnout also created a false perception that the Clan could accommodate full financial expectations of the IRA regardless of the economic circumstances. In 1929 the Clan, according to the IRA Army Council, provided ‘only slightly more than one third’ of the new IRA requisition. Initially, a ‘reserve’ of funds

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cultivated by the IRA, most likely from the Clan’s previous financial allotment, maintained the organisation’s financial stability.70 However, later in the year, the Clan’s funding channels suddenly ceased, which led the Army Council to believe that Clan money had been suspended out of protest due to recent political discussions which had been publicised between the leaders of the IRA and the Second Dáil Éireann.71 Joseph McGarrity immediately refuted this accusation, stating in a reply to the IRA that the remarks were ‘not well taken’ and that ‘each of the last three remittances left less in our Treasury than the amount forwarded’. McGarrity further asserted that the ‘financial demands on us have been complied with in so far as our resources have so far allowed [and] each request has been complied with in proportion to our balance on hand at the time of the receipt of your request’. The developing international financial crisis associated with the Wall Street stock market crash deeply hurt Clan members and, according to McGarrity, ‘great numbers of our men are out of work … and the collection of money is extremely difficult’.72 Even amidst these developing external difficulties the Clan continued to raise large amounts of money for IRA purposes. During the Clan convention held at the end of summer 1930 it was announced that around $50,000 had been collected for the IRA. Although a significant amount, this only represented half of the initial IRA request of $100,000. In an effort to stimulate further action Maurice Twomey had actually travelled to the US and addressed the convention delegates. According to McGarrity, he was to present the ‘difficulties and requirements’ of the IRA.73 Before departing the US in December Twomey declared to McGarrity and the Clan Executive Council that he realised ‘that in the current year we cannot look forward to a higher revenue than last year’. He remained highly pessimistic about future US funding and called on the Clan to demand ‘the payment of dues, by those who can afford to pay them’. He believed the Clan treasurer needed to ‘keep pressing units for money’ and overall funding should ‘intensify’.74 However, this direct and urgent appeal, even from the IRA chief of staff, could not alter the fact that Clan members and the organisation as a whole did not possess the financial resources needed to fully satisfy IRA demands. As was evident from the events earlier in the year combined with Twomey’s visit, it would still be some time before those in the IRA would accept this fact.

Assisting disabled republicans In late 1927 the Clan na Gael executive members formally declared that the organisation would ‘do all within its power to assist disabled soldiers of the

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I.R.A. coming from Ireland with credentials from the Home Organization’.75 One year later ‘The Green Cross’ was publicly introduced to members of the Clan during the organisation’s annual convention. This ‘scheme’ was arranged for the sole purpose of ‘raising funds for disabled I.R.A. men’.76 Also noted during the convention proceedings was that over the course of the previous year three IRA veterans who had arrived in the US with the goal of ‘recovering their health’ had died.77 One of the men remembered was Dublin republican Joseph Blake (known locally in Los Angeles as Tom Fay), who had died on 19 July 1928.78 As detailed in the previous chapter, Blake’s care, which included treatment in a California sanatorium, was largely facilitated by members of the AARIR. By August 1928 other IRA veterans were recognised as ‘undergoing treatment in various parts of the United States’.79 Kerry republican Tom Daly was one such man receiving medical care. Since December 1927 he had been bedridden with tuberculosis in Sanatorium Gabriels, located in the Adirondack Mountains of New York state. 80 Sanatoria such as Gabriels offered private rooms and, most importantly, an opportunity for patients to recuperate in fresh air. However, these remote sanatoria meant that patients were removed from family members and friends and feelings of isolation could oftentimes arise.81 In January 1928 Daly, only weeks into his recuperation, was still full of optimism and in a letter to Joseph McGarrity declared that he was ‘feeling in very good form’. However he noted that ‘doing nothing is about the hardest job I have ever undertaken’.82 By July the isolation and slow rehabilitative process associated with tuberculosis treatment had engrossed Daly. In another note to McGarrity he expressed that he had ‘become absolutely hopeless at letter writing’ and he felt his progress was ‘much slower than ... expected’. He had heard ‘scarcely any news’ from Ireland and had not recently received any correspondence from friend, Peter Kearney. Noting that Connie Neenan had professed to visit the sanatorium, Daly casually inquired if McGarrity ‘could manage to come up’ as well.83 The cost associated with the care of rehabilitating men was often high. In Los Angeles the AARIR disbursed a total of $3,315.18 for Joseph Blake’s tuberculosis treatments. A large portion of the money was gathered through fundraising events, donations from local organisations, including the Knights of the Red Branch and the Ladies of Santa Barbara, and from the generosity of individual donors.84 The hospital that cared for Blake also willingly cancelled certain outstanding payments associated with his treatment.85 This efficient fundraising, as exemplified by the Los Angeles branch of the AARIR, was essentially adopted nationally by the Clan. Numerous fundraising ventures for disabled IRA veterans were organised by the Clan throughout the US. Publicity was distributed through the Irish World and contributions were

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forwarded from Irish-American societies along with individual donors, including Boston Mayor Malcolm Nichols who donated $25 in 1930.86 All of the proceeds gathered allowed the Clan to cover costs associated with medical treatments. For example, during June 1930, railroad fare, spending money and ‘all other expenses’ were provided for a republican sent from New York for treatment in a Chicago sanatorium.87 Although ‘hundreds’ were ‘in the waiting for the institution’, a bed was secured, ‘made possible by the influence of … political friends’.88 The ability of the Clan to secure assistance from republican sympathisers with connections to medicine also proved vital. William J. Maloney, a long-time New York based republican supporter and practising physician, was noted by Connie Neenan in 1933 as providing ‘many favors’ as well as ‘aid and advice’.89 Neenan’s cousin, ‘a trained nurse’ in a New York area hospital, was recognised by Joseph McGarrity as being ‘so fine to every poor sick fellow that came over here’. She provided ‘personal attention’ to republicans and overall exhibited ‘great kindness to the sick and broken men from Ireland’.90 Disabled men also availed of the services from one of their own – county Down IRA veteran Dr Pádraig Quinn. Referred to as ‘one of the boys’ by Neenan, Quinn, months after arriving in the US with his wife, had set up a medical practice at 131 East Nineteenth Street in New York.91 Recognised by the IRA in 1930 as doing ‘a lot of work from time to time’, his generosity was rewarded with a free subscription to An Phoblacht.92

American adjustments Dr Pádraig Quinn’s rapid ascent as a registered physician in New York was a dramatic feat. The fact that he was married to an American, arrived in the US with an advanced medical degree and had assistance from an attorney most likely accelerated his progress.93 However, for the majority of IRA emigrants without any or all of these resources, securing employment in the US could be a slow and daunting process. In March 1927 Frank Gallagher, after meeting with Cork republican Michael Crowley, noted in his diary that Crowley had moved into ‘digs with eight more men with degrees who couldn’t get work anywhere’. Although possessing an engineering degree, Crowley had remained unemployed since his arrival in the US two months earlier.94 Eventually he, along with several other republicans, obtained employment in the New York-based Irish bond office. According to Connie Neenan, Matthew Garth Healy, who managed the office, personally offered jobs to Crowley and others.95 Republican associations remained a valuable accessory for an IRA veteran seeking employment. Crowley himself recalled that fellow Cork republican

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Peter Kearney was one specific individual who ‘secured suitable employment for many of our debilitated comrades’.96 Furthermore, in 1929, Joseph McGarrity most likely assisted Tipperary republican Dan Breen in opening an illegal speakeasy in New York. After establishing his business Breen then proceeded to employ other IRA veterans.97 Similarly, Galway republican Jack Keogh, after arriving illegally in the US and garnering unwanted attention from US immigration agents, was quickly sent to Chicago by Connie Neenan, where a Chicago-based republican was instructed to find ‘a job’ for him.98 IRA veterans residing throughout the US through 1930 were immersed in a society undergoing rapid industrialisation that impacted daily living.99 Burgeoned by the growth of machines, the US had entered an era characterised by mass production, modern infrastructure and the rise of the automobile.100 The increase in manufacturing associated with new home appliances and automobile parts resulted in employment opportunities for young males efficient on assembly lines.101 This growth was coupled with the need for workers to handle administrative duties in company offices.102 During the 1920s the number of people employed in the US labour sector rose from 41.6 million to 48.9 million. Manufacturing opportunities remained relatively stable while significant growth occurred in office and marketing positions.103 In direct correlation the retail and food industry expanded. Large department stores, as well as ‘self serve’ food shops including the Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company (A&P), offered greater shopping advantages along with more employment opportunities.104 The populations of cities had increased substantially as well. People settled in urban areas with the goal of securing employment in local industries.105 For republicans living in the mid-west US employment was centred on manufacturing and distribution positions.106 Achill Island, county Mayo, IRA veteran, Patrick J. O’Malley, worked as an ‘inventory checker’ in White Motor Corporation, a leading vehicle manufacturer.107 Fellow Achill republican Patrick Barrett was employed at one of the city’s plating shops.108 In Chicago, North Mayo Brigade IRA veteran, Thomas Loftus, a 1925 US arrival, was employed in 1930 in the city’s Union Stock Yards for the Armour Company, a large meatpacking firm.109 William Kerrisk, a Castleisland, county Kerry republican, who arrived in 1926, found a job in a Chicago ‘freight house’.110 Cities along the east and west coasts remained traditional import and export centres and by the 1920s, because of numerous technological advances, they had also become vital administrative and retail locations. In San Francisco, Kerry republicans and brothers, William and Thomas DeLacy, who left Ireland in 1925, both worked as clerks.111 After arriving in New York during February 1927, Tipperary IRA veteran Michael Flannery found employment in an insurance company.112 Other republicans living in New York entered the burgeoning food retail industry.

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Leitrim IRA veteran Michael McLoughlin was a manager of an A&P grocery store at 107th Street and Manhattan Avenue in Harlem.113 Roscommon republican Joseph O’Connor worked as a stock clerk at a grocery supermarket in the Bronx, where he earned $28 a week in 1930.114 Two years earlier O’Connor had initially secured employment as a train guard with the Long Island Railroad, where he worked as an ‘extra’, replacing absent workers. He recalled that ‘nothing was for certain and the hours were highly unpredictable and, for that matter, so were the weekly paychecks’.115 Loathing the unsteady assignments O’Connor searched for other opportunities and eventually applied for a ‘maintenance mechanic’ position with the New York City subway. Although hired, he was instead given a job as a ‘trainman’, responsible for ensuring the passengers boarded and departed the subway cars properly before securing the car doors for departure. Once again O’Connor was an ‘extra’ and, in a standard twelve-hour working period, he would usually only be placed on ‘four hours of actual duty’ and was paid $0.55 per hour.116 During the late 1920s the New York City subway transit system consisted of the Interborough Rapid Transit (IRT) and the Brooklyn Manahattan Transit Corporation.117 As with O’Connor, inexperienced employees were procured as conductors and trainmen. Some also sold tickets in the many stations scattered across the city, while others performed maintenance duties in the train yards.118 The New York subway companies sought English-speaking young men with limited skills but who possessed an eagerness to work hard and subsequently hired a large percentage of Irish.119 A number of these Irish employees included IRA veterans.120 Meath republican, Gerald O’Reilly, a member of the IRA Fourth Northern Division who emigrated to the US in 1927, initially worked in a carpet factory in Yonkers, New York, before securing employment as a conductor with the IRT.121 Bernard and John Comaskey, republican brothers who arrived in 1927 from county Longford, were working in 1930 as labourers in the subway.122 Kerry IRA veteran Michael Quill, one year after arriving in the US and going through a series of jobs, was employed as a ticket agent for the IRT.123 Quill would work a few hours each day in the standard twelve hour work shift. Once steady employment began he and his brother were only paid $0.33 per hour.124 Republicans with specialised skills also gained employment throughout the US. Denis Kennedy from county Waterford, who had previously served on the staff of the IRA General Headquarters, was employed as a civil engineer with a mining equipment company by 1928.125 During the time of Éamon de Valera’s visit to San Francisco in 1928 Frank Gallagher noted that Kennedy was employed ‘with a Filter Company’ that sold ‘a continuous filter good for all big mining works, beet factories etc’. 126 Mayo republican Michael McGinty was a

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pipe fitter in Cleveland, while Kerry republican Jeremiah Murphy worked as an auto mechanic in New York.127 In Boston, Cork IRA veteran Patrick Riley was employed as a chauffeur.128 His roommate, fellow Cork republican Eugene Sheehan who, as documented in Chapter 3, had quickly become in 1925 a young leader of the IRA veterans in Boston, applied his outgoing and charismatic personality to a funeral home business. Sheehan, according to the 1930 US census, had found employment as an ‘embalmer’s assistant’.129

IRA influence As IRA veterans became immersed in American life and welcomed into the ranks of the Clan na Gael, the organisation, which for years was seen as secret, suddenly developed a very public profile. In New York, the opening of Tara Halls in spring 1927 and the establishment of an annual boat ride provided the city’s militant republican movement with a social centre and public event which could provide fundraising opportunities and an important communal outlet for IRA veterans.130 For example, in June 1928 Rocommon republican Joseph O’Connor participated in the Clan boat ride that sailed from New York City to Bear Mountain State Park. O’Connor, who at the time lived in Providence, Rhode Island, travelled down to New York and had a ‘most enjoyable weekend’. After departing a ‘feeling of sheer loneliness’ overwhelmed him and he ‘made a vow to return’.131 By the end of the year O’Connor had permanently returned to New York.132 The presence of IRA veterans in the Clan coupled with the expanding role of Connie Neenan also meant that certain IRA directives could extend to the US. In June 1927 Neenan was informed that Louth republican Tom Rogers had recently arrived in New York. Rogers departed Ireland resentful at the IRA after ‘a small quantity of ammunition was captured by the enemy in his house’. IRA leadership, concerned that Rogers could possibly dissuade other IRA veterans from joining the Clan, requested that Louth republicans in Ireland ‘write to volunteers in America’ in order to neutralise his influence.133 Similarly, John Joe Browne, dismissed from the IRA after serving in the Fourth Western Division and the Liverpool unit, was believed to be ‘a dangerous character’ and a warning was sent in November 1927 to North Mayo Brigade members in the city. 134 By 1929 the Clan and the IRA had developed a much closer working alliance and IRA veterans served as crucial agents between the two organisations. Early in the year Dan O’Donovan secretly travelled to Ireland and met with IRA officials. After his return to the US O’Donovan declared to Clan executive members that the IRA was ‘ready to make a fight’.135 Later in the year influential IRA member Seán MacBride arrived in New York and met with O’Donovan,

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Connie Neenan and Tom Daly, as well as the established Clan leaders Joseph McGarrity, John T. Ryan and Luke Dillon.136 The dedication of the IRA veterans in New York was evident with an increase in the city’s Clan membership. By 1929 The New York District 1 Clan was composed of ‘500 men and 120 women’ and another four clubs were expected to be opened in the near future.137 However, the most visible indication of the popularity of the Clan in New York occurred on 26 June 1929 when 2,500 people took part in the organisation’s annual boat ride. The Irish World reported that ‘upwards of 4,000 people’ had actually requested tickets for the excursion.138 In other parts of the US the Clan had also progressed. In Cleveland the two Clan clubs in the city were ‘gaining strength’.139 On the Fourth of July these two clubs held their annual holiday Reunion and Field Day in the city’s Puritas Springs Park. Three days later republicans in the city celebrated the opening of the ‘new headquarters and dance hall’ for the ‘Irish American and Terence MacSwiney Clubs’ at 6415 Detroit Avenue. The first event in the new hall was a ‘Monster Benefit Dance’ for Achill Island, county Mayo, IRA veteran Martin McGinty.140 In the small Massachusetts cities of Springfield and Worcester (District 8), forty-eight members from the ‘two active clubs’, many of whom wore full uniforms, marched in the annual Fourth of July parade. Chicago (Districts 19 and 20) had over 300 members and, as detailed during the annual Clan convention, exhibited certain progress and a positive moral. District 5, which included the Connecticut city of Hartford, reported that one club in particular had ‘membership of 60’ and was ‘very successful’.141 According to estimates gathered from the minutes of the July 1929 Clan convention, the organisation consisted of at least 1,490 male and 195 female members. Although progress had occurred in the aforementioned cities, the Clan had actually suffered a decrease in overall membership by 286 people. Boston and Philadelphia were noted as the most affected. In Boston (District 7) local leadership appears to have faltered considerably in recruitment efforts, which resulted in inactivity. Earlier in the year the ‘district was in bad shape’, but after new leadership was put into place efforts had begun ‘to re-organise old camps’. In Philadelphia (District 12) membership problems were apparently not as deep considering 450 men and 75 women still belonged to a total of sixteen clubs. Although the Philadelphia Clan had ‘lost 2 camps during the year’, leadership was ‘making [an] effort to re-organize one’.142 The decrease in total membership in Philadelphia can be explained by the fact that the city’s local Clan clubs slowly became ‘a collection of old men’ after the early 1920s.143 Although these senior members remained fully committed to the militant republican cause, attracting younger republicans proved difficult. In July 1929 the Clan convention’s minutes stated that the Philadelphia Clan had ‘made an

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effort to segregate the young men as they found they had better results that way’. 144 The question of how to further recruit and immerse IRA veterans into the local leadership of the Clan clubs dominated the proceedings of the 1929 Clan convention. In order to have ‘camps manned and officered as far as possible by ... ex-I.R.A. men’, it was agreed that a ‘whole time organizer be appointed’ to travel and also reside for a period of time in the critical Irish centres across the US. Dan O’Donovan was chosen for this advisory role and was instructed to recruit IRA veterans, raise funds and boost morale. Most importantly, plans were devised to send O’Donovan to locations west of Chicago, areas which, due to the lack of funds and the limited long distance transportation options, had been largely neglected by the Clan for recruitment purposes.145 On 6 November O’Donovan, after arriving in San Francisco, crafted a letter to Joseph McGarrity that detailed his efforts. After meeting eleven men in Minneapolis, Minnesota, O’Donovan revealed that ‘5 walked out’ after arguing about Fianna Fáil. In St Paul, Minnesota, the complete absence of IRA veterans at an organised meeting disturbed him. Although the city’s republican organisation leaned heavily towards de Valera, O’Donovan believed the Clan could ‘get some money from them’. In Butte, Montana, the city’s Clan club was lacking ‘young men’. However, the club had promised to ‘do everything possible for us and were ‘100% our way now’. The northwest region of Seattle, Washington, and Portland, Oregon, proved fruitless. However, in San Francisco the men, according to O’Donovan, were in line with the militant republican ‘way of thinking’, with a few supporters suggesting that Clan clubs be created ‘in Los Angeles, or Long Beach, or both’.146 O’Donovan’s journey across the western US provided the Clan leadership with a clear first-hand observation of the state of militant republicanism outside of the traditional northeast and mid-west Irish centres. Most importantly, his observations portrayed the inherent difficulties in transforming the militant republican movement nationally without effective local leadership in certain centres.

External pressure, internal transformation In Ireland the political success of Fianna Fáil from 1927 onwards brought a period of adjustment for the IRA.147 During early 1929, in an effort to revitalise the stagnant movement and ‘re-unite the whole people of Ireland’, the IRA leadership authorised the development of Comhairle na Poblachta. This republican organisation, which included the elements and members of the IRA, Sinn Féin and Cumann na mBan, aspired to provide a republican political alternative to

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Fianna Fáil.148 As Comhairle na Poblachta became better organised the IRA hoped to create a similar organisation in the US and also to attract those people ‘presently not actively supporting the Republic’.149 During June Joseph McGarrity was contacted to lend his support, but the request was ignored. The new An Timthire, Tom Daly, noted that he had received ‘no indication’ of ‘any enthusiasm regarding the proposal’.150 Two months later Seán O’Deorain, a New York-based civil engineer and former Sinn Féin representative, contacted McGarrity.151 O’Deorain stated that there was ‘an urgent need for a new open Irish Republican organization’ in the US.152 Once again McGarrity remained silent.153 The IRA, through Comhairle na Poblachta, soon decided to exert direct pressure on the Clan and the IRA leadership contacted individual Clan members with their proposals.154 Furthermore, at the recommendation of the IRA, former Chief of Staff Andrew Cooney travelled to New York in late September as a representative of Comhairle na Poblachta.155 After initial meetings with McGarrity and John T. Ryan, Cooney addressed the Clan Executive Council on 26 October. His attempts to inspire support were quickly undermined when the Clan leadership implicitly ‘forbade’ an open republican organisation.156 It appears that amongst the dissenting Clan executive members Luke Dillon was one of the most forceful. Dillon firmly believed the Clan should remain ‘united and firm in our physical force policy’.157 Privately McGarrity was not as adamant. In an unsent letter for Cooney, McGarrity stated, ‘if I thought there were strong groups on the outside who would contribute substantial sums to Army purposes I would certainly favour it (the open organisation)’.158 The note that McGarrity directed to Cooney, however, revealed little of his personal feelings. Instead he focused on his goal of preserving the ‘loyalty and good will’ between the Clan and the IRA.159 In November a new US-based open republican organisation called the Councils of the Republic was formally organised with O’Deorain as secretary. However, without the desired Clan support the organisation had trouble progressing.160 On 7 January 1930 Luke Dillon died in his Philadelphia home. His funeral four days later was noted by the Irish World as ‘one of the most impressive … seen in the State of Pennsylvania in many years’ and there were 1,500 people in attendance. Amongst the mourners were Éamon de Valera and long-time Clan leaders and associates, including Joseph McGarrity, Michael Enright from Chicago and Philadelphia member Michael McGinn. Also attending the service were a number of leading IRA veterans including Connie Neenan, Dan O’Donovan, Michael McLoughlin and Frank O’Beirne.161 Dillon’s death not only signalled an end of an era for the Clan, but also marked the beginning of a dramatic shift in leadership, for Dillon’s secretary position was handed to Neenan.162 Neenan ultimately became part of a Clan Executive Council that also included Dan O’Donovan and Michael McLoughlin.163

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The first public indication of a transformation of the organisation occurred during the spring when young IRA member and An Phoblacht editor Frank Ryan, noted by Neenan as ‘one of the ablest speakers in Ireland’, arrived in the US.164 During the previous year the Clan had agreed on the necessity of improving publicity and had decided that the IRA ‘be asked to supply a few speakers each year’.165 With this plan in place, in early 1930 Neenan organised Ryan’s tour in conjunction with the upcoming April Easter Week celebrations. Neenan wanted ‘the general public [to] see we are still there and that the situation in Ireland deserves their consideration every bit as it did in 1920 and 1921’.166 This message of renewal directed from Ryan was clearly evident during the Easter celebration at the Hampden Theater in New York. After opening remarks by John T. Ryan and a rendition of the 1916 Proclamation by Tom Daly, Frank Ryan addressed the audience and delivered a distinctively aggressive militant republican declaration. Stating that Ireland for the previous seven years had ‘enjoyed peace … imposed by bayonets’, Ryan re-affirmed the intentions of the IRA, which included a ‘complete overthrow of the two British Governments in Ireland as a preliminary to abolishing the present social system which impoverishes Ireland and its people’. The most important statement in the address central to the IRA’s American goals, however, concentrated on the fact that all ‘Irish exiles’ had to become ‘organised and united’.167 In an effort to publicise this message Ryan’s address was broadcast over the radio.168 Over the next two weeks Ryan travelled to many of the major Irish-American centres in the northeast, including Boston, Philadelphia and Springfield, Massachusetts.169 In Boston Ryan spoke to 3,500 people and, according to An Phoblacht, evoked ‘enthusiasm to a terrific pitch’ and inspired ‘an increase in active membership’.170 His address in Springfield, according to female Clan member Mary Ganley, was also inspirational. Writing to Connie Neenan after hearing Ryan’s remarks, Ganley expressed surprise at ‘how dependent they [the IRA] are on our help’. She ‘resolved to put some more effort into the Cause’.171 Through the summer the Clan continued to move forward with a renewed vigour. In New York six new clubs were added. In total fifteen men’s clubs and five ladies clubs now existed in the city.172 The Clan’s annual boat ride in New York, according to Neenan, had ‘no less than 2,700 passengers’ and proved ‘the biggest, best and most beneficial’ thus far. Overall, Neenan believed the Clan had ‘achieved the distinction of being catered to now, a far different position’ than in previous years.173 Nationally the organisation had also ‘increased numerically’.174 The connection between the Clan and the IRA also moved forward with the visit of IRA Chief of Staff Maurice Twomey at the end of the year. Likewise, the Clan sent its treasurer, Michael McLoughlin, to Ireland in the summer of 1930 in order to observe the IRA.175

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After returning to New York McLoughlin resumed his managerial position at an A&P store. On 11 December his life tragically ended after being shot at work during a robbery attempt. The death of the ‘well known and admired’ republican resulted in a massive mobilisation of support. Letters of condolence were sent from twenty Clan clubs across the country. Cork republican Eugene Sheehan travelled from Boston and assisted in the funeral arrangements, which included a three-day continuous honour guard of IRA veterans. The thousands of people who queued to pay their respects to McLoughlin at MacDermott Funeral Parlors walked into a setting ‘taxed to the utmost to accommodate all the beautiful wreaths received’. During the funeral mass over 500 IRA veterans processed with McLoughlin’s coffin, which was draped with an Irish tri-colour flag. Included were Connie Neenan, Dan O’Donovan, Dr Pádraig Quinn, Michael Crowley and Michael Quill. Afterwards, fifty cars carrying mourners and three cars full of flowers followed the hearse to Calvary Cemetery in Long Island, New York, where, after a recital of prayers, Frank O’Beirne offered a final statement before a volley of gunshots was fired, marking an end to a day of mourning and comradeship.176 From these striking scenes depicted in New York, it was clear that the militant republican movement in the US was now largely orchestrated by IRA veterans.

Notes    1 UCDA, MTP, P69/183 (113–114), Chairman, A/C to An Timthire, 9 February 1927.    2 Ibid.; CCCA, CNP, PR7/7, Connie Neenan memoirs, 129.    3 UCDA, MTP, P69/183 (113–114), Chairman, A/C to An Timthire, 9 February 1927.   4 MacEoin, Survivors, 236; CCCA, CNP, PR7/7, Connie Neenan memoirs, 117–18.    5 NAB, RG 85, PCLNY, 1897–1957, entry for ‘Daniel Neenan’, arrived 21 May 1908 on SS Majestic, T715, 1104, 185, 4 (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 30 July 2013); CCCA, CNP, PR7/7, Connie Neenan memoirs, 73–4.   6 MacEoin, Survivors, 236–9.   7 Ibid., 240–1.    8 CCCA, CNP, PR7/7, Connie Neenan memoirs, 88.   9 MacEoin, Survivors, 244–5.   10 CCCA, CNP, PR7/7, Connie Neenan memoirs, 113, 115; MacEoin, Survivors, 249.   11 CCCA, CNP, PR7/7, Connie Neenan memoirs, 116–17.   12 Ibid., 127; McMahon, British spies and Irish rebels, 208   13 UCDA, Desmond Fitzgerald Papers, P80/859, letter from Donal O’Callaghan to Neenan, 30 May 1924 (seized by Irish authorities on 17 June 1924); CCCA, CNP, PR7/7, Connie Neenan memoirs, 118–23.   14 CCCA, CNP, PR7/7, Connie Neenan memoirs, 117–18.

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 15 NAB, RG 85, PCLNY, 1897–1957, entries for ‘Patrick John Neenan’, ‘William Neenan’, ‘Patrick Collins’, arrived 18 November 1924 on SS America, T715, 3260, 56, 6,7,10 (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 30 July 2013).   16 CCCA, CNP, PR7/7, Connie Neenan memoirs, 127.   17 Ibid., 127–8; UCDA, MTP, P69/169 (3), FR 1, ‘Cornelius Neenan’, 25 February 1926.   18 CCCA, CNP, PR7/7, Connie Neenan memoirs, 57, 128.   19 Mahon and Gillogly, Decoding the IRA, 264–73.   20 Ibid., 264.   21 UCDA, MTP, P69/183 (173–174), ‘S’ to Mr Jones [Dan O’Donovan], 10 November 1926; UCDA, MTP, P69/183 (175), A/C to Neenan, 10 November 1926.   22 CCCA, CNP, PR7/7, Connie Neenan memoirs, 129.   23 The official name of the IRA clubs in New York City was the ‘Clan na Gael and I.R.A. Clubs’. See Irish World, 26 November 1927.   24 UCDA, MTP, P69/183 (137–139), A/C to Dwyer, 13 January 1927.  25 Ibid.   26 In 1927, about 15.5 per cent of the US population owned a telephone. See Jim Potter, The American economy between the World Wars (London, 1974), 47. As the economic conditions worsened during the latter part of the 1920s and into the 1930s, certain localities witnessed a decline in telephone ownership. See David E. Kyvig, Daily life in the United States, 1920–1940: how Americans lived through the ‘Roaring Twenties’ and the Great Depression (Chicago, 2004), 69.   27 UCDA, MTP, P69/183 (184), A/C to An Timthire, 20 October 1926.   28 UCDA, MTP, P69/183 (106–107), Chairman, A/C to An Timthire, 24 February 1927. During 1926, Twomey from county Cork served as the acting chief of staff of the IRA while Andrew Cooney was in the US. In 1927, Twomey officially became the IRA chief of staff. See Hanley, The IRA, 1926–1936, 18.   29 O’Reilly (ed.), Accepting the challenge, 118.   30 Ibid., 119; UCDA, MTP, P69/183 (134–135), An Timthire to General Army Council (hereafter GAC), 15 January 1927. O’Beirne was involved in a highly publicised jailbreak from Sligo jail in June 1921. See Michael Farry, Sligo 1914–1921: a chronicle of conflict (Meath, 1992), 304–6; Mahon and Gillogly, Decoding the IRA, 205.   31 Crowley from Kilbrittain, county Cork, was an engineer in the Third Cork Brigade. See NAI, BMH, Witness Statement, Michael J. Crowley, WS 1603. NAB, RG 85, PCLNY, 1897–1957, entry for ‘Michael J. Crowley’, arrived 19 January 1927 on SS Thuringia, T715, 3994,150,10 (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 16 March 2010).   32 O’Reilly (ed.), Accepting the challenge , 123.  33 Irish World, 16 April 1927; Irish World, 1 October 1927.   34 Crowley and Kearney were long-time friends. Both men mention the other in their Bureau of Military History Witness statements. See NAI, BMH, Witness Statement, Michael J. Crowley, WS 1603; NAI, BMH, Witness Statement, Peter Kearney, WS 444. Commandant Peter Kearney Memorial Committee (eds), Commandant Peter Kearney: tributes to his memory (Cork, 1970), 14.

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 35 Coogan, De Valera, 386–8.  36 Irish World, 12 March 1927; The National Archives, Kew (hereafter TNA), Foreign Office Papers (hereafter FO), 371/12056, British Embassy, Washington, DC to Chamberlain, 9 March 1927; Coogan, De Valera, 389; Mahon and Gillogly, Decoding the IRA, 231.  37 Trinity College Dublin Archives (hereafter TCDA), Frank Gallagher Papers (hereafter FGP), 10065 120/1, Gallagher diary, 11 March 1927; Coogan, De Valera, 389.   38 Quoted in Mahon and Gillogly, Decoding the IRA, 232. In his diary, Gallagher does not mention these terse comments from Neenan. Instead he states that Neenan and Crowley ‘were desperately anxious that the truth of the position here in regard to finding work should be explained at home’. See TCDA, FGP, Gallagher diary, 11 March 1927. See also Coogan, De Valera, 389.  39 Coogan, De Valera, 392–8.   40 TCDA, FGP, 121/6-8, Gallagher diary, 19 March 1927.   41 TCDA, FGP, 10065/129/1, Gallagher diary, 7 April 1927.   42 TCDA, FGP, 10065/129/8-9, Gallagher diary, 12 April 1927.   43 TNA, FO 371/12056, San Francisco Chronicle, 11 April 1927.  44 Irish World, 7 May 1927.  45 Coogan, De Valera, 398–9.   46 UCDA, MTP, P69/183 (35–36), ‘Precis despatch No. 12’ (decoded despatch from An Timthire to GAC), 18 May 1927.   47 Richard Dunphy, The making of Fianna Fáil power in Ireland, 1923–1948 (Oxford, 1995), 81.   48 UCDA, MTP, P69/183 (35–36), ‘Precis despatch No. 12’ (decoded despatch from An Timthire to GAC), 18 May 1927.   49 Mahon and Gillogly, Decoding the IRA, 230–3. The IRA adopted similar unannounced lenient policies when certain volunteers became involved with Fianna Fáil. See Hanley, The IRA, 1926–1936, 117.  50 Irish World, 23 July 1927.  51 Irish World, 28 May 1927.   52 UCDA, MTP, P69/183(136), ‘JB’ to Chief of Staff, IRA (hereafter C/S), ‘Report of Foreign Relations Committee’, c. October 1927.   53 Mark O’Brien, De Valera, Fianna Fáil and the Irish Press (Dublin, 2001), 18–19.   54 TCDA, FGP, 10065/166, Gallagher diary, 15 January 1928.   55 NAB, RG 85, PCLNY, 1897–1957, entry for ‘John J. Sheehy’, arrived 23 May 1927 on SS Baltic, T715, 4060, 204, 23 (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 16 March 2010). For more information on this Kerry Gaelic football tour in the US, see Tom Mahon, ‘Kerry! Up the IRA! Kerry’s 1927 American tour’, History Ireland, 18:5 (2010), 38–9; Mahon and Gillogly, Decoding the IRA, 211–16.  56 UCDA, MTP, P69/183 (64), Chairman, A/C to ‘An Timt[h]ire, Óglaigh na hÉireann, U.S.A. and the President and executive Clann-na-Gael Organization’, 4 May 1927; Mahon and Gillogly, Decoding the IRA, 214.

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  57 Mahon and Gillogly, Decoding the IRA, 214–15.   58 UCDA, MTP, P69/183 (63), ‘CP’ to IRA representative [Sheehy], 6 May 1927.   59 UCDA, MTP, P69/183 (134–135), An Timthire to GAC, 15 January 1927.   60 Mahon, ‘Kerry! Up the IRA!’, 38–9; Mahon and Gillogly, Decoding the IRA, 214.   61 UCDA, MTP, P69/183 (65), ‘Precis Jones [Dan O’Donovan] No. 4’, 29 April 1927. Jones was a code name that O’Donovan would occasionally use. See Mahon and Gillogly, Decoding the IRA, 15.  62 In the message, Neenan refers to ‘5,000 members’, but does not state what organisation these donors belonged to, thus it is not clear if he was referring to the Clan or another organisation. See UCDA, MTP, P69/183 (46–47), ‘Precis Despatch No. 10’ (decoded despatch from An Timthire to GAC), 20 May 1927. Tarpey believes there were around 1,200 members in the Clan during this time. See Tarpey, The role of Joseph McGarrity, 241.   63 UCDA, MTP, P69/183 (46–47), ‘Precis Despatch No. 10’ (decoded despatch from An Timthire to GAC), 20 May 1927.   64 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,532, Chairman, A/C to An Timthire, 3 August 1927.  65 MacEoin, Survivors, 363–9; UCDA, MTP, P69/126 (14), Tomás Ó Dálaig to Chief of Staff (hereafter C/S), 24 January 1925.   66 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,532, A/C to An Timthire, 12 August 1927.   67 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,532, ‘Report of reunion held in District 12’, 2 August 1927.   68 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,533, ‘Officers and members of the Clan-na-Gael’, 22 October 1928; NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17, 533, Report of the Clan na Gael convention, 25–27 August 1928. $200 was also used to pay for the New York warehouse storage of the hundreds of Thompson sub-machine guns still owned by the Clan. In addition, $2,400 was allotted for Luke Dillon’s salary. See NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,533, Financial accounts of Clan na Gael for 1927 and 1928.   69 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,533, A/C to An Timthire, ‘Special Statement’, c. August 1928.   70 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,535 (2), A/C to An Timthire, 27 January 1930.   71 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,535 (1), A/C to Chairman, Clan na Gael Executive, 27 January 1930.   72 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,535 (2), McGarrity to A/C, 3 February 1930.   73 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,535 (3), ‘Report of the Chairman of the Clan-na-Gael to its convention held in New York’, 30 August–1 September 1930.   74 UCDA, MTP, P69/61 (5–7), Twomey to Chairman and Executive, Clan na Gael, 11 December 1930; Hanley, The IRA, 1926–1936, 165.   75 UCDA, MTP, P69/183 (136), ‘JB’ to C/S, ‘Report of Foreign Relations Committee’, c. October 1927.   76 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,533, Report of the Clan na Gael convention, 25–27 August 1928; Tarpey, The role of Joseph McGarrity, 246. Neenan also referred to this scheme as the ‘Committee for Disabled IRA Veterans’. See CCCA, CNP, PR7/7, Connie Neenan memoirs, 150.   77 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,533, ‘Officers and delegates of this convention of the Clan na Gael’, c. August 1928.

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  78 Ibid.; San José State University Special Collections (hereafter SJSUSC), John Byrne Collection (hereafter JBC), Series 4, Box 10, unidentified folder, Thomas Fay death certificate, 19 July 1928 (completed 20 July 1928); SJSUSC, JBC, Series 2, Box 3, Folder 41, ‘Treasurers Report Receipts and Disbursements for the care of Tom Fay and Jerry Murphy members of the Irish Republican Army’, c. 1928.   79 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,533, ‘Officers and delegates of this convention of the Clan na Gael’, c. August 1928.   80 Villanova University Special Collections, Villanova University (hereafter VUSC), Joseph McGarrity Collection (hereafter JMcGCVU), Group I, Box 1, Folder 7, Daly to McGarrity, 12 January 1928.   81 Barbara Bates, Bargaining for life: a social history of tuberculosis, 1876–1938 (Philadelphia, 1992), 69.   82 VUSC, JMcGCVU, Group I, Box 1, Folder 7, Daly to McGarrity, 12 January 1928.   83 VUSC, JMcGCVU, Group I, Box 1, Folder 7, Daly to McGarrity, 16 July 1928.  84 SJSUSC, JBC, Series 2, Box 3, Folder 41, Treasurers Report, ‘Receipts and Disbursements for care of Tom Fay [Joseph Blake] and Jerry Murphy’, c. 1928; SJSUSC, JBC, Box 3, Folder 38, Byrne to Mullins, Pres. Shamrock club, 23 July 1926; Sarbaugh, ‘John Byrne’, 383.   85 SJSUSC, JBC, Series 2, Box 3, Folder 38, Cern to Byrne, Secretary-Treasurer, 5 January 1929.   86 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,491, ‘Williams’ [Neenan] to Burns, 31 January 1930.   87 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,467 (6), Neenan to Keating, 28 May 1930; NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,467 (6), Neenan to Keating, 29 April 1930; NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,467 (6), Neenan to Keating, 21 May 1930; NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,467 (6).   88 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,467 (1), Keating to Neenan, 7 May 1930; Hanley, The IRA, 1926–1936, 164.   89 NYPL Manuscripts and Archives Division, Maloney Collection of Irish Historical Papers (hereafter MCIHP), Box 5, Folder 17, Neenan to Maloney, 16 February 1933. Maloney was involved with republican publicity during the early 1920s and authored a book about Roger Casement. See Cronin, The McGarrity papers,184.   90 NYPL, MCIHP, Box 5, Folder 14, McGarrity to Maloney, 19 March 1933.   91 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,467 (6), Neenan to Keating, 29 April 1930; Irish World, 21 May 1927.   92 UCDA, MTP, P69/224 (138), unsigned to ‘Annie’, 9 July 1930.   93 NACP, RG 59, VCF, 1924–32, Box 776, 811.111, McNaboe, Counsellor at Law to Dubois, Chief Visa Office, 1 December 1926.   94 TCDA, FGP, 10065/120/1, Gallagher diary, 11 March 1927. Crowley’s university education was paid for by the IRA. See UCDA, MTP, P69/122 (45), A/G to O/C, First Southern Division, 8 October 1924.   95 CCCA, CNP, PR7/7, Connie Neenan memoirs, 129.   96 Commandant Peter Kearney Memorial Committee (eds), Commandant Peter Kearney, 16.   97 Joseph Ambrose, Dan Breen and the IRA (Cork, 2003), 160–1.

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  98 UCDA, MTP, P69/183 (134–135), An Timthire to A/C, 15 January 1927; Mahon and Gillogly, Decoding the IRA, 157.   99 Gary Dean, The Dollar decade: Mammon and the machine in 1920s America (Westport, 2003), ix. 100 Ibid. 101 Kyvig, Daily life in the United States, 35–7. 102 Ibid., 39. 103 Ibid., 34–5. 104 Ibid., 39, 116–18; Casey, ‘“From the East Side to the Seaside”’, 403–4. 105 Kyvig, Daily life in the United States, 17–18. 106 Philip Scranton, ‘Multiple industrializations: urban manufacturing development in the American midwest, 1880–1925’, Journal of Design History, 12:1 (1999), 46. 107 David VanTassel and John Grabowski, ‘Patrick O’Malley’, in The encyclopedia of Cleveland history, online edition (http://ech.case.edu/ech-cgi/article.pl?id=OP1) (accessed 20 March 2010); NAB, Records of District Courts of the United States, Record Group 21 (hereafter RG 21), M1995, Naturalization Petition and Record Books for the US District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, Eastern Division, Cleveland, 1907–46 (hereafter NPRB, Cleveland, 1907–46), Declaration of Intention, ‘Patrick Joseph O’Malley’, 18 April 1929 (www.fold3.com) (accessed 15 March 2010); David VanTassel and John Grabowski, ‘White Motor Corp’., in The encyclopedia of Cleveland history, online edition (http://ech.case.edu/ech-cgi/article. pl?id=WMC2) (accessed 20 March 2010). 108 NAB, RG 29, 1930 census, Cleveland, Cuyahoga, Ohio, T626, 1781, 6B, 524, 991.0 (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 1 April 2010). UCDA, MTP, P69/170 (123), FR 3, ‘Patrick Barrett’, undated. 109 UCDA, MTP, P69/170 (138), FR 3, ‘Thomas Loftus’, undated; Kathleen Hegarty Thorne, They put the flag a-flyin’: the Roscommon Volunteers 1916–1923 (2nd ed., Eugene, 2007), 482–4; NAB, RG 85, PCLNY, 1897–1957, entry for ‘Thomas Loftus’, arrived 18 February 1925 on SS Lancastria, T715, 3609, 134,13 (www.ancestry. com) (accessed 20 April 2010); NAB, RG 29, 1930 census, Chicago, Cook, Illinois, T626, 437, 5A, 510, 489.0 (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 19 March 2010). Mark R. Wilson, ‘Armour & Co’., Encyclopedia of Chicago (http://encyclopedia.chicagohistory. org/pages/2554.html) (accessed 20 April 2010). 110 NAB, RG 85, PCLNY, 1897–1957, entry for ‘William Kerrisk’, arrived 24 May 1926 on SS Caronia, T715, 3855, 32, 18 (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 1 April 2010). The 1930 census incorrectly states that Kerrisk arrived in 1925. See NAB, RG 29, 1930 census, Chicago, Cook, Illinois, T626, 444, 16B, 663, 689.0 (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 1 April 2010). NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,467 (3), Kerrisk to Neenan, 6 April 1930. 111 UCDA, MTP, P69/170 (110), FR 2, ‘William DeLacy’, 30 March 1926; UCDA, MTP, P69/170 (111), FR 2, ‘Thomas DeLacy’, 30 March 1926; NAB, RG 29, 1930 census, San Francisco, California, T626, 199, 7B, 112, 16.0 (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 7 October 2009).

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112 O’Reilly (ed.), Accepting the challenge, 23. 113 Irish World, 20 December 1930. 114 O’Connor, An Irish Civil War exile, 31–2. 115 Ibid., 27–30. 116 Ibid., 27–31. 117 Joshua B. Freeman, In transit: the Transport Workers Union in New York City, 1933–1936 (2nd ed., Philadelphia, 2001), 3–9; Casey, ‘“From the East Side to the Seaside”’, 403. 118 Freeman, In transit, 8–9. 119 Ibid., 26–7. 120 Ibid., 34. 121 NAB, RG 85, PCLNY, 1897–1957, entry for ‘Michael G. O’Reilly’, arrived 8 November 1927 on SS Samaria, T715, 4165, 171, 11 (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 20 April 2010); Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives (hereafter TLRWLA), Gerald O’Reilly Papers (hereafter GOP), Box 1, Folder 9, Gerald O’Reilly questionnaire, undated; TLRWLA, GOP, Box 1, Folder 16, Gerald O’Reilly, The birth and growth of the Transport Workers Union: the straight story of how a dedicated few realized their dreams and built a powerful union (Alabama, undated), 16. 122 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,467 (8), Neenan to D.O. District 1, c. 1930. NAB, RG 29, 1930 census, Bronx, New York, T6262, 1478, 28A, 441, 961.0 (www.ancestry. com) (accessed 31 March 2009). The Comaskey brothers were from Cloonagh, county Longford. See NAI, Census of Ireland, 1911, residents of house number 22 in Cloonagh, Mullanaghta, county Longford (www.census.nationalarchives.ie/ pages/1911/Longford/Mullanaghta/Cloonagh/584545/) (accessed 20 April 2010). 123 NAB, RG 21, M1972, Petitions for Naturalization of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, 1897–1944, ‘Michael Quill’, Declaration of Intention, 15 June 1927 (www.fold3.com) (accessed 20 April 2010). Quill was also employed as a coal passer at the McAlpin Hotel, operated elevators and was employed as a seaman on the Matson Lines. See Quill, Mike Quill, 40–1; Freeman, In transit, 56. 124 Quill, Mike Quill, 41–9. 125 See TCDA, FGP, 10065/281, business card, ‘Denis R. Kennedy, B.E., Late G.H.Q. Staff I.R.A’.; NAB, RG 85, PCLNY, 1897–1957, entry for ‘Denis Ryan Kennedy’, arrived 20 August 1923 on SS Orca, T715, 3353, 14, 6 (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 29 March 2009). 126 TCDA, FGP, Ms. 10065/171, Gallagher diary, 23 January 1928. 127 NAB, RG 21, M1995, hereafter NPRB, Cleveland, 1907–46, ‘Michael McGinty’, Declaration of Intention, 12 December 1930 (www.fold3.com) (accessed 20 April 2010); NAB, RG 21, M1879, Petitions for Naturalization of the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York, 1865–1937, ‘Jeremiah Murphy’, 10 June 1927 (www.fold3.com) (accessed 20 April 2010). 128 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,479, Enright to Pedlar, 21 September 1925. NAB, RG 29, 1930 census, Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, T626, 944, 14B, 108, 568.0 (www.ancestry. com) (accessed 2 April 2010).

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129 NAB, RG 29, 1930 census, Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, T626, 944, 14B, 108, 568.0 (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 2 April 2010). 130 UCDA, MTP, P69/183 (35–36), ‘Precis despatch No. 12’ (decoded despatch from An Timthire to A/C), 18 May 1927. 131 O’Connor, An Irish Civil War exile, 27. 132 Ibid., 27–8. 133 UCDA, MTP, P69/183 (3–4), Chairman, A/C to An Timthire, 3 June 1927. 134 NAB, RG 85, PCLNY, 1897–1957, entry for ‘John Joseph Browne’, arrived 8 November 1927 on SS Thuringia, T715, 4165, 87, 3 (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 19 March 2010); UCDA, MTP, P69/149 (106–107), O/C, North Mayo Brigade to A/G, 24 November [1927] (the stated year of 1924 is incorrect on form); UCDA, MTP, P69/149 (105), A/G to O/C, North Mayo Brigade, 30 November 1927. 135 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,534 (4), handwritten notes from meeting, 11 July 1929. O’Donovan was referred to as ‘Dan O’Beirne’ in these notes. For further information on O’Donovan’s secret return to Ireland, see K. McCarthy, Republican Cobh, 223; CCCA, CNP, PR7/7, Connie Neenan memoirs, 131. 136 CCCA, CNP, PR7/7, Connie Neenan memoirs, 130. 137 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,534 (4), Minutes from the Clan na Gael convention, New York, 12–14 July 1929, 1, 4, 5, 6.; NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,533, Minutes from the Clan na Gael convention, New York, 12–14 July 1929, 2, 3. These six pages of the convention minutes should be grouped together but are catalogued in separate folders. Each proceeding reference for this document will refer to both manuscript numbers and will be treated as a full document. Specific page numbers will not be included. 138 Irish World, 6 July 1929. 139 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,533, 17,534 (4), Minutes from the Clan na Gael convention, New York, 12–14 July 1929. 140 WRHS, JMGP, Ms. 4902, Folder 27, Programme, Annual Irish Reunion and Field Day, Clan-na-Gael, held at Puritas Spring Park, 4 July 1929. Martin McGinty was from Owenduff, Achill Island, county Mayo and arrived in the US in July 1923. See NAB, RG 85, PCLNY, 1897–1957, entry for ‘Martin McGinty’, arrived 3 July on SS Franconia, T715, 3321, 144,1 (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 19 March 2010); WRHS, JMGP, Ms. 4902, Folder 30, ‘Requisition for military or civic records on the following parties’, c. 1925–6. 141 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,533, 17,534 (4), Minutes from the Clan na Gael convention, New York, 12–14 July 1929. The Hartford district number can be deduced from the fact that James Flannery, a Hartford resident, was listed in the minutes as a member of District 5. See NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,467 (1) Flannery to Neenan, 22 July 1930. 142 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,533, 17,534 (4), Minutes from the Clan na Gael convention, New York, 12–14 July 1929. 143 Dennis Clark, Erin’s heirs: Irish bonds of community (Lexington, 1991), 154. 144 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,533, 17,534 (4), Minutes from the Clan na Gael convention, New York, 12–14 July 1929.

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145 Ibid. It can be determined that O’Donovan was chosen for this role based on a letter he sent to McGarrity from San Francisco. See NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17, 534 (1), ‘Dan’ [O’Donovan] to Joseph McGarrity, 6 November 1929. 146 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,534 (1), ‘Dan’ [O’Donovan] to McGarrity, 6 November 1929. 147 Bell, The secret army, 74. 148 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,533, ‘Copy of public statement – Comhairle na Poblachta’, December 1928. The IRA officially recognised the organisation during the January 1929 General Army Convention. See Bell, The secret army, 77; MacEvilly, A splendid resistance, 185. 149 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,534 (3), A/C to An Timthire, 1 August 1929. 150 Ibid. For a period in 1929, Tom Daly was An Timthire. Connie Neenan however was still heavily involved with IRA and Clan affairs during this period and was appointed Daly’s secretary on 4 April 1929. See NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,534 (3), A/C to Chairman of the Executive, Clan na Gael, 4 April 1929; Tarpey, The role of Joseph McGarrity, 252. 151 See NAB, RG 85, PCLNY, 1897–1957, entry for ‘Sean O’Deorain’, arrived 17 January 1928 on SS Celtic, T715, 4198, 40, 5 (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 20 April 2010); An Phoblacht, 3 January 1931. NAB, Record Group 65 (hereafter RG 65), Records of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (hereafter RFBI), M1085, Old German Files 1909–21, Case Number 187137, Suspect Name: Seán O’Deorain, Microfilm Roll 591, R.H. Van Deman, Colonel, General Staff, Chief, Military Intelligence Branch to Bruce Bielaski, Chief, Bureau of Investigation, 4 May 1918, 3–5 (www.fold3.com) (accessed 12 April 2010). 152 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,534 (1), O’Deorain to McGarrity, 11 August 1929. 153 MacEvilly, A splendid resistance, 188. 154 Ibid. 155 Ibid., 188–91; NAB, RG 85, PCLNY, 1897–1957, entry for ‘Andrew Cooney’, arrived 4 October 1929 on SS Berengaria, T715, 4598, 42, 17 (www.ancestry.com) (20 April 2010). 156 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,534 (1), Cooney to Chairman, Clan na Gael Executive, 3 November 1929; MacEvilly, A splendid resistance, 193. 157 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,534 (1), Y. of D.A. of V.C. [Dillon] to McGarrity, 21 October 1929. 158 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,534 (2), McGarrity to Cooney (unsent letter), 8 November 1929; MacEvilly, A splendid resistance, 198. 159 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,534 (2), McGarrity to Cooney, 8 November 1929. 160 MacEvilly, A splendid resistance, 195. 161 Irish World, 18 January 1930. 162 CCCA, CNP, PR7/4, Transcribed Connie Neenan interview with Marie Tarpey, 5 August 1967, 5. 163 CCCA, CNP, PR7/7, Connie Neenan memoirs, 131. These three IRA veterans, along with the other Clan executive members, signed their names in a commemorative booklet that was presented to the family of Luke Dillon. See Historical Society of Pennsylvania (hereafter HSP), DCP, MSS 37, Box 2, Folder 2, Luke Dillon research

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materials, 1902, 1930, 1946, 1982, Copy of hand embossed Luke Dillon booklet, c. 1930. 164 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,467 (5), ‘C’ [Neenan] to Hoare, 4 April 1930. 165 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,533, 17,534 (4), Minutes from the Clan na Gael convention, New York, 12–14 July 1929. 166 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,467 (5), Neenan to Fay, 5 April 1930. 167 An Phoblacht, 10 May 1930. 168 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,467 (5), Y. of D.A. [Secretary] to Hoare, 13 April 1930. 169 Ryan also addressed meetings in Waterbury and New Haven, Connecticut. See NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,467 (5), Neenan to ‘Major’ [Michael Enright], 19 April 1930. 170 An Phoblacht, 31 May 1930. 171 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,467 (1), Ganley to Neenan, 29 April 1930. 172 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,467 (5), Neenan to Gannon, 11 June 1930; NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,535 (3), ‘Report of the Chairman of the Clan-na-Gael to its convention held in New York’, 30 August–1 September 1930. 173 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,467 (5), Secretary, Clan na Gael to Castiglioni, Rocky Point Catering Company, 9 July 1930; NLI, JMcGP, Ms.17,467 (5), Neenan to Ashe, 2 June 1930; Hanley, The IRA, 1926–1936, 163. 174 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,535 (3), ‘Report of the Chairman of the Clan-na-Gael to its convention held in New York’, 30 August–1 September 1930. 175 CCCA, CNP, PR7/7, Connie Neenan memoirs, 131; NAB, PCLNY, 1897–1957, entry for ‘Michael McLoughlin’, arrived 22 August 1930 on SS Republic, T715, 4804, 184, 2; Irish World, 27 December 1930. 176 Irish World, 27 December 1930.

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5 Creating a new identity, 1931–5 Before departing the US in December 1930 IRA Chief of Staff Maurice Twomey sent a detailed memorandum to Joseph McGarrity and the Clan na Gael Executive Council offering his full impressions of the Clan as a national militant republican organisation. Overall, he believed the Clan was still lacking an ‘aggressive outlook’ necessary to sustain a committed campaign in the US. ‘A false idea of secrecy’ continued to strangle the development of the organisation and the exclusion of ‘outsiders’ from Clan functions isolated republican ideals to a core group of supporters. There was a ‘great need ... to build up the organisation ... in numbers, efficiency, and morale’. Twomey ‘found an appalling lack of an appreciation of the value of publicity, whether through newspapers, functions, or public meetings’. As for finances, the IRA chief of staff realised the current economic conditions would decrease funding and sources should be consulted ‘outside of the Clan’. Military training should also begin for ‘men ... inclined to return home’. Building and strengthening relationships with ‘influential people’ was vital and attempts should be made to ‘to influence other organisations’. Overall, Twomey believed the IRA struggle and campaign should be placed in an international context and the Clan’s responsibilities broadened with the organisation focusing on ‘the present and future’.1 Attempts were soon made to infuse these multi-faceted propositions into the Clan as well as the overall US-based militant Irish republican movement.

Clan na Gael revival In early 1931 the Clan na Gael, under the leadership of IRA veterans, began implementing the numerous suggestions offered by Twomey. One of the first highly visible changes made was the hiring of Michael O’Kiersey as publicity director for the New York Clan.2 O’Kiersey, a young aspiring writer and recent emigrant from Dublin, provided an important connection between the Clan, the outside public and other Irish-American organisations. He was quickly

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introduced to the depth and diverse nature of the city’s Irish-American organisations during the 1931 Saint Patrick’s Day festivities.3 In a letter written to a friend in Ireland O’Kiersey remarked that ‘every hall and hotel in the city’ seemed to be holding some celebration. After attending a dance organised by the AARIR he entered a ‘grand ballroom where the Sons of St. Patrick were holding another affair’. Sensing there was ‘a tremendous power ... to be exploited’ in New York, O’Kiersey firmly believed that Irish-Americans could be ‘caught again some day on a wave of enthusiasm’ through the work of the Clan and the militant republican principles that guided the organisation.4 Although still looking forward in its publicity goals the Clan hoped that a reminder of the past would also inspire support. With the approaching fifteenth anniversary of the Easter Rising, ‘a big publicity campaign’ composed of a nationwide lecture tour by German Captain Karl Spindler was co-ordinated.5 In 1916 Spindler had captained the Aud, which carried weapons originating from Germany meant for the Irish Volunteers. After an unsuccessful rendezvous with Roger Casement in Tralee, county Kerry, the Aud was followed by a British naval vessel. Sensing impending danger Spindler subsequently sailed to a point near Cork Harbour and sunk the ship, destroying all the weapons aboard.6 This act was deeply admired by Irish republicans and, according to the Irish World, the current tour was arranged ‘to show to Captain Spindler that the Irish appreciate his daring effort on behalf of Irish freedom, and to demonstrate the friendship of Americans toward the German people’.7 The lectures, as revealed by Connie Neenan, were also arranged in order to ‘financially benefit’ the German captain.8 Furthermore, Spindler’s tour may have been an attempt by the Clan to transcend its immediate support base. Spindler was a personality who was recognised by many Irish-Americans, including those not involved in any form of republican activism. Thus an opportunity existed to seize outside support and recognition. Not only were tickets for Spindler’s first speech in New York City’s Mecca Temple, offered at the venue box office, but they were also available from the members of his tour committee and the various Clan clubs located throughout the city. Publicity for the Clan was immediately injected into the event as leading committee members and Clan officials including Neenan, Peter Kearney and John T. Ryan individually distributed tickets.9 Moreover, the wider public could obtain tickets, resulting in further promotion. These publicity schemes, however, only served as supplementary features to the primary event, an occasion where Spindler could relive his exciting tale and where he and the Clan, by highlighting the 1916 Easter Rising, could espouse its commitment to militant Irish republicanism in front of a variety of people from different ethnic and political persuasions.

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After delivering his story to around 4,000 people attending Easter Week celebrations at the Mecca Temple Spindler travelled across the US along with Neenan, the ‘Manager’ of the tour.10 On certain occasions the German naval captain’s narration was preceded by messages expounding the ideals of the Clan. In Philadelphia Clan members Neil Duffy and John McCarney offered insights about their organisation before Spindler’s lecture. McCarney, serving as chairman of the event, proclaimed the Clan as the ‘beacon light through which right principles have been diffused to Irish Nationalists’.11 An appeal was subsequently offered by the Clan ‘to bring the Irish and Germans of America in close contact, and make them realize more fully that that they are mutual friends and had a common enemy’. In Boston the planned event revealed affiliations with local politicians as Spindler, Cork IRA veteran Eugene Sheehan and others were guests of Massachusetts Governor Joseph Ely at the State House.12 In Cleveland a religious dimension was included. On 23 April Father E.A. Kirby, the pastor of Saint Cecilia’s Church, chaired Spindler’s event. Speaking after brief speeches by Neenan and Cleveland Clan leader John Stanton, Kirby singled out the IRA veterans attending, stating he was ‘honored ... to be in the company of the men of Ireland’.13 As Spindler’s tour continued west IRA veterans, as well as local and state politicians, continued to appear at the events. In Chicago the Shannon Rovers War Pipes’ Band, led by Limerick IRA veteran Thomas Ryan, played before Spindler’s lecture.14 In California Spindler was met by Cork IRA veteran Michael Leahy, as well as the state’s governor and the mayors of Los Angeles and San Francisco. In these two cities parades and banquets composed of German-American dignitaries and IRA veterans were organised and thousands of people attended his lectures.15 In Butte, Montana, Spindler’s visit not only provided an educational lecture for students from the city’s Christian Brothers school, but also furthered local propaganda efforts, as Larry Duggan, the event’s chairman, ‘emphasized the need for supporting the Irish independence movement and the men of the I.R.A’.16

Shipping connections On certain occasions during the Spindler tour a concurrent publicity drive was announced to the audience. Before Spindler’s talk in Philadelphia those attending were reminded ‘to refrain from travelling on British passenger ships’.17 This remark was a reference to an on-going Clan campaign to disrupt the business operations of British shipping lines. Although shipping representatives had conceded by 1931 that ‘immigration [had] stopped’ from Ireland, passengers returning to Ireland for either permanent or temporary purposes continued.

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During late winter notices appeared in the Irish World advertising bookings for the Eucharistic Congress scheduled for June 1932.18 The boycott campaign was publicised through various channels, including notices in An Phoblacht. By December 1930 reports had surfaced that the Clan and other republican organisations were progressing with the campaign and ‘pushing the boycott’ as much as possible.19 On 28 March 1931 An Phoblacht publicised further details of the drive by publishing a letter written by the IRA publicity committee in New York. Revealing that ‘75 per cent of those who comprise the passenger lists of the British-owned vessels are Irish or the descendants in America of the Irish’, the note stated that crew members of the passenger liners also served as reservists with the British navy and the actual vessels could be quickly converted into warships. Exploiting fears that the guns from these ships ‘may one day point menacingly towards the shores of America’, the published notice offered a brief synopsis that the Irish government was in fact paying the British government ‘$20,000,000 a year for land annuities’. The message further promoted the three major non-British shipping companies, the United States, North German Lloyd and the Hamburg-American lines.20 What this statement did not disclose, however, was the actual extent of an agreement organised between these non-British shipping lines and Connie Neenan. During the previous summer and out of public view, Neenan had begun negotiations with these lines to employ IRA veterans throughout the country ‘as Agents to work along with their Representatives’. According to Neenan, ‘all the Companies agreed’ with the offer and would also ‘agree to any Agents that we may suggest’. By late summer 1930 Neenan reported that republicans, including those from New York, Cleveland and Detroit, were soon to be hired and would publicly represent these lines. As demonstrated by these secret negotiations between Neenan and the shipping companies, IRA veterans were now being placed in important positions which could serve as a ‘dual obligation’, where they could ‘gain a means of making a livelihood’ in a ‘work of interest that is going to assist the Cause and consequently cause damage to our enemies’.21 Recognising the necessity for even greater participation from IRA veterans, a recruiting campaign began during the summer months of 1931. Advertised in An Phoblacht, ‘Republicans in exile’ from small cities, including Springfield, Massachusetts, to larger locations, such as Boston, Philadelphia and San Francisco, were encouraged to ‘get into communication with the Clan na Gael organisation and former members of the I.R.A’. In New York the new Clan na Gael and IRA Hall at 147 Columbus Avenue was endorsed as being open every night of the week; while in Cleveland veterans were encouraged to go to the Irish-American Club at 6415 Detroit Avenue every Saturday and Sunday night.22

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The anti-coercion campaign After Maurice Twomey returned from the US earlier in the year the IRA moved forward with increased mobilisation. In January 1931 an IRA unit executed a supposed informer. A Tipperary Garda Siochána (police) superintendent, who began an investigation into the murder and also repressed IRA activities in his locale, was himself assassinated.23 Even as the Cumann na nGaedheal government began apprehending republican leaders throughout the summer the IRA remained extremely active, evident when another supposed informer was killed.24 Set in the background of these events was the implementation of a new social programme by the IRA. Referred to as Saor Éire, this scheme consisted of ‘socialism, republican separatism, and Gaelicism’.25 Through this multilayered strategy, workers from all backgrounds were to unite against capitalism through the republican ethos, while also nurturing and advancing the Irish traditions.26 IRA efforts to further these military and social aims were stymied on 17 October 1931 after the Irish Free State government passed a new Public Safety Act. The government was now equipped with unlimited powers to ban suspected republican and communist-based organisations and also to search IRA suspects and seize slanderous material.27 This crackdown on the IRA and its new left-wing accessory was publicised in the US two days later.28 Seizing the opportunity to propagandise and also internationalise these government actions, the Clan’s publicity director, Michael O’Kiersey, notified Roger Baldwin, the head of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). O’Kiersey asserted to him that the bill ‘abolishes all civil liberties’ in Ireland resulting from the ‘unlimited powers of arrest, search, interrogation and imprisonment ... given to the police and the Minister for Defence’.29 Although the ACLU did ‘not deal with matters outside of the United States’, the information was passed on to an affiliated organisation, the ICPP, which offered to organise publicity against the Free State measures.30 On 12 November Baldwin directly appealed for support from activists affiliated with the ICPP.31 By the end of the month a statement prepared by the Committee and signed by a number of leading ICPP members, Clarence Darrow, Arthur Garfield Hays, Jerome Davis, Robert Morss Lovett, John Haynes Holmes and Charles Edward Russell declared: The Free State stands before the world as a country with a weapon of tyranny unparalleled in any other country that is not an out-and-out dictatorship. The men who govern the Free State are apparently wholly blind to the lessons which they should have learned in their fight against British Coercion. They should know that

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this measure of suppression, sweeping as it is, will only arouse more surely the very opposition they seek to crush.32

Eight days after publication the New York Times reported that Seán (John) Mulgrew, a US citizen, had become entangled in the anti-coercion measures.33 Originally from Murrevagh, Mulranny, county Mayo, Mulgrew arrived in the US during 1923, only to return to Ireland once again in 1930.34 On 18 October 1931 Mulgrew was apprehended in Saula, Achill Island, after being accused of attempting to start a Saor Éire organisation in the vicinity. While being crossexamined during his subsequent court trial Mulgrew described that upon arrest a detective ‘threatened to shoot me’ and that one officer ‘hit me with a fist in the mouth and another hit me on the side of the head’. After refusing to reveal details of his association with the IRA and Saor Éire, Mulgrew was found guilty of organising communist activities and sentenced to six months imprisonment, which included ‘hard labour’ and eventual deportation.35 The details of Mulgrew’s arrest and deportation threat provided irresistible propaganda for the Clan’s publicity department. The story enabled the campaign against the Public Safety Act to be personalised with a naturalised US citizen as the focal point. With the imprisonment of Mulgrew garnering attention across the US, the Clan as well as the ICPP wrote to US Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson.36 Replying to Roger Baldwin on 19 December, the Department of State’s legal advisor asserted that inquiries had begun into Mulgrew’s arrest and that he was awaiting further instructions from the American Consul in Dublin.37 While letters from Clan and ICPP officials were being assessed by Department of State officials, a public meeting was held in New York City on Sunday 13 December at the Hotel Pennsylvania. In an act of joint co-operation between the Clan and numerous Irish societies, ‘delegates from ninety-six Irish fraternal, cultural, and social organizations of the city’ adopted a resolution denouncing the Public Safety Act and called for further protests to take place in the city. Further pressure was placed on US Secretary of State Stimson to delve into the Mulgrew arrest and the Clan-organised boycott of British ships was introduced into the meeting. The New York Times reported that organisers ‘called on Irishmen everywhere to boycott English goods and steamships until the act was repealed’.38 By January the co-operation that existed between the ICPP and the Clan, as well as the numerous other Irish societies, continued to evolve. In writing to Minister Plenipotentiary Michael MacWhite of the Irish Free State Embassy, Roger Baldwin questioned the recent actions of the Free State government against Mulgrew and requested that his group’s ‘vigorous protest’ be sent to the Irish government. Although Baldwin singled out Mulgrew’s arrest, he acknowledged the complaint was much more than anger at the Irish

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Free State for imprisoning an US citizen. Mulgrew’s case was ‘representative of the working of an act designed to suppress all extremist opposition to the Government’. Baldwin believed the ‘violence in dealing with opponents’ was ‘wholly unwarranted from any point of view’.39 This individual protest against the Free State was coupled with further correspondence from Baldwin to the US Department of State, in which he condemned the brutality inflicted upon Mulgrew.40 The Clan publicity bureau continued to capitalise on the attention caused by the Free State actions, as well as the developing alliance with other IrishAmerican organisations. With the assistance of the ICPP, the Clan arranged a mass mailing campaign, distributing circulars that described the actions of the Irish Free State government. Political support through Congressman Martin Sweeney of Cleveland was sought and an event of ‘spectacular’ proportions was organised in New York through the efforts of Michael O’Kiersey. The initial plans included ‘a parade of trucks carrying tableaux and suitable slogans’ to process through the city’s streets towards the protest site at the Mecca Temple.41 After requesting a permit from the New York City police commissioner, O’Kiersey was informed that the parade had been disallowed due to fears that there ‘would be too great an obstruction to traffic’. Disappointed and believing ‘that some sinister official influence has been at work’, namely interference from Free State officials, O’Kiersey and his publicity bureau were forced to concentrate solely on publicising the ‘monster protest’ event at Mecca Temple.42 In order to add a certain degree of organisation, a conglomerate organisation named the Associated Irish Societies was formed. Publicly it represented ‘every shade of Irish political thought’. However, internally, the leadership was Clan orientated. Michael O’Kiersey served as publicity director and Limerick IRA veteran and Clan member, Seán Hayes, acted as chairman.43 This facade afforded Clan leaders the ability to publicise their message to a larger audience outside of their membership circles and to also reach out to well-known IrishAmerican officials including attorney, Frank P. Walsh.44 In what was described as ‘the most momentous Irish-American function since the betrayal of the Republic in 1921’, the Mecca Temple was filled to capacity on 24 January 1932. Bus loads of people were shuttled to the premises and 200 policemen were ordered to patrol the surrounding area until midnight. Guests ranging from members of the clergy to numerous public officials sat on chairs situated on a platform draped with an American and an Irish tri-colour flag. Roger Baldwin, Charles Edward Russell and leading city officials joined Clan members, including Frank O’Beirne and John T. Ryan in denouncing the actions of the Free State government. Other guests included Basanta Koomar Roy, a member of the Indian independence movement, and IRA Commandant

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Michael Price who had recently arrived in the US a few weeks earlier.45 Based on the resolutions passed during the event, the protest turned into a public display of republican ideals. Besides firmly condemning the Public Safety Act and the arrest of John Mulgrew, other measures called for US consular officials to be withdrawn from ‘the British-imposed puppet governments legislating at Dublin and Belfast Ireland which were established and are maintained under threat of war’. A boycott of British shipping was urged on the US government, and the GAA of New York pledged that ‘no teams be sent to or received from Ireland until the present reign of terror is ended’. India’s independence struggle against the British was also publicised and mutual support was promised.46 During this period the scene in New York was duplicated across the US. Protests were led by certain branches of the AARIR, the Ladies Auxiliary of the AOH, and the IRA men’s club in San Francisco.47 In Cleveland, as in New York, an amalgamated Irish association was formed and named the United Irish Organisations of Cleveland. The Irish-American Hall at 6415 Detroit Avenue, home to the Terence MacSwiney Clan Club and the West Side Irish-American Club hosted a meeting ‘to protest against the arrest of John Mulgrew, citizen of Cleveland’. Local Clan leader John Stanton chaired the event and Michael Price attended as part of his lecture tour and was the principal speaker. He asserted that the Clan was ‘the origin of Republicanism’ in the US. Price described in detail the conditions that political prisoners, including Mulgrew, faced in Irish Free State jails. Besides functioning as a gathering to discuss the recent Public Safety Act and to publicise the incarceration of Mulgrew, the meeting also served as a fundraising event, with Price requesting ‘the people of Cleveland to support the Irish National Aid Association, financially and morally, for the relief of the Irish political prisoners and their dependents’.48 The publicity generated by these protests, although creating excitement and stimulating republican sentiment across the US, failed to bring freedom for Mulgrew and other incarcerated republicans. The hope of collecting substantial donations for the prisoners and their families was also not fully realised. After receiving a letter from Michael Price asking for ‘certain sums of money’ for the Irish National Aid Association, Roger Baldwin replied cautiously by acknowledging that ‘all I can promise you is that we will do our best in response to this appeal but how much our best will mean in real money I cannot yet say’.49 While Price continued his journey across the US attempting to garner further support, republicans began sensing that a dramatic political development was to occur in Ireland.50 After the Irish general election on 16 February 1932 Fianna Fáil, with support from the Labour party, became the new governing party of Ireland.51 As Éamon de Valera was preparing to become the new leader of Ireland he received a letter

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from Baldwin and the ICPP congratulating him on the victory and expressing gratitude for his recent ‘declaration for the repeal of the recent Coercion Act’.52 The efforts of those in the US who led the anti-coercion campaign did not go unnoticed, especially to Michael Price, who had ‘no doubt that the intensified drive in America … drew renewed attention to the suppression by force by English Imperialists’.53 On 10 March, one day after Fianna Fáil came into power, the imprisoned IRA members were freed.54 A telegram was quickly sent from the released men to the New York Clan thanking them ‘and all other organisations’ who protested and campaigned on their behalf. Another message was sent directly to the ICPP expressing gratitude for the committee’s actions.55 The ICPP was further informed from the US Department of State that John Mulgew had been amongst those released, ending the five month saga for the naturalised US citizen who had become the American face of the Clan-organised publicity campaign.56

The Clan na Gael, the IRA and the Fianna Fáil government On 10 March Connie Neenan, along with Fourth Northern Division IRA veteran Tom McGill, boarded the Hamburg-American line passenger ship SS Deutschland bound for Southampton, England. According to Neenan, he and McGill had been ‘delegated’ by Clan executive leaders to ‘see the IRA Army Council, look into all aspects of the situation and then return with our report’.57 During the journey to England, the two republicans were treated ‘royally’ by the ship’s captain and both men were undoubtedly excited about the prospects of returning home. Upon arriving in Ireland, the two Clan delegates were quickly re-acquainted with Maurice Twomey and other IRA members, and Neenan subsequently accompanied the IRA chief of staff to western counties for inspections.58 According to Neenan, certain members of the Clan were still deeply apprehensive about the IRA’s support of Fianna Fáil during the previous election. The organisation hoped to learn directly what course of action the IRA was planning to adopt.59 After meeting with Neenan and McGill, a formal letter from the Army Council was sent to the Clan leadership explaining the official position and future plans of the IRA. The independence of the IRA was re-confirmed and its relationship with Fianna Fáil was placed into context. According to the Army Council, support for de Valera’s party was based on the need ‘to drive out those then in power’ and ‘participation was not due to leanings to that policy of any political party’. Indeed, Fianna Fáil’s offer to the IRA to ‘place their arms at the disposal of the elected representatives of the people’ was turned down

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by the Army Council. The Army Council also apologised for any ‘doubts or misgivings’ that were experienced by the Clan due to the IRA position. The commitment of the IRA was re-confirmed and optimism prevailed within IRA circles as military training, ‘impossible in recent years’, resumed.60 The Clan leadership firmly believed the IRA should not acquiesce to any of Fianna Fáil’s demands. According to executive member Peter Kearney, who served as the Clan secretary in Neenan’s absence, the Clan maintained that ‘anything short of a commanding position should not be accepted’. As for the development of Saor Éire, the Clan believed this could prove a ‘practical economic policy’. However, the scheme should not be intertwined with the IRA. Members were also resolute in demanding that any change in IRA policy should be agreed to by the Clan, as outlined in the 1926 agreement between the two militant bodies. If this was not assured, Kearney asserted that further money would not be sent to Ireland. These opinions came from a number of IRA veterans who were now integral parts of the organisation for, according to Kearney, ‘some members of the military class have expressed the opinion that any agreement with Fianna Fáil would be a departure from principle’.61 Before despatching this letter to Ireland, Kearney along with Dan O’Donovan met with a mutual friend and discussed the Clan’s other valuable asset – the hundreds of Thompson sub-machine guns stored in a New York warehouse. The two republicans were informed that rumours were circulating within Irish consular circles, and specifically that the Irish Free State consular officer in New York, William Macaulay, believed that Karl Spindler ‘was arranging to send some arms to Ireland’. Kearney and O’Donovan were asked ‘if the Thompsons were still around, or under US Federal control’. The two Cork IRA veterans, fully realising that their answers could reveal too much information, responded by stating that the guns ‘were probably still under Federal control’, but that they ‘were not sure’.62 Ten days after hearing of these rumours and revealing very little, Kearney wrote to Maurice Twomey and explained that a shipment of ‘shares’ was to be sent to Ireland ‘as soon as possible’. These ‘shares’, most likely a reference to the guns, were to be shipped and labelled as ‘cutting machines’, destined for the Ford Motor Company in Cork.63 On 25 June, Kearney delivered the shipment to a man nicknamed ‘Curb Exchange’, who in turn was supposed to bring them over to Ireland where an IRA representative was to meet him.64 During this period rumours were rampant that a major delivery of weapons was destined for Ireland. On 3 June an article from the Daily Express detailed supposed US-led efforts to fund the IRA as well as supply weapons. Connie Neenan and Tom McGill’s attendance at the IRA convention in Dublin was also reported. Although not revealing Neenan and McGill’s actual names, the article

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noted that ‘I.R.A. delegates from America’ had attended the convention and subsequently ‘outlined the steps which the American branches of the organisation would take to assist the parent body, both by supplies of money and arms, to achieve its goal – the establishment of an independent Irish Republic’. The same article explained that weapons had been delivered along the Cork coast and that Thompson sub-machine guns ‘were about to be landed or had been successfully landed’.65 Three days later the Irish Daily Telegraph also reported that a ‘mystery ship’ had been spotted off the coast of county Cork and contained a separate arms shipment from Russia.66 Amongst the passengers arriving on the scheduled large passenger ships during this period were eager visitors attending the Eucharistic Congress. This six day event from 21 to 26 June celebrated the Roman Catholic Church and also honoured the 1,500th anniversary of the consummation of Saint Patrick’s Irish mission. Church leaders and lay people from across the world arrived in Dublin and partook in festivities which included a number of retreats and masses in the city’s Phoenix Park. For Éamon de Valera and Fianna Fáil the event provided further publicity for the government.67 For those Irish-Americans attending, the Eucharistic Congress presented an ideal occasion to visit Ireland for the first time or, for some, was a chance to return to their native country.68 During this extremely active tourist period, the Clan-organised boycott against British shipping lines also continued, which Peter Kearney believed was ‘very effective’. The campaign had proven ‘instrumental in diverting thousands of passengers to German lines’ and was to be continued throughout the Congress proceedings, ‘when all the Americans will be present’.69 The leadership of the Clan, through their burgeoning shipping alliances, had also gained access to ship manifests and obtained names of Clan members who had booked to sail to Ireland aboard British ships. Clan members in Waterbury, Connecticut and Holyoke, Massachusetts were subsequently ordered to change their bookings. This infraction was a cause for suspension from the Clan and further disciplinary action was threatened if the booking remained.70 Upon arriving in Cobh, many Clan members were initially greeted by Connie Neenan.71 The special attention given to US republicans continued and on 17 June they were welcomed to the Mansion House in Dublin for a Cumann na mBan-organised reception. Neenan, representing the Clan contingent, addressed the audience who were also treated to Irish songs and dances. Besides the entertainment, a number of leading republicans were present, including Hanna Sheehy Skeffington, Maud Gonne MacBride, Maurice Twomey and Michael Price. Two days later, Neenan and Tom McGill, along with the US visitors joined 20,000 people in the annual Wolfe Tone commemoration.72 Another reception at the Mansion House followed on 28 June, where 2,500 guests

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listened to Frank Ryan, one of the organising committee members, deliver a message ‘that Republican Ireland would assert its rights ... and would persist in its task until Ireland was one, free and Republican’.73 The feelings of excitement and liberation exhibited by IRA officials such as Ryan was to be expected. After years of secrecy and attempting to evade Free State authorities, the IRA was once again allowed to be recognised publicly. At this early stage, the Fianna Fáil government had adopted a conciliatory attitude. Weapons, which had been nearly impossible to smuggle into Ireland over the previous few years, were reportedly arriving in coastal towns. IRA veterans residing in the US, such as Connie Neenan and Tom McGill, were now allowed freely to return and reconvene with their former comrades, and the visiting Clan members provided a further display of transatlantic co-operation. The optimism which emanated from the numerous celebrations during June, however, did not mirror the mood of leading and cautious Clan officials in the US.

Struggling for direction When writing to Connie Neenan on 15 June, Joseph McGarrity believed ‘the opportunity of 1921 is present in Ireland’ and expressed hope that ‘Dev and his followers and the I.R.A. will only reach an understanding’.74 McGarrity’s longing for an agreement, however, was guardedly optimistic as he also felt that de Valera could at the same time begin negotiations with his British counterparts and abandon gaining a true Irish republic. Later in the month, McGarrity sent a note to Maurice Twomey again questioning the recent developments in Ireland. The tone was similar to the correspondence directed towards Neenan, but also included a remark that rumours in the US were surfacing ‘about division of opinion’ amongst IRA officials. McGarrity believed the IRA must form ‘a united front in order that the whole country may come forward to our goal’. For McGarrity, a union between the IRA and Fianna Fáil could only occur if the principles of the IRA were not abandoned.75 Privately, McGarrity’s letter ‘disturbed’ Twomey and other members of the Army Council. Twomey wondered ‘how far precisely’ McGarrity wanted the IRA to decline any of Fianna Fáil’s demands. Although McGarrity’s words certainly created turmoil amongst the IRA leadership, his statement also reminded those republicans in Ireland of the stark differences that had developed between the two militant Irish republican organisations. Writing to Neenan Twomey wondered ‘to what extent such ideas are prevalent in the States?’76 By the end of July, talks between Fianna Fáil and the IRA were barely progressing as discussions centred on the possibility of the IRA becoming part

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of a new volunteer armed force.77 As it became clear that the IRA would not acquiesce to Fianna Fáil’s demands, discussions grew even more infrequent.78 Twomey believed the Clan’s position towards the Fianna Fáil government was ‘entirely too low’ and ‘to take up a narrow rigid attitude would be wrong’. However, it was vital for the IRA to maintain and strengthen its ties with the Clan or the organisation could ‘drift and may even fall away’.79 Twomey’s concerns were further deepened when Eugene Sheehan arrived in Ireland and reported that republican activities in Boston had ‘come to a standstill’. Circulars from the IRA convention had seemingly not been distributed and members of certain Boston Clan clubs were reportedly ‘quite ignorant’ of the official IRA position.80 Sheehan himself was unaware of the true IRA and Fianna Fáil relationship.81 This communication failure coupled with the deepening financial depression in the US economy resulted in the continued lack of US-organised fundraising. By the end of July, the IRA was ‘in desperate need of finances’ and seriously questioned the level of support they could expect from the Clan.82 A letter from the Army Council was sent to Peter Kearney outlining the recent developments and re-affirming the IRA’s commitment to ‘Revolutionary Republicanism’. The overall feeling in Ireland was depicted as ‘splendid just now’. However, numerous questions remained unanswered regarding the relationship between the IRA and Fianna Fáil. It was quickly becoming clear to the Army Council that Fianna Fáil wanted the IRA to ‘dissolve’ or merge with the Free State Army. This would prove an unacceptable outcome for the IRA. Moreover, during this period there was a strengthening opposition against the British government as the land annuities campaign was initiated. Against this background the IRA felt emboldened to launch a new anti-imperialist campaign declaring that ‘absolute separation from the Empire’ was the only viable outcome.83 Before departing from Galway on 9 August Neenan asserted to Twomey that ‘if this fight is to be continued it is going to install a lot of work on both sides of the Atlantic’.84 Unlike Twomey, he did not believe in ‘the strong position of the I.R.A.’, but in his notes to the Clan he ‘insisted on the extreme importance of its existence’.85 He also minimised the significance of the June letter from McGarrity, which continued to bother Twomey. McGarrity, according to Neenan, was ‘over anxious and equally timid’.86 While Neenan was sailing to the US, the 13 August issue of An Phoblacht published a cable received from McGarrity expounding the Clan’s ‘demand for complete freedom only’ and for the ‘Irish people not to obscure the national outlook by clamouring for minor concessions’. In response, the newspaper stated that republicans in Ireland were making sure that the question of the republic was ‘not overlooked nor confused

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by lesser questions’. The An Phoblacht writer re-affirmed that ‘the Clan na Gael abroad and the Irish Republican Army at home, work hand in hand for the same object – an Irish Republic, the whole Republic, and nothing less than the Republic’.87 The timing of this public declaration coincided with an Irish Race Convention held on 14 August at the Hotel Astor in New York. This event at the Times Square location was organised to display the united effort of Irish organisations in the US and, according to the New York Times, speakers verbally attacked the English and urged a complete boycott of British manufactured goods.88 Clan officials were not in attendance after deciding months earlier to abstain from the proceedings due to the Fianna Fáil presence amongst the convention organisers and participants, chief amongst them being Irish World owner Thomas Ford.89 Significantly, this decision emphasised that the Clan had distanced themselves from the recently established united Irish-American front. On 18 August, the IRA Army Council decided to send a representative to the US in order to attend the upcoming Clan convention.90 Chosen for the visit was IRA Quartermaster General Seán Russell, described by Twomey as ‘the most experienced Officer we have’.91 Russell’s responsibilities included conveying to the Clan the exact strength of the IRA.92 One day after arriving in New York, Russell met with a number of the Clan executive leaders, including Michael Enright, John Stanton, Connie Neenan, Dan O’Donovan and Tipperary IRA veteran Paddy Ryan (Lacken).93 The convention began on 3 September and consisted of fifty delegates, mainly from eastern districts. As per the normal convention proceedings an overview of the organisation was presented. Although ‘fourteen new clubs were added’, ‘a noticeable decrease in membership was reported’, mainly due to the high number of unemployed members. With the exception of Cleveland, San Francisco and Boston, other local reports created a dejected tone. Even the weather added to the organisation’s woes as it was reported that in Philadelphia, ‘rain on July 4th created a loss of $800.00’.94 These important but fairly routine organisational matters were quickly overshadowed during a gathering of the Clan’s Foreign Relations Committee. According to Russell, this meeting lasted upwards of ‘fifteen hours’, and ‘was quite lively throughout’ as the eight committee members ‘spoke with heat and several times’.95 As was expected, the highly controversial topic centred on the IRA’s support of Fianna Fáil during the February general election. Watching these discussions unfold, Russell observed an ‘air of general suspicion’ directed towards the IRA. He reported that ‘many delegates, especially the older ones spoke with great feeling and strong disapproval’. They questioned the IRA’s inability to directly communicate with the Clan. The anger was ‘not so much

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on account of the change of policy’ but because of the Clan ‘not being notified’.96 According to the Clan’s Foreign Relations Committee, the agreement signed with the IRA six years earlier was ‘violated’. A new addendum to the original accord, pending approval from the IRA Army Council, was subsequently created which explicitly stated that ‘any violation of this Agreement by the I.R.A. will result in the immediate withdrawal of all support by the Clan na Gael’.97 Besides unleashing anger towards the IRA, the Clan Executive also faced ‘hostility’ and ‘adverse criticisms’ from other members, resulting in resignations from a number of Clan leaders, including Connie Neenan.98 However, Neenan’s resignation, as with some of the others, was brief, and he returned to his position after ‘the delegates made such a strong appeal’ for him ‘to save the Organisation’.99 Following the normal procedures an outgoing Executive Council was elected. Long-time Clan leaders, Joseph McGarrity, Michael Enright and John Stanton were re-elected along with Neenan. However, new leaders were also chosen, including Limerick republican, Seán Hayes.100 Dan O’Donovan, although re-elected, ‘refused to act’ on the Executive Council.101 In summarising the convention, Neenan reported optimistically to Maurice Twomey that ‘everything passed off very well’ and ‘a few young faces’ amongst the Clan leadership would ‘do good’. However, the most revealing statement from Neenan was his belief that the anger exhibited by Clan members was from ‘a lack of faith and also a desire for power’.102 The Clan, which for six years had publicly and financially supported its militant republican counterpart in Ireland, now had reason to doubt the sincerity and intentions of the IRA as well as, to a certain extent, its own leaders. The primary reason why the IRA desperately sought a return to greater transparency with the Clan was to re-establish funding channels. Before departing for the US in August, Seán Russell was explicitly told that the Clan’s role was ‘to support the Army in every way possible, but chiefly to supply it with finances’.103 During June $2,000 was sent to the IRA from the Clan.104 This figure was less than that allocated in total over the previous seven months. Overall, Twomey hoped that $1,000 could be distributed from the Clan per month.105 Twomey and the IRA Army Council, however, as in the past, failed to grasp the full extent of the Clan’s depleted funds. Reporting to Twomey after his return to the US, Connie Neenan bluntly stated that ‘New York is broke’ and that ‘little or no cash’ existed in the overall treasury.106 These reports, however, still did not end the requests for further funds and, by the middle of September, the IRA continued to be ‘disappointed that money has not come’.107 By early October, a report from the Clan once again revealed that funds could not be forwarded to the IRA in the near future.108

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With the evaporation of money, the IRA focused instead on getting US-based military training for IRA veterans and to have shipments of more weapons. Seán Russell witnessed certain military training, including a flying class undertaken by Clan members. Russell believed the IRA would ‘require such men’ if the organisation returned to military operations.109 Russell also inspected weapons caches and arranged for ‘their transportation’ back to Ireland.110 In early November, Neenan reported to Twomey that Dan O’Donovan was to return to Ireland due to unemployment. In the same letter, Neenan questioned why Twomey had not corresponded with the Clan over the previous two months. The absence of correspondence from the IRA chief of staff was ‘not good’ and did ‘not help in creating the best atmosphere’ for the organisation.111 The communication breakdown may have occurred because Twomey and the Army Council hoped to receive a first-hand report from Russell before further correspondence with the Clan. However, the period of silence may also have stemmed from the Clan’s financial failures, which caused the IRA leadership to once again reassess the actual viability of their US counterpart. Further problems arose in December, when Joseph McGarrity was ‘expelled from the Curb Exchange’ due to the ‘carelessness’ of his business associate, Thomas A. Kenny.112 According to the New York Times, a ‘false statement’ was filed on behalf of his firm and the ‘securities’ of clients were improperly processed.113 Overall, McGarrity, as noted by Neenan at the time, was ‘finished financially’. This also meant other Clan members, including Neenan and Michael Enright, were to ‘take the count too’ because of their previous loans to McGarrity.114 As McGarrity tended to his personal concerns, Neenan expected the work of the Clan to be under ‘a tremendous handicap’.115 Coinciding with McGarrity’s troubles was the resignation of long-time Clan member, John T. Ryan, who left the organisation due to criticism he received after writing a series of articles in the Irish World. Ryan had defended Fianna Fáil’s policy of engaging in the ongoing economic war against Britain.116

New leadership and philosophy In January 1933 Éamon de Valera unexpectedly decided to hold a general election, which resulted in Fianna Fáil gaining complete control of Dáil Éireann.117 Once again the IRA publicly supported Fianna Fáil. However, unlike during the previous election, the IRA made sure to explicitly inform the Clan of this position.118 As expected, this drew criticism from a number of Clan members. Responding to the detractors, Maurice Twomey believed ‘those who disagree, would be better outside’ the organisation.119 As 1933 progressed the IRA

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contemplated other possible methods of increasing US financial funding. Earlier in the year the Fianna Fáil government decided that those who bought Irish bond certificates during 1920 and 1921 would finally be compensated.120 IRA officials believed that ‘a Committee set up by the Clan, should appeal to the Bond-holders for an assignment of their Bonds for the benefit of the Army’.121 This relatively straightforward plan, however, seemed far-fetched and costly to the Clan. Replying to the Army Council, Connie Neenan asserted that such a campaign would not be financially rewarding.122 Weeks later Neenan offered another possible financial option. After consulting a possible ‘purchaser’ he reported there was a distinct possibility of selling the remaining Thompson sub-machine guns stored by the Clan ‘either in part or the entire lot’. This possible buyer desired to receive ‘two samples’ and would most likely pay up ‘to the extent of $150.00 each’. Before beginning negotiations approval was necessary from the IRA Army Council and two proposals from Neenan were forwarded. Was the IRA ‘agreeable to sell them at a fair price’ or should he be ‘prepared to sell half or some of them and use the money to purchase ammunition for the rest?’123 Twomey and the Army Council disagreed with both proposals and wished to have all the remaining weapons shipped to Ireland. A few members of the Army Council were even ‘enraged’ at the suggestion that Neenan would consider selling the weapons. The Thompson guns would not be sacrificed for money, even though the IRA and Clan continued to suffer financially.124 The Clan also endured another leadership setback during this period when Cork IRA veteran Peter Kearney left the organisation and returned permanently to Ireland.125 After returning to the US from Ireland in May 1933 Joseph McGarrity once again assumed the role of Clan chairman during the organisation’s September convention. Admitting that the Clan’s ‘resources’ had ‘dwindled to a point where it becomes necessary for us to take desperate measures’, McGarrity further acknowledged that the organisation was ‘going through one of its most trying periods’. As expected, much of the discussion at the convention focused on the IRA support of Fianna Fáil during the previous January election. McGarrity declared his approval for the decision. In his opinion, the election was ‘between two evils in which the Army chose the least’.126 Overall, McGarrity believed the Clan should take the ‘burden of blame’ for the IRA’s backing of Fianna Fáil because of the organisation’s ‘failure to supply the resources necessary to prepare for open conflict’. In addition to these numerous admissions of inadequacy, McGarrity was also forced to announce that Connie Neenan had resigned from the position of Clan secretary.127 The reasons for Neenan’s actual resignation were not fully revealed to the members at the convention. However, in guarded language, McGarrity

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publicly re-affirmed Neenan’s ‘loyalty to duty’, and declared to the convention participants that he had ‘voluntarily resigned his position in order to protect the interests of your Organisation on account of a threat made by a former member’.128 According to an interview given by Neenan years later, his resignation was ‘not anything to do with policy ... I was to do something which could not be revealed, so I got out of that’.129 These vague explanations offer small clues, but unfortunately lack any concrete details. However, there is an indication that during this period Neenan and a ‘member from North Cork’ disagreed over certain Clan and IRA policies. After Neenan asserted that the ‘aim and policy’ of the Clan was ‘solely to advise and support but never to dictate’ to the IRA, the North Cork republican soon ‘brought up for discussion a matter which should never have been allowed’. Neenan was forced to verbally defend himself, and the dissenting member ‘left the meeting right away and the organisation soon after’.130 Although the nature of the actual revelation remains unknown, it is clear nonetheless that Neenan’s resignation as secretary was a devastating setback for the Clan. Although Neenan believed Seán Hayes, the new Clan secretary to be ‘a very capable man’, he certainly did not have the experience that Neenan possessed.131 Neenan had been an instrumental figure in the evolution of the IRA and Clan relationship and, since the end of 1926, had greatly assisted in the alignment of both militant organisations. His departure resulted in the Clan losing a highly skilled leader who understood the intricacies of the republican movement in the US. Equally important was his close relationships with Maurice Twomey and other leading IRA members, which provided the vital link to militant republican activities in Ireland. Overall, Neenan provided accurate information between the two organisations, and refrained from certain rhetoric that could obscure communication. In addition, Neenan’s departure, coupled with the return to Ireland of fellow Cork IRA veterans and leading Clan members, Dan O’Donovan and Peter Kearney, was also significant in itself. Since the IRA and Clan officially began their co-ordination, these three men shared much of the burden in strengthening the transatlantic militant republican ties. The Clan’s future as an effective organisation and its relationship with the IRA were now much more ambiguous. A new shift in Clan policy-making was evident a year later when the Clan’s executive leaders directly detailed their own plans for the IRA to attack either the British installation at Spike Island in Cork Harbour or the ‘“Northern” Government’. The executive members believed the IRA should survey ‘enemy military posts in the twenty-six and six county areas’, while also organising ‘various Irish centres in Great Britain’. Complete ‘plans for demolition operations in Britain’ would also be co-ordinated along with ‘full advance publicity’

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meant to unite ‘all National elements in Ireland’. The Clan would supply ‘the equipment and funds necessary for the fight’ by building up the organisation through a campaign to ‘unite the people of Irish birth or parentage as they have not been recently united’.132 This proposed scheme, similar in scope to the organisation’s dynamite campaign in Britain during the 1880s, was remarkably dubious and implausible at the time considering the Clan’s financial difficulties.133 Nonetheless, this revitalised physical force approach would remain embedded in Clan doctrine for the foreseeable future. The actual creation of the plan also portrayed a definite shift in the Clan’s overall relationship with the IRA. A much more instructive style of language was being used by the Clan in correspondence and a growing impatience regarding the lack of IRA military action was noticeable.

Republicans leaning left During the early 1930s, a number of IRA veterans, faced with their own financial and employment issues began searching inwards for solutions. The republicanism that had driven them in Ireland and since their arrival in the US was transformed into other forms of activism. In 1933 New York republicans employed in the city’s transit system, including Michael Quill and Gerald O’Reilly, began devising plans to create a union in order to form a collective response to certain labour-related issues. After being denied assistance from the Friendly Sons of Saint Patrick and the Knights of Columbus they found support from the Communist Party of America and its affiliated Irish Workers’ Clubs. By April 1934, the Transport Workers Union (TWU) had been created, mainly through the efforts of these dedicated Clan members.134 This ideological shift was also witnessed in other parts of the country where Clan clubs existed. In Chicago, a letter from a member of the James Connolly Club to An Phoblacht stated there was a ‘demand at present’ for books related to Connolly. This activism was described as ‘a long awaited awakening’. On 12 May 1934, the anniversary of Connolly’s execution, a ‘very enthusiastic’ gathering in Chicago was led by members of the Connolly Club and the Irish American Labor League. Amongst the leading speakers was Martin McGing, who was also the president of the IRA Clubs of Chicago.135 In Ireland those IRA members who followed a socialist ideology remained influential in the organisation for years. Always present, but never overpowering, these left-wing members remained committed to their working class principles.136 However, by March 1934, with the IRA losing membership and appeal, these men decided to demand a change in IRA principles during the

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annual General Army Convention. Initiated by Michael Price, a resolution was brought forward declaring that the IRA should strive to become more socially conscious. Faced by resistance the resolution was withdrawn, but the intended policies remained alive and were publicised throughout the country. Price, Peadar O’Donnell, Frank Ryan and George Gilmore were soon courtmartialled and expelled from the IRA.137 The product of this socialist movement was the Republican Congress, which, according to Gilmore, arose from ‘an effort to free the republican-minded people of Ireland in the trades unions and in the country-side generally from the illusion that Fianna Fáil leadership was leading towards their freedom in Ireland’.138 In early May a new newspaper, under the initial editorship of Peadar O’Donnell and bearing the name Republican Congress, began to circulate.139 Appearing in the first issue was a heading entitled ‘Our Exiles Welcome Us’, in which reports stated that British and US republican supporters were supporting ‘the activist policy now being pushed forward’. The article also announced that ‘a few whole time organisers could be sent to work among our folk abroad’.140 Five months later, George Gilmore arrived in the US.141 Based in New York, Gilmore, through the assistance of Clan members and Roger Baldwin of the ACLU and ICPP, attempted to secure speaking engagements.142 Gilmore subsequently travelled throughout the US, and addressed supporters in Boston, Philadelphia, Buffalo and Chicago.143 While Gilmore was raising awareness of the new Republican Congress during early 1935, Fianna Fáil was becoming increasingly intolerant of the IRA after a series of incidents between gardaí and IRA members. IRA support and activism exhibited during a seventy-six day bus and tram workers strike in Dublin resulted in the imprisonment of 104 republicans by the end of April.144 Once again, republicans in the US turned to the ICPP to publicise and protest the arrests that occurred. However, different republican activists and organisations were directing this campaign. A circular, authored by Gerald O’Reilly and representing the United Irish Republican Committee under the auspices of the Irish Republican Congress, was sent to the ICPP as well as IRA Clubs, Irish Workers’ Clubs, ‘and every social, political, and cultural organization’ that could be contacted in the city. Hoping to re-inspire those people and organisations involved in the anti-coercion activism three years earlier, a meeting was organised on 14 April.145 Although an ICPP delegate did not attend the gathering the Committee requested support from their leading members.146 The reaction, however, was very different from that to the previous campaign. Robert Morss Lovett was ‘glad to sign the enclosed letter’ for Éamon de Valera and Sherwood Eddy also accepted the protest invitation, but other ICPP

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members were not as accommodating.147 Charles Edward Russell immediately responded to Roger Baldwin that he would not participate in this campaign and felt the organisation should not ‘mix up in the internal politics of other countries’. He believed that Baldwin was ‘deceived about this matter’ and that the ‘intemperate I.R.A. people left the de Valera government nothing else to do but to resort to the Act’.148 Frank P. Walsh also replied that ‘while I agree with every line of the letter, nevertheless, for reasons cogent to me, I cannot sign the letter’.149 In early June, a public appeal for Irish republican unity was announced to readers of the Republican Congress. Gerald O’Reilly, Joseph McGarrity, Michael Enright and Seán Hayes, along with AARIR leader John J. Reilly were amongst the signees to urge for a conference of Irish republican representatives to take place in Ireland.150 This did not come to fruition and by July further calls for action on behalf of IRA prisoners were hoped to be organised, but seemed to lack support.151 The absence of momentum and, in many cases, the inaction exhibited by ordinary and influential Irish-Americans during this period, underlined the difficulties US-based Irish republican activists would face in inspiring opposition against de Valera. His support base still reached deep into Irish-American circles and would be extremely difficult to breach. It is clear however, especially with the formation of Republican Congress branches in New York, Boston, Detroit and Boston by the summer of 1935, that a certain section of the republican movement in the US had become formally aligned with left-wing republicans in Ireland. During this period, the leadership of the republican movement in the US also seemed to be dominated publicly by this small group of members from the Republican Congress branches, many of whom were also members of the Clan. The fresh perspective of the Republican Congress, combining the ‘struggle to establish the unity and independence of the Republic of Ireland through the association of Republicans with working-class and small farmers struggles against capitalism and landlordism in Ireland’, offered a form of republican activism for a certain number of IRA veterans who had despaired and begun to turn to left-wing socialist ideologies for ideas.152 These men and the development of Republican Congress branches greatly assisted in maintaining the publicity and continuity of the militant republican movement in the US to the end of 1935. Although socialist republican ideology would never become a central focus of militant republicanism in the US through to the end of the Second World War, as will be seen later, central figures, including Michael Quill and Gerald O’Reilly, continued to maintain connections with the transatlantic republican networks.

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Notes    1 UCDA, MTP, P69/61 (5–7), Twomey to Chairman and Executive, Clan na Gael, 11 December 1930; Hanley, The IRA, 1926–1936, 165.    2 Hanley, ‘Irish republicans in interwar New York’.    3 Ibid.; NAB, RG 85, PCLNY, 1897–1957, entry for ‘Michael M. O’Kiersey’, arrived 11 March 1930 on SS Cedric, T715, 4692, 167,1 (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 8 June 2010); UCDA, MTP, P69/235 (43–44), O’Kiersey to ‘Aine’, 18 March 1931.    4 UCDA, MTP, P69/235 (43–44), O’Kiersey to ‘Aine’, 18 March 1931.    5 UCDA, MTP, P69/234 (17–18), ‘An T’. to Manager, An Phoblacht, 25 February 1931.   6 Irish World, 7 March 1931; Irish World, 4 April 1931; Cronin, The McGarrity papers, 60–2.   7 Irish World, 7 March 1931.    8 CCCA, CNP, PR7/7, Connie Neenan memoirs, 135.   9 Irish World, 7 March 1931.  10 Irish World, 18 April 1931; CCCA, CNP, PR7/7, Connie Neenan memoirs, 135–6.  11 Irish World, 18 April 1931.  12 Ibid.  13 Irish World, 2 May 1931.  14 An Phoblacht, 30 May 1931. For more information on Ryan, see New York Times, 2 August 1998. Ryan arrived in the US in September 1924. See NAB, RG 85, PCLNY, 1897–1957, entry for ‘Thomas Ryan’, arrived 1 September 1924 on SS Republic, T715, 3532, 29, 2 (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 8 June 2010).  15 Irish World, 16 May 1931; Irish World, 23 May 1931.  16 Irish World, 30 May 1931.  17 Irish World, 18 April 1931.   18 UCDA, MTP, P69/234 (32), Manager, An Phoblacht to Neenan, 30 March 1931; Irish World, 14 March 1931.   19 UCDA, MTP, P69/234 (17–18), ‘An T’. to Manager, An Phoblacht, 25 February 1931.  20 An Phoblacht, 28 March 1931.   21 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,467 (5), Ms. 17,467 (8) (these two pages of the document are in separate folders), Neenan to Cunningham, 14 August 1930.  22 An Phoblacht, 11 July 1931. In early 1931, Tara Halls burned down, prompting the opening of a new Clan centre in New York at Columbus Avenue. According to Michael O’Kiersey, this was ‘a bigger and better hall’. See UCDA, MTP, P69/235 (43–44), O’Kiersey to ‘Aine’, 18 March 1931.  23 Bell, The secret army, 82–3.   24 Ibid., 84–6.   25 Richard English, Radicals and the republic: socialist republicanism in the Irish Free State 1925–1937 (Oxford, 1994), 127.   26 Ibid., 127–9.  27 Bell, The secret army, 88–9.  28 New York Times, 19 October 1931.

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  29 NYPL, International Committee for Political Prisoners Records, 1918–42 (hereafter ICPP), MssCol 1515, Reel 6, Box 4, Folder 9, O’Kiersey to President, American Civil Liberties Union, 7 November 1931.  30 NYPL, ICPP, MssCol 1515, Reel 6, Box 4, Folder 9, Baldwin to O’Kiersey, 11 November 1931.   31 NYPL, ICPP, MssCol 1515, Reel 6, Box 4, Folder 9, Baldwin to Darrow, Garfield Hays, Davis, Morss Lovett, Haynes Holmes, Russell, 13 November 1931.   32 NYPL, ICPP, MssCol 1515, Reel 6, Box 4, Folder 9, ‘An American Outlook’, ‘Public statement from International Committee for Political Prisoners’, 23 November 1931.  33 New York Times, 1 December 1931.  34 Ibid.; Republican File, 5 March 1932.  35 Republican File, 5 December 1931.  36 NYPL, ICPP, MssCol 1515, Reel 6, Box 4, Folder 9, Baldwin to Stimson, 14 December 1931; NYPL, ICPP, MssCol 1515, Reel 6, Box 4, Folder 9, O’Kiersey to Baldwin, 30 December 1931.   37 NYPL, ICPP, MssCol 1515, Reel 6, Box 4, Folder 9, Hackworth to Baldwin, 19 December 1931.  38 New York Times, 14 December 1931.   39 NYPL, ICPP, MssCol 1515, Reel 6, Box 4, Folder 9, Baldwin to MacWhite, 6 January 1932.   40 NYPL, ICPP, MssCol 1515, Reel 6, Box 4, Folder 10, Baldwin to Stimson, 6 January 1932.   41 NYPL, ICPP, MssCol 1515, Reel 6, Box 4, Folder 10, O’Kiersey to Baldwin, 8 January 1932.   42 Ibid.; UCDA, MTP, P69/235 (16), O’Kiersey to ‘Aine’, 11 January 1932.   43 NYPL, ICPP, MssCol 1515, Reel 6, Box 4, Folder 10, Kilty to Baldwin, 15 January 1932. In 1943, Hayes was noted by the FBI as having arrived in the US in October 1925 at Niagara Falls, New York. His birthplace was noted as Glin, county Limerick. See USDOJ, FBI, Irish Republican Army File (hereafter IRAFFBI), ‘Internal Security – Irish’, File 100–4620, 23 June 1943.   44 NYPL, Frank P. Walsh Papers, Box 26, Folder ‘Irish Correspondence 1932, JanuaryJuly’, Kilty to Walsh, 15 January 1932.  45 Republican File, 5 March 1932. Internal ICPP correspondence referred to Price as a ‘political refugee’. See NYPL, ICPP, MssCol 1515, Reel 6, Box 4, Folder 10, Reinhart to Baldwin, 18 January 1932. For more information on Price, see Hanley, The IRA, 1926–1936, 196–7.  46 Republican File, 5 March 1932.  47 Republican File, 6 February 1932.  48 The Republican File states the meeting occurred on 24 January. However, this is incorrect, since Price was attending the New York protest on that night. See Republican File, 5 March 1932. For more information on the West Side Irish-American Club, see Sean Gallagher, ‘Volunteers: The first 75 years of the West Side Irish American Club’ (2006) (www.wsia-club.org/about.php) (30 July 2013).

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  49 NYPL, ICPP, MssCol 1515, Reel 6, Box 4, Folder 10, Price to Baldwin, 25 January 1932; NYPL, ICPP, MssCol 1515, Reel 6, Box 4, Folder 10, Baldwin to Price, 28 January 1932.   50 NYPL, ICPP, MssCol 1515, Reel 6, Box 4, Folder 10, Price to Baldwin, 25 January 1932.  51 Dunphy, The making of Fianna Fáil, 142–4.   52 NYPL, ICPP, MssCol 1515, Reel 6, Box 4, Folder 10, Baldwin to de Valera, 26 February 1932.   53 NYPL, ICPP, MssCol 1515, Reel 6, Box 4, Folder 10, Price to Baldwin, 27 February 1932.  54 Bell, The secret army, 99.  55 NYPL, ICPP, MssCol 1515, Reel 6, Box 4, Folder 10, News Bulletin from the Associated Irish Societies, sent from O’Kiersey, 12 March 1932; ICPP, NYPL, ICPP, MssCol 1515, Reel 6, Box 4, Folder 10, Western Union Cablegram to ICPP from ‘Released Political Prisoners’, 11 March 1932. McGarrity also received a telegram from the ‘Released Political Prisoners’. See NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,533, Western Union cablegram to McGarrity, 11 March 1932.   56 NYPL, ICPP, MssCol 1515, Reel 6, Box 4, Folder 10, Hackworth to Baldwin, 21 March 1932.   57 TNA, Board of Trade: Commercial and Statistical Department and successors, UK Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878–1960, entries for ‘Thomas McGill’ and ‘Cornelius Neenan’, arrived 17 March 1932 on SS Deutschland, Series BT26, Piece 999, Item 10, Lines 5 and 6 (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 10 April 2009). The date of departure for the SS Deutschland was deduced from examining Neenan’s passenger record on his return journey to the US aboard the SS Milwaukee. See NAB, RG 85, PCLNY, 1897– 1957, entry for ‘Cornelius Neenan’, arrived 17 August 1932 on SS Milwaukee, T715, 5205, 217, 16 (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 28 May 2010); CCCA, CNP, PR7/7, Connie Neenan memoirs, 137.   58 CCCA, CNP, PR7/7, Connie Neenan memoirs, 137–8.   59 After the elections, Frank Aiken approached Maurice Twomey with a proposition to unite Fianna Fáil and the IRA. See Hanley, The IRA, 1926–1936, 126; CCCA, CNP, PR7/7, Connie Neenan memoirs, 137.   60 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (298–302), A/C to Secretary, Clan na Gael, 7 May 1932.   61 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (294–297), ‘P.K’. [Kearney] to Chairman, A/C, 10 May 1932.  62 Ibid.   63 Further proof that the ‘shares’ were indeed guns was Kearney’s description that ‘some of these had to be dumped, [because they] started leaking probably due to removal’. See UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (291–293), Kearney to Chairman, A/C, 31 May 1932.   64 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (274), ‘P.K’. [Kearney] to Chairman, A/C, 6 July 1932.   65 TNA, Dominions Office Papers (hereafter DO), 121/77, Daily Express, 3 June 1932.   66 TNA, DO, 121/77, Irish Daily Telegraph, 6 June 1932.   67 Rory O’Dwyer, ‘On show to the world: the Eucharistic Congress, 1932’, History Ireland, 15:6 (November–December 2007), 42–7.

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  68 Rory O’Dwyer, The Eucharistic Congress, Dublin 1932: an illustrated history (Dublin, 2009), 43–52.   69 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (279–281), ‘P.K’. [Kearney] to Chairman, A/C, 24 June 1932; UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (291–293), Kearney to Chairman, A/C, 31 May 1932.   70 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (291–293), Kearney to Chairman, A/C, 31 May 1932.   71 CCCA, CNP, PR7/7, Connie Neenan memoirs, 138.  72 An Phoblacht, 25 June 1932.  73 An Phoblacht, 2 July 1932.   74 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (285–286), McGarrity to Neenan, 15 June 1932.   75 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (276–278), McGarrity to Twomey, 24 June 1932.   76 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (269–271), Twomey to ‘C.N’. [Neenan], 19 July 1932.  77 Hanley, The IRA, 1926–1936, 126–8; Labhras Joye, ‘“Aiken’s slugs”: the Reserve of the Irish Army under Fianna Fáil’, in Joost Augusteijn (ed.), Ireland in the 1930s: new perspectives (Dublin, 1999), 46–7.  78 Hanley, The IRA, 1926–1936, 126–8; UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (269–271), Twomey to ‘C.N’. [Neenan], 19 July 1932.   79 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (269–271), Twomey to ‘C.N’. [Neenan], 19 July 1932.   80 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (261), Twomey to Neenan, 29 July 1932.   81 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (253–255), Chairman, A/C to Acting Secretary, Clan na Gael, 30 July 1932.   82 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (260), Chief of Staff, IRA [herafter C/S] to Neenan, 30 July 1932.   83 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (253–255), Chairman, A/C to Acting Secretary, Clan na Gael, 30 July 1932; Hanley, The IRA, 1926–1936, 129.   84 NAB, RG 85, PCLNY, 1897–1957, entry for ‘Cornelius Neenan’, arrived 17 August 1932 on SS Milwaukee, T715, 5205, 217, 16 (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 28 May 2010); UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (252), Neenan to Twomey, 30 July 1932.   85 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (249–251), ‘C’ [Neenan] to ‘M’ [Twomey], c. August 1932.   86 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (239), Neenan to Twomey, 21 July 1932.  87 An Phoblacht, 13 August 1932.  88 New York Times, 15 August 1932.   89 Ibid.;UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (294–297), ‘P.K’ [Kearney] to Chairman, A/C, 10 May 1932.   90 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (223), A/C to Secretary, Clan na Gael, 18 August 1932.   91 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (216–218), Twomey to McGarrity, 25 August 1932.  92 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (219), Chairman, A/C to Chairman, Clan na Gael, 25 August 1932.   93 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (148–152), ‘Q’ [Russell] to C/S, 20 November 1932. Ryan (Lacken) arrived in the US in 1929. See NAB, RG 85, PCLNY, 1897–1957, entry for ‘Patrick Ryan’, arrived 12 March 1929 on SS Munchen, T715, 4447, 215, 9 (www. ancestry.com) (accessed 7 July 2011).  94 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (148–152), ‘Q’ [Russell] to C/S, 20 November 1932; P69/185 (209–212), Secretary, Clan na Gael to Chairman, A/C, 7 September 1932.

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  95 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (148–152), ‘Q’ [Russell] to C/S, 20 November 1932.   96 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (200–205), Russell to Twomey, c. September 1932.   97 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (209–212), Secretary, Clan na Gael to Chairman, A/C, 7 September 1932.   98 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (213–214), ‘C’ [Neenan] to ‘M’ [Twomey], 28 August 1932; UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (164), ‘C’ [Neenan] to Twomey, 7 September 1932.   99 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (164), ‘C’ [Neenan] to Twomey, 7 September 1932. 100 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (148–152), ‘Q’ [Russell] to C/S, 20 November 1932. 101 Ibid.; UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (159–162), ‘N’, Secretary [Neenan] to Chairman, A/C, 3 October 1932. 102 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (164), ‘C’ [Neenan] to Twomey, 7 September 1932. Russell believed the newly elected executive members were ‘rather poor on the whole’. See UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (148–152), ‘Q’ [Russell] to C/S, 20 November 1932. 103 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (220–221), ‘Memorandum for envoy [Russell] to Clan na Gael’, 25 August 1932. 104 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (284), A/C receipt, 16 June 1932. 105 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (220–221), ‘Memorandum for envoy [Russell] to Clan na Gael’, 25 August 1932. 106 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (213–214), ‘C’ [Neenan] to ‘M’ [Twomey], 28 August 1932. 107 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (195–199), Twomey to Neenan, 15 September 1932; UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (188–189), A/C to Envoy [Russell], 15 September 1932. 108 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (159–162), ‘N’, Secretary [Neenan] to Chairman, A/C, 3 October 1932. 109 It is unclear where these flying lessons occurred. See UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (172– 175), ‘Q’ [Russell] to C/S, 4 October 1932; UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (148–152), ‘Q’ [Russell] to C/S, 20 November 1932. 110 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (148–152), ‘Q’ [Russell] to C/S, 20 November 1932. 111 UCDA, MTP, P69/223 (3), Neenan to Twomey, 10 November 1932. 112 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (137), Neenan to Twomey, 17 December 1932; Tarpey, The role of Joseph McGarrity, 282–3. 113 New York Times, 18 December 1932; Tarpey, The role of Joseph McGarrity, 282–3. 114 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (137), Neenan to Twomey, 17 December 1932. McGarrity’s friends and associates initially provided loans in order for him to receive a seat on the Curb Exchange. See CCCA, CNP, PR7/7, Connie Neenan memoirs, 136–7, 143–6. 115 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (137), Neenan to Twomey, 17 December 1932. 116 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (100–101), copy of letter from Ryan to Secretary, Clan na Gael, 16 December 1932. 117 Dermot Keogh, Twentieth-century Ireland: nation and state (2nd ed., Dublin, 2005), 79–80. 118 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (75), Clan na Gael circular, 10 January 1933. 119 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (95–96), Chairman, A/C to Secretary, Clan na Gael, 13 February 1933.

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120 Francis M. Carroll, Money for Ireland: finance, diplomacy, politics and the first Dáil Éireann loans, 1919–1936 (Westport, 2002), 84–8. 121 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (86), A/C to Secretary, Clan na Gael, 13 February 1933. 122 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (60–63), Neenan to Chairman, A/C, 7 March 1933; Hanley, The IRA, 1926–1936, 169. 123 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (45), ‘C’ [Neenan] to Chairman, A/C, 24 March 1933. 124 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (46), Chairman, A/C to Secretary, Clan na Gael, 24 April 1933. 125 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (65), ‘N’ [Neenan] to Chairman, A/C, 3 February 1933. 126 NAB, RG 85, PCLNY, 1897–1957, entry for ‘Joseph McGarrity’, arrived 16 May 1933 on SS Stuttgart, T715, 5330, 158, 1 (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 7 July 2011); NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,538 (3), ‘Chairman’s report to convention of Clan na Gael’, 2 September 1933; Tarpey, The role of Joseph McGarrity, 285–7. During this period and into early 1934, McGarrity failed to persuade de Valera to broker an agreement between Fianna Fáil and the IRA. See Cronin, The McGarrity papers, 155–8. 127 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,538 (3), Chairman’s report to convention of Clan na Gael, 2 September 1933. 128 Ibid. 129 CCCA, CNP, PR7/4, Connie Neenan transcribed interview with Marie Tarpey, 5 August 1967, 5. 130 CCCA, CNP, PR7/7, Connie Neenan memoirs, 141. 131 Ibid., 142, 153. 132 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,539, Executive, Clan na Gael to Chairman, A/C, 8 October 1934; Cronin, The McGarrity papers, 162; Tarpey, The role of Joseph McGarrity, 294–6. 133 For more information on the dynamite campaign in Britain during the 1880s, see Whelehan, The Dynamiters; Kenna, War in the shadows; Short, The dynamite war. 134 Freeman, In transit, 45–50. 135 UCDA, MTP, P69/227(15), O’Dwyer to An Phoblacht, 19 May 1934. 136 English, Radicals and the Republic, 183. 137 Bell, The secret army, 110–14. 138 George Gilmore, The Irish Republican Congress (reprint, Cork, 1978), iii. 139 Frank Ryan became ‘de facto’ editor of the newspaper after the first issue. See Donal Ó Drisceoil, Peadar O’Donnell (Cork, 2001), 84. 140 Republican Congress, 5 May 1934. 141 NAB, RG 85, PCLNY, 1897–1957, entry for ‘George Gilmore’, arrived 9 November 1934 on SS New York, T715, 5573, 109, 1 (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 7 June 2010); Hanley, The IRA, 1926–1936, 169. 142 NYPL, ICPP, MssCol 1515, Reel 6, Box 4, Folder 11, Baldwin to Moriarty, 31 January 1935. 143 Hanley, The IRA, 1926–1936, 169; Adrian Grant, Irish socialist republicanism (Dublin, 2012), 218. 144 Bell, The secret army, 120–2.

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145 NYPL, ICPP, MssCol 1515, Reel 6, Box 4, Folder 11, United Irish Republican Committee circular, signed by Gerald O’Reilly, c. April 1935. 146 NYPL, ICPP, MssCol 1515, Reel 6, Box 4, Folder 11, Baldwin to Killeen, 5 April 1935; ICPP, MssCol 1515, Reel 6, Box 4, Folder 11, Baldwin to Barnes, Dewey, et al, 29 April 1935. 147 NYPL, ICPP, MssCol 1515, Reel 6, Box 4, Folder 11, Morss Lovett to Baldwin, 1 May 1935; ICPP, MssCol 1515, Reel 6, Box 4, Folder 12, Eddy to Baldwin, 7 May 1935. 148 NYPL, ICPP, MssCol 1515, Reel 6, Box 4, Folder 11, Russell Baldwin, 30 April 1935. 149 NYPL, ICPP, MssCol 1515, Reel 6, Box 4, Folder 11, Walsh to Baldwin, 29 April 1935. 150 Republican Congress, 8 June 1935. 151 NYPL, ICPP, MssCol 1515, Reel 6, Box 4, Folder 12, Hayes to Baldwin, 8 July 1935. 152 Republican Congress, 6 July 1935.

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6 Depression, survival and assistance, 1931–5 On 19 April 1931 the New Republic published an article chronicling the conditions that unemployed men faced in New York City. Entitled ‘School for Bums’, journalist Mary Heaton Vorse detailed the difficult and challenging conditions the unemployed men in the city were forced to endure. A ‘flood of people who had been once well-to-do, judging by their clothing’ were described as awaiting a chance to enter an employment bureau. Those ‘used to steady work’ sought an opportunity to earn money, while lamenting ‘with their stories of five children, no work, savings gone’. The plight of the supposedly 15,000 homeless men was also illustrated with troubling stories of many seeking comfort in Salvation Army shelters, various lodging houses, and ‘the sawdust’ covered floors of speakeasies.1 Although the article did not fully reveal the ethnicities of these homeless, many recent emigrants would have been amongst those depicted by the author. Some of the worst affected during this period included foreignborn workers who were the primary holders of the vanishing construction and manufacturing jobs. The elimination of this steady employment along with the collapse of numerous financial institutions proved disastrous, especially for those living in US urban centres. In certain cities over fifty percent of workers were unemployed and, by the end of 1931, a total of 2,293 banks had collapsed across the country.2

Personal struggles Mary Vorse believed there was ‘never any security’ for the ‘drifting worker’ in New York. Overall the city was described harshly as ‘a school for bums – crawling breadlines – 81,000 free meals daily. No certain place to sleep, no organized shelter’.3 In New York Irish republican circles a similar account of hardships was also expressed. Writing to a friend in Dublin during 1931 New York Clan na Gael publicity director Michael O’Kiersey explained that he did

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not ‘think that things can get any worse here than they are now. Everybody is still depressed, financially and otherwise, but they are getting used to that now’. O’Kiersey concluded that ‘the ugliest feature at present is a tendency to reduce salaries’.4 IRA veterans seemed especially susceptible to financial troubles, as noted in a June 1932 letter from Peter Kearney to Maurice Twomey: ‘The depression has affected our people much more than the average inhabitant of this one-time prosperous country. The percentage of the unemployment among the members is very high, while not many of them had put anything by for the rainy day.’5 Recognising the necessity of assisting these men in New York, the city’s Clan created a shelter specifically for republicans who were unemployed, homeless and lacked any family assistance. The New York Clan also ‘set up an unemployment bureau where you could hire a man for an hour, a day, a week or a month’.6 According to Tipperary IRA veteran Michael Flannery, idle ‘lawyers, teachers, book-keepers, carpenters, truck drivers, plumbers and handymen of every description’ slept in bunk-beds ‘made by the carpenters’ and were provided with ‘one good meal a day’. Men were ‘hired for a day, two days, three days’ and as they returned from a day’s work, a portion of the earned money would be placed into a collective fund, which was set aside for meals. Besides providing the essential day-to-day necessities for its unemployed members, the New York Clan also offered ‘three dances a week’, providing a pleasant distraction for those struggling, as well as further potential funds.7 This assistance offered by the New York Clan, however, could not be fully duplicated in the smaller cities across the country. In Cleveland, a staggering 700 to 750 percent increase in homeless shelter inhabitants during 1931 was a clear indication of the city’s acute economic troubles.8 During that year, the Cleveland Clan’s annual Fourth of July picnic was nearly cancelled. Reporting on the dire circumstances, Clan leader John Stanton stated that ‘conditions here are very bad’ and, as expected, it was ‘hard to keep the Club going in order to keep the men together’.9 Similarly, a report from Philadelphia revealed that Clan members were ‘hard hit and not much hope’. In Chicago, one club in particular was described as being ‘hit very severely by depression’.10 Republicans in New York during the early 1930s attempted to earn a living through a variety of occupations. Kerry IRA veteran Jeremiah Murphy worked as a mechanic, while his two cousins and IRA veterans, Michael and Jeremiah Reen, were employed as a shipping clerk and stonecutter respectively.11 James Brislane, an officer in command of a Cork Battalion a decade before, was driving a taxi in 1932, and Roscommon IRA veteran Joseph O’Connor was employed at an A&P grocery store.12 O’Connor’s recollections of his role in assisting in the establishment of a local ‘grocery workers’ union’, provides another example of

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an IRA veteran becoming directly involved in the US labour movement.13 As with the republicans – including Michael Quill who, as explained in the previous chapter, formed the Transport Workers Union in protest of New York’s transit working conditions – O’Connor was determined to eliminate unfair practices found ‘in the grocery trade’. According to O’Connor, ‘most chains opened at 8:00 a.m. and closing time was from 6:00 to 10:00 p.m., later on weekends. The average wages for a beginner ran from fourteen to sixteen dollars for the first year, and such slaves could expect an increase to eighteen or twenty dollars during the next year. A truly qualified slave could reach as high as twenty-eight dollars per week in the third year’. In White Plains, New York, O’Connor’s attempts at ‘picketing’ a James Butler Grocery Company store resulted in his arrest. 14 These same hard-line labour principles drove other republicans elsewhere in the country. For example, in Cleveland, Mayo IRA veteran Patrick J. O’Malley, as an employee of White Motor Corporation, joined the Congress of Industrial Organizations in the early 1930s and quickly became a major labour leader.15 As the Great Depression continued to affect communities, certain individuals adopted a transient lifestyle in order to secure employment. Illegally riding freight trains enabled these job seekers to travel far distances for free.16 In Cleveland, Achill Island IRA veteran Joseph Moran, who arrived in the US in 1923, according to his niece left his family and friends in the early 1930s and became a hobo. After travelling to San Francisco Moran’s health rapidly deteriorated and, in 1933, he died in one of the city’s homeless shelters; having been forced to re-locate to a distant US city due to the effects of the Great Depression, Moran’s life ended abruptly and alone.17

‘It is much easier for an idle man to starve here than in Ireland’18 In December 1931, an unidentified man entered the British Consulate in New York and offered to provide information regarding Cork IRA veteran Dan O’Donovan. As detailed in Chapter 3, O’Donovan had arrived illegally in New York after supposedly taking part in an IRA shooting in Cobh during 1924. Since then, he had enjoyed relative safety and anonymity in the US. Now, his cover was in danger of being revealed by an individual interested in securing an outstanding £10,000 reward for information regarding O’Donovan and his accomplices.19 Upon receiving notification from British consular officials of these developments, Irish diplomats believed that ‘mere information’ as to O’Donovan’s ‘whereabouts ... so many years after the crime’ was considered

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‘worthless’.20 Irish Free State Consul General William Macaulay personally met with the informant, and learnt that until recently O’Donovan had owned ‘a speakeasy on the West Side’ of Manhattan. However, Macaulay believed the man did not possess any actual evidence which could implicate the Cork republican.21 Although reports were received that US immigration and police authorities were pursuing O’Donovan ‘only on the grounds of his doubtful status in this country’, Irish Department of Justice officials accepted that ‘if he is so deported we shall have to receive him back but it would please us better to leave him where he is at present’.22 This response and inaction by the Cumann na nGaedheal government was not surprising. The forced return of O’Donovan, a leading IRA veteran, under such circumstances, based on an incident which had occurred years before, could further incite the IRA and its supporters in both Ireland and the US. This attitude, however, suddenly changed with the 1932 election victory of Éamon de Valera and Fianna Fáil. De Valera’s immediate release of IRA prisoners was complemented by a private willingness to welcome a number of IRA veterans back to Ireland and also to disregard previous illegal activities which had forced a few of these republicans, including O’Donovan, to flee the country.23 This change of policy, occurring during a period of economic difficulties, offered a return option to IRA veterans now struggling in the US. As described in the previous chapter, Connie Neenan and Tom McGill’s departure from New York for Ireland in March 1932, one day after the installation of the new Fianna Fáil government, certainly provided evidence that IRA members would be accepted back. McGill’s subsequent decision to remain in Ireland offered further proof that a republican could resume his life unimpeded.24 On 20 July 1932, Peter Kearney wrote to Maurice Twomey and stated that himself, Dan O’Donovan and Paddy Ryan (Lacken) were also seriously considering returning to Ireland by September. Kearney noted that ‘a few of us here do not see much employment in the U.S. for the winter’ months and that ‘we are really lost here’.25 Although Ryan (Lacken) decided to remain in the US, O’Donovan arrived in Cobh in November 1932, after being ‘forced to make an appeal to his own people for help to get home’.26 Kearney, who had recently spent a few weeks in the hospital with severe arthritis in his leg, was forced to wait until the stormy winter sea conditions subsided and returned to Ireland in February.27 By spring 1933, O’Donovan, Kearney and McGill were back in Ireland amongst the leadership of the IRA. Although there was ‘no word of any job yet’ for O’Donovan, Twomey reported that the Cork republican was ‘working very hard in the organisation and is delighted with the progress in training’.28 Twomey stated further that Kearney had begun serving as the ‘Director of Boycott’ for the IRA and that Tom McGill was asked to serve as the

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‘Adjutant [of the] Dublin Brigade’. Twomey believed McGill’s involvement in the New York Clan would prove ‘very useful’.29 Correspondence between Neenan and Twomey during the period, suggests a co-ordinated effort on the part of the Clan and IRA to formally transfer returning republicans back to their respective IRA units.30 The IRA concentrated especially on welcoming republicans who had returned ‘home with the intention of staying’. At times, however, this reinstatement process was not as efficient as desired.31 In March 1933, Twomey described to Neenan certain problems associated with the procedures. According to the IRA chief of staff, the transfer of Kerry republican James Connors, who was currently residing in Chicago and planning to return home, was delayed because the exact details of Connors’ previous residence were unknown. Twomey complained that ‘there are so many Connors’ in Kerry, and so many Battalions, that the A/G [Adjutant General] does not know what unit to transfer him’. Another dilemma had recently developed when ‘a chap named Stephen O’Connor, returned home from the United States some months ago’. O’Connor, from Castlegregory, county Kerry, was affiliated with Clan clubs in Springfield and Holyoke, Massachusetts, but an official notice from Neenan describing O’Connor’s transfer was never sent to Ireland. ‘Not having any word of him’ meant IRA officials ‘were awkwardly placed’. Twomey, however, was extremely pleased with O’Connor’s involvement in the IRA and reported to Neenan that he was in fact ‘elected as delegate to the [IRA] General Convention’.32 During 1934 and 1935, as the IRA and Fianna Fáil began to diverge publicly, republicans who had returned to Ireland from the US were suddenly forced to choose an allegiance. In early 1934 Peter Kearney along with Cork republican Michael Crowley, who had also recently returned to Ireland, were arrested in Cork after firing shots over the grave of a deceased IRA member. News of their arrests was announced in the Irish World after they went on hunger strike for two days.33 For others the rise of Fianna Fáil offered a chance of finding work in the civil service. The possibility of employment during a time of economic crisis would, at times, outweigh any personal republican ideological conflicts. In 1935 Cork IRA veteran Michael Leahy and his family departed from California for Ireland after Leahy was promised employment by long-time friend, Cork Harbour Commissioner Seamus Fitzgerald. According to Leahy the work offer from Fitzgerald was the ‘most welcome paper I have ever received from anyone. It revived my faith in human nature, and was the tonic which I have patiently waited for so long’. 34 Leahy was given a farewell party by the Los Angeles branch of the AARIR, and after spending nearly thirteen years in the US, he returned home to Ireland.35

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‘A fighting chance for their lives’ As the overall economic conditions in the US continued to deteriorate, the financial resources which had been available through the Clan for disabled IRA veterans rapidly vanished. Beginning in early 1931 a weekly notice was published in the Irish World indicating the urgency of the situation: Those feted heroes of other days are now depending on your generosity to see that they get a fighting chance for their lives by making medical treatment available for them in the sanatariums and convalescent homes throughout the west here in the U.S.A. and wherever they are scattered dependent on the over strained resources of a mere minority of their former friends and comrades.36

By 14 February two subscriptions accumulating to a mere $6 had been received.37 This slow return from one particular funding channel reveals the problems the Clan faced in accumulating the sum of approximately $6,000 necessary to care for disabled IRA veterans during the year.38 With the decline in funding the Clan had little choice but to cut back on assistance. By September 1932 Connie Neenan reported to Maurice Twomey that ‘it would be foolish for us to give any guarantees of continued support in the way of disablement grants’. During the previous year the Clan had ‘dealt with no less than 13 cases’. One of the men had succumbed to his illness while five others were ‘cured’. Faced with this growing dilemma the Clan began to transfer the remaining sick republicans back to Ireland. 39 In May 1932 Killarney, county Kerry, IRA veterans Mike O’Leary and James Foley were two of the first disabled men to return to Ireland.40 During autumn 1932, Neenan was notified that O’Leary, upon arriving in Ireland, had ‘no’ money and that he ‘may need’ clothes or boots.41 Foley also suffered his own personal trials. After spending time in the US at Hillcrest Sanatorium in Albuquerque, New Mexico and noted by Neenan as having ‘no chance of recovery’, Foley checked out of Heatherside Sanatorium in county Cork and returned to Killarney to ‘just … be near some friends’.42 His health rapidly regressed and, after being admitted into a Killarney hospital, he continued to experience ‘swollen knee joints’. During September the adjutant general at IRA General Headquarters received a request from the Killarney Battalion adjutant inquiring if financial support could be provided for Foley to receive advanced treatment at a Dublin hospital.43 In response the adjutant general noted that IRA General Headquarters was ‘fixed financially’ and that at least a part of the funds would have to be raised locally in Kerry.44 These difficulties, which arose from the return of only two disabled IRA veterans, were a clear signal to both the

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Clan and the IRA that they did not have adequate financial resources to care for these sick men in Ireland. In July 1932 rumours began to surface that the Fianna Fáil government was in the process of creating a disability scheme for eligible IRA veterans.45 By September the Clan and IRA, now realising the necessity of external assistance for their members, officially agreed to allow men to avail of any such future scheme. Both organisations also officially formulated a plan to co-ordinate ‘securing treatments in sanatoriums in Ireland’.46 The Clan’s role included arranging and financing the travel to Ireland for the disabled veterans, while the IRA, with their local leadership, would continue to secure admission to a sanatorium for the men.47 This closer co-ordination between the two organisations was evident with the efficient transfer of Tralee, county Kerry IRA veteran, Thomas Godley.48 After receiving a lung x-ray during the summer of 1932 Godley was informed by his American doctor that, although his health had improved, hospitalisation was necessary through the autumn. He was instructed by the Clan to ‘go home for further treatment’.49 He had recently received ‘a promise’ of getting a job at Macy’s department store and ‘was not inclined’ to depart the US.50 However, health concerns superseded any possible employment prospects and he departed from New York on 5 October.51 He carried a letter of introduction for Kerry IRA leader John Joe Sheehy, who made arrangements for Godley to be admitted to Heatherside Sanatorium in county Cork.52 On 10 December 1932 the Irish government passed a new Army Pensions Act, which allowed IRA veterans, who had become disabled while undertaking ‘military service’ for the IRA after the Anglo-Irish truce in July 1921 through the Civil War, to receive pension benefits. Republicans who had ‘received a wound or contracted a disease while refusing to take nourishment in prison, or undergoing imprisonment, or evading capture or arrest’ up to 30 September 1924 were also entitled to financial assistance. This act, providing £30 to £150 per year depending on the ‘degree of disablement’, immediately proved popular.53 By March 1933, the Irish Independent reported that the ‘5,000 applications … received’ were ‘greatly in excess of what had been anticipated’.54 It is difficult to deduce from the recently released military pension records, how many of these applications included disabled IRA veterans who returned from the US. However, it is known that Michael Newell, a county Galway IRA veteran represented his brigade in February 1933 for the ‘purpose of considering’ the Army Pensions Act – he had returned to Ireland from the US in 1932, where he had previously spent years recuperating in the tubercular wards at Saint Anthony’s Hospital and Bellevue Hospital in New York City, as well as a sanatorium in Saranac Lake, New York.55

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‘They got all of these former IRA men who became agents’ In November 1930, the first draw for the Irish Hospitals Sweepstake occurred in Dublin.56 This lottery, formally legalised by the Irish government five months earlier in order to subsidise a struggling health system, was an immediate success.57 After the first draw, a total of £131,671 was allocated to the six hospitals participating in the scheme.58 One year later, this figure rose dramatically to £438,490.59 The Sweepstake, however, was much more than a philanthropic scheme conducted solely in Ireland. From the outset organisers attempted to distribute lottery tickets in the US, a challenging endeavour considering gambling was illegal in nearly all of the country.60 It is clear that Clan members, along with many Americans, quickly became fascinated with the Irish Sweepstake.61 In March 1931, months after arriving in the US, Michael O’Kiersey wrote to a friend in Dublin and declared, ‘if I win anything on the big sweepstake, on which I have several tickets I will throw up the job and go right over’.62 However, Clan members, including O’Kiersey, would soon realise that winning large amounts of money was less of a possibility than gaining employment as a Sweepstake agent. During 1938 one particular agent from Kansas City, using the alias Fred McDonald, co-authored an article in Collier’s magazine and described in vivid detail his employment with the lottery. ‘The sixty tickets in the five books’ McDonald initially received to distribute for the 1931 Grand National ‘were about as hard to sell as $1-a-pint bonded whiskey at that time’. He ‘could keep two of the 12 tickets in each book … or take a $5 commission for selling the book’. After earning a total of $25, McDonald returned an ‘American Express foreign money order’ to an address in Cobh.63 He soon became an official Sweepstake distributor upon receiving another shipment of ‘500 books’, delivered by a ‘plain-looking citizen’. McDonald ‘rounded up every friend and acquaintance’ and asked for assistance in selling the tickets, all of which bore an ‘identification number’ that could be traced to his newly-established account. According to McDonald, his new business associates ‘got rid of my 500 books in ten days, with a willingness that made me begin to understand how this amazingly flimsy Sweep business manages to hold together’. After this highly successful business transaction, McDonald, hopeful of selling more tickets, sent a postal telegraph in code to an undisclosed location asking for 250 more books. ‘Two nights later’ a package was delivered and the distribution cycle began once again.64 This revealing description, offering details of the illegal Sweepstake business, including the utilisation of telegraph codes and clandestine shipping networks, bore many similarities to IRA and Clan na Gael transatlantic activities involving arms, money and people which had been practiced and perfected

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for over a decade.65 This was not coincidental for, as Sweepstake distribution in the US evolved from the aimless methods of 1930, which included mailing tickets haphazardly to randomly selected individuals, organisers grew intent on implementing more complex and deceptive methods. It appears, based on the aforementioned recollection from agent Fred McDonald, that the replication of certain IRA procedures had begun during 1931. Certainly, by this period the Sweepstake distribution network had adopted a much more direct method of allocation. In May 1931 the US Department of State reported that ‘recently a great number of lottery tickets in one of the Irish sweepstakes was seized by the customs authorities of the port of New York in the baggage of a man who had brought them to this country for the purpose of sale, on a commission basis’.66 As the Sweepstake organisers attempted to increase its ticket distribution in the US using the militant republican channels, they subsequently turned to Connie Neenan for direction. Based on details provided by an informant interviewed years later by the FBI, Neenan’s association with the Irish Sweepstake was suspected of being ‘established’ during his return to Ireland in 1932.67 His role was most likely further solidified at the end of the year after Patrick J. Fleming, the director of Sweepstake foreign operations, arrived in New York in November 1932 to presumably further co-ordinate US operations.68 By March 1933 Neenan’s position had been firmly entrenched as he was referred to by the Sweepstake’s organiser, Joseph McGrath, as the ‘principal agent in the United States’.69 With Neenan guiding the US Sweepstake operations, the IRA began to work more closely with Fleming and the Sweepstake organisers, evident in January 1933 when the two organisations co-ordinated the shipment of 350 Last Post books to New York.70 By May 1933 US consular official George Barringer in Dublin reported that he was ‘reliably informed’ at the time that the Sweepstake was distributing tickets utilising ‘secret societies’ in the US with ties to Ireland.71 As the Sweepstake network became further aligned with the IRA, some ticket holders in the US understood the two organisations to be inter-related. For example, a San Francisco-based IRA veteran, who was in correspondence with an An Phoblacht official, described the lottery tickets he had in his possession as ‘I.R.A. Sweep tickets’.72 It appears that the shipping jobs, as described in the previous chapter, which were organised by Neenan for a number of republicans earlier in the decade, were most likely utilised as fronts for Sweepstake distribution purposes. In New York IRA veteran Frank O’Beirne, who became a well-known shipping representative in the city, doubled as a Sweepstake agent.73 Former Clan publicity director, Michael O’Kiersey, who also became affiliated with the Sweepstake was noted in 1936 as a ‘representative … of the Irish Tourists’ Association in Chicago. Neenan himself worked with the Boylan Travel Agency.74

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Neenan also played a role in securing an agent position for Joseph McGarrity. During spring 1933, he ‘arranged’ for Paddy (Patrick) Brennan, the chief engineer of the SS American Banker, to meet with McGarrity, who was at the time in Dublin.75 Neenan, as detailed to Maurice Twomey, had asked Brennan to ‘get the others to do something’ for McGarrity.76 Another note from Neenan to McGarrity during this period, in which Patrick Fleming was referenced, suggests ‘the others’ were most likely Sweepstake organisers.77 Years later, Neenan detailed how, in autumn 1933, himself along with Patrick McCartan and Liam Tobin, two men affiliated with the Sweepstake, met McGarrity in a New York restaurant. According to Neenan, ‘in a short space of time an agreement was made and inside a few weeks Joe found himself established to an Irish firm as a representative’.78 This ‘firm’ would have been the Irish Sweepstake; a conclusion supported by a letter from Clan executive leader, Michael Enright, to McGarrity in November 1933 in which he notes McGarrity’s ‘luck in securing an Agency for [the] ticket lottery’.79 McGarrity’s position in the Sweepstake was a ‘special agent’, which meant that he was allowed to select his own sales agents who worked under him.80 It appears that he immediately looked within Clan circles to find suitable individuals. According to Neenan, McGarrity: In his capacity as representative … was also treated as counsel for the improvement in the finances of a lot of our members. In this respect he had counselled with me from the very start as to most deserving cases extending all the way from New York and to California. This was not a very difficult matter in a short space of time we had practically all the reliable or the reliable ones organised into an organisation of productivity.81

Unfortunately, the secretive nature of the Sweepstake business coupled with the unavailability of any list of agents makes it impossible to compile any authoritative numerical figure of the actual number of IRA veterans involved in the Sweepstake operations.82 However, based on this aforementioned available evidence, it is clear that the Sweepstake was utilised for employment purposes by the Clan and was applied on a national scale. A statement from Irish-American attorney Paul O’Dwyer years later, describing that the Sweepstake ‘got all of these former IRA men who became agents’, certainly appears accurate.83 From this new scheme, republicans were provided with the resources to gain greater financial security. Transatlantic militant republican connections were also given the opportunity to endure through these new Sweepstake channels.

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Notes   1 Mary Heaton Vorse, ‘School for bums’, New Republic (29 April 1931) (http://newdeal. feri.org/voices/voce02.htm) (accessed 18 July 2010).  2 Ibid.; James R. McGovern, And a time for hope: Americans in the Great Depression (Westport, 2000), 221–2; Michael E. Parrish, Anxious decades: America in prosperity and depression, 1920–1941 (New York, 1992), 251.   3 Vorse, ‘School for bums’.   4 UCDA, MTP, P69/235 (45), O’Kiersey to ‘Aine’, 5 March 1931.   5 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (279–281), ‘P.K’. [Kearney] to Chairman, Army/C, 24 June 1932; Hanley, The IRA, 1926–1936, 168. In general, many jobs held by the Irish in New York City during the Great Depression were sought after by other ethnic groups, resulting in increased competition and fewer employment options. New civil service appointment rules, which sought greater transparency and an end of discrimination towards African-Americans, Jews and Italians also narrowed traditional Irish employment options. See Ronald H. Bayor, Neighbors in conflict: the Irish, Germans, Jews, and Italians of New York City, 1929–1941 (2nd ed., Chicago, 1988).   6 Archives of Irish America, New York University (hereafter AIA), Jane Conlon Muller Oral History Collection (hereafter JCMOHC), Michael Flannery interview, CD 30, Track 2, 11 December 1991; O’Reilly (ed.), Accepting the challenge, 123.   7 AIA, JCMOHC, Michael Flannery interview, CD 30, Track 2, 11 December 1991.   8 Kenneth L. Kusmer, Down and out, on the road: the homeless in American history (New York, 2003), 194.   9 UCDA, MTP, P69/229 (12), Stanton to the Republican Press, 30 May 1931. 10 UCDA, MTP, P69/234 (4), Neenan to Manager, An Phoblacht, 30 December 1932. 11 The employment information for Jeremiah Murphy, along with that for Michael and Jeremiah Reen, is found in Murphy’s 1932 petition for US citizenship. See NAB, RG 21, M1971, Petitions for Naturalization of the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York, 1865–1937, Petition for Citizenship, ‘Jeremiah Murphy’, 4 January 1932 (www.fold3.com) (accessed 13 August 2010). For more information on Michael Reen, see Murphy, When youth was mine, 335. Michael and Jeremiah Reen were two of five Reen brothers who emigrated to the US. See UCDA, MTP, P69/170 (73), P69/170 (76–79), FR 2, ‘Timothy J. Reen’, ‘Jeremiah J. Reen’, ‘Michael J. Reen’, ‘John J. Reen’, ‘Denis J. Reen’, 30 March 1926. These brothers were from Rathmore, county Kerry. See NAI, Census of Ireland, 1911, ‘residents of house number 4 in Gortanahaveboy, East (Rathmore, Kerry) (www.census.nationalarchives.ie/reels/ nai002529763/) (16 December 2009). 12 NAB, RG 21, M1971, Petitions for Naturalization of the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York, 1865–1937, Petition for Citizenship, ‘James Brislane’, 17 October 1932 (www.fold3.com) (13 August 2010); O’Connor, An Irish Civil War exile, 36–8. 13 O’Connor, An Irish Civil War exile, 37. 14 Ibid., 38.

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15 Van Tassel and Grabowski, ‘Patrick O’Malley’ 16 Joan M. Crouse, The homeless transient in the Great Depression: New York State, 1919–1941 (Albany, 1986), 94–100. 17 UCDA, MTP, P69/170 (124), FR 3, ‘Joseph Moran’, undated. Moran’s Foreign Reserve application incorrectly states that he emigrated in 1925. He actually departed from Ireland in 1923. See NAB, RG 85, PCLNY, 1897–1957, entry for ‘Joseph Moran’, arrived 1 October 1923 on SS Carmania, T715, 3383, 71, 15 (www.ancestry. com) (13 January 2010). Moran’s experiences during the Great Depression are based on an account from his niece, Peggy Calvey Patton. Email from Peggy Calvey Patton to author, 29 July 2010. 18 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (279–281), ‘P.K’. [Kearney] to Chairman, A/C, 24 June 1932. 19 NAI, Department of Foreign Affairs (hereafter DFA), 44/9, Macaulay to Secretary, Department of External Affairs, 21 December 1931. 20 NAI, DFA, 44/9, Murphy, Secretary to Consul General, New York, 23 January 1932. 21 NAI, DFA, 44/9, Macaulay to Secretary, Department of External Affairs, 7 January 1932; NAI, DFA, 44/9, Macaulay to Secretary, Department of External Affairs, 3 February 1932. 22 NAI, DFA, 44/9, Macaulay to Secretary, Department of External Affairs, 7 January 1932; NAI, DFA, 44/9, Department of Justice memorandum, 22 January 1932. 23 According to Neenan, ‘Dan was free to live his own life’ after his return home, due to de Valera’s willingness to overlook previous transgressions. See CCCA, CNP, PR7/8, Neenan to Kit O’Donovan, 3 September 1975. 24 CCCA, CNP, PR7/7, Connie Neenan memoirs, 139. When informed of McGill’s decision to stay in Ireland, a number of Clan members were upset. During the 1932 Clan convention, the Foreign Relations Committee stated ‘that Brother Tom Magill, as delegate to Ireland, failed to fulfill the trust imposed on him by the Clann, by his not returning with his report’. See UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (148–152), ‘Q’ [Russell] to C/S, 20 November 1932. 25 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (268), ‘P.K’. [Kearney] to Chairman, A/C, 20 July 1932. 26 UCDA, MTP, P69/223 (3), Neenan to Twomey, 10 November 1932. 27 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (213–214), ‘C’ [Neenan] to ‘M’ [Twomey], 28 August 1932; UCDA, MTP, P69/223 (1–2), Neenan to Twomey, 22 November 1932; UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (65), ‘N’ [Neenan] to Chairman, A/C, 3 February 1933; UCDA, MTP, P69/223 (3), Neenan to Twomey, 10 November 1932. For an analysis of return migration to Ireland during the Great Depression see, Matthew J. O’Brien, ‘Transatlantic connections and the sharp edge of the Great Depression’, in K. Kenny (ed.), New directions in Irish-American history (Madison, 2003), 78–97. 28 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (21–24), Twomey to Neenan, 28 March 1933; UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (13–16), Twomey to Neenan, 24 April 1933. 29 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (21–24), Twomey to Neenan, 28 March 1933. 30 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (42), C/S, A/C to Secretary, Clan na Gael, 23 March 1933; UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (70), ‘Transfers’, unsigned to Chairman, A/C, 3 February 1933.

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31 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (279–281), ‘P.K’. [Kearney] to Chairman, A/C, 24 June 1932. 32 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (42), C/S, A/C to Secretary, Clan na Gael, 23 March 1933. 33 Irish World, 17 March 1934. In October 1932, Neenan told Twomey that Crowley was considering a return to Ireland. See UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (159–162), ‘N’, Secretary [Neenan] to Chairman, A/C, 3 October 1932. 34 In 1936, Fitzgerald would actually become a member of the ‘Chairmanship of Cork Harbour Board’. See CCCA, Seamus Fitzgerald Papers (hereafter SFP), PR6/733, O’Leary to Fitzgerald, 9 December 1936; CCCA, SFP, PR6/53 (1), Leahy to Fitzgerald, 7 March 1935. 35 CCCA, SFP, PR6/53 (2), Leahy to Fitzgerald, c. April 1935. 36 For an example, see Irish World, 7 February 1931. 37 Irish World, 14 February 1931. 38 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (209–212), Secretary, Clan na Gael to Chairman, A/C, 7 September 1932; Hanley, The IRA, 1926–1936, 164. 39 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (180), Secretary, Clan na Gael to Chairman, A/C, 9 September 1932. 40 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (291–293), ‘P.K’. [Kearney] to Chairman, A/C, 21 May 1932. 41 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (157–158), Chairman, A/C to Secretary, Clan na Gael, 8 November 1932. 42 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (294–297), ‘P.K’. [Kearney] to Chairman, A/C, 10 May 1932; UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (159–162), ‘N’ [Neenan], Secretary to Chairman, A/C, 3 October 1932; NAB, RG 29, 1930 census, Albuquerque, Bernalillo, New Mexico, T626, 1392, 1A, 22, 508.0 (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 18 June 2011). For more information on Heatherside Sanatorium, see Jones, ‘Captain of all these men of death’, 161. 43 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (187), Killarney Battalion Adjutant to A/G, IRA, 14 September 1932. 44 Ibid. 45 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (274), ‘P.K’. [Kearney] to Chairman, A/C, 6 July 1932. 46 Irish Independent, 18 October 1932; UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (180), ‘N’ [Neenan], Secretary, Clan na Gael to Chairman, A/C, 9 September 1932. 47 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (209–212), Secretary, Clan na Gael to Chairman, A/C, 7 September 1932. 48 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (177), Secretary, Clan na Gael to Chairman, A/C, 20 September 1932. 49 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (274), ‘P.K’. [Kearney] to Chairman, A/C, 6 July 1932. 50 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (279–281), ‘P.K’. [Kearney] to Chairman, A/C, 24 June 1932. 51 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (168), Neenan to Twomey, 3 October 1932. 52 Ibid.; UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (177), Secretary, Clan na Gael to Chairman, A/C, 20 September 1932.

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53 Army Pensions Act, 1932, Irish Statute Book online (www.irishstatutebook.ie/1932/ en/act/pub/0024/print.html) (accessed 4 June 2011). 54 Irish Independent, 22 March 1933. 55 Newell had been in the US since 1925. See NAB, RG 85, PCLNY, 1897–1957, entry for ‘Michael Newell’, arrived 20 January 1925 on SS Megantic, T715, 3597, 29, 13 (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 6 July 2010). The 1930 US census lists Newell as a patient in the tubercular ward at St. Anthony’s hospital in Woodhaven, Queens, New York. See NAB, RG 29, 1930 census, Queens, New York, T626, 1609, 4A, 561, 607.0 (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 6 July 2010); UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (268), ‘P.K.’ [Kearney] to Chairman, A/C, 20 July 1932; Galway Observer, 18 February 1933 (http://places.galwaylibrary.ie/history/chapter244.html) (accessed 18 June 2011). For more information on Newell’s service in the First Galway Brigade, see NAI, BMH, Witness Statement, Michael Newell, WS 342. 56 Coleman, The Irish Sweep, 19. 57 Ibid., 17–18, 22. 58 Ibid., 22, 52. 59 Ibid., 52. 60 Ibid., 111. 61 Coleman, The Irish Sweep, 111. 62 UCDA, MTP, P69/235 (45), O’Kiersey to ‘Aine’, 5 March 1931; Coleman, The Irish Sweep, 111. 63 Fred McDonald and Bob Considine, ‘Not a clean Sweep: the inside workings of the Irish lottery’, Collier’s Weekly (4 June 1938), 17; Coleman, The Irish Sweep, 140–1. 64 McDonald and Considine, ‘Not a clean Sweep’, 17. 65 Thomas O’Hanlon, ‘A good thing in the Irish Sweepstakes – for the owners’, Fortune (November 1966), 171. 66 NACP, RG 59, Records of the Department of State Relating to Internal Affairs of the Republic of Ireland and of Northern Ireland, 1930–44 (hereafter IARINI, 1930– 44), M1231/6, 841D.513/4, Department of State memorandum, 8 May 1931. 67 USDOJ, FBI, Cornelius Neenan File (hereafter CNFFBI), ‘Cornelius Finbar Neenan’, Background Information, 9 September 1959, referenced in File 105-74252, 12 October 1959. 68 NAB, RG 85, PCLNY, 1897–1957, entry for ‘Patrick J. Fleming’, arrived 28 November 1932 on SS Bremen, T715, 5263, 70, 16 (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 30 July 2011). 69 Coleman, The Irish Sweep, 125; UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (21–24), Twomey to Neenan, 28 March 1933. 70 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (108), illegible signature to unknown, 28 January 1933; UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (107), Chairman, A/C to Secretary, Clan na Gael, 13 February 1933. The Last Post were booklets created by the National Graves Association which provided biographical and gravesite information for a number of deceased republicans. See National Graves Association (ed.), The last post (1st US ed., New York, 1986), xxii.

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71 NACP, RG 59, IARINI, 1930–44, M1231/6, 841D.513/31, Barringer, ‘Irish sweeps tickets sold in the United States’, 29 May 1933; Marie Coleman, ‘The Irish Hospital Sweepstakes in the United States of America, 1930–39’, Irish Historical Studies, 35:138, November 2006, 227; Coleman, The Irish Sweep, 126. 72 UCDA, MTP, P69/283 (3), McNulty to An Phoblacht, c. 1934. 73 NAB, RG 85, PCLNY, 1897–1957, entry for ‘Frank O’Beirne’, arrived 7 November 1932 on SS Columbus, T715, 5255, 176, 14 (www.ancestry.com) (16 August 2010); NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,550, Enright to McGarrity, 27 November 1933; Irish Times, 8 February 1978. 74 Library of Congress Manuscript Division (hereafter LOC), The Records of the US Work Projects Administration, A 740, Folder, ‘Social-Ethnic Studies, Chicago Irish’, Florence LeVitt, ‘Bibliography’, 6 August 1936. O’Kiersey was eventually removed from Sweepstake operations by Neenan. See Coleman, The Irish Sweep, 125. For more information on Neenan and his affiliation with the Boylan Travel Agency, see USDOJ, FBI, CNFFBI, ‘Cornelius Finbar Neenan’, Background Information, 9 September 1959, referenced in File 105-74252, 12 October 1959. 75 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (50–52), Neenan to Twomey, c. March 1933; NAB, RG 85, PCLNY, 1897–1957, entry for ‘Patrick Brennan’, arrived c. July 1933 on SS American Banker, T715, 5356, 112, 24 (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 20 July 2011). 76 UCDA, MTP, P69/185 (50–52), Neenan to Twomey, c. March 1933. 77 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,538 (3), ‘Personal’ note, [Neenan] to [McGarrity], c. April 1933. 78 CCCA, CNP, PR7/1, Connie Neenan interview transcripts, undated, Belt 5, 1; Coleman, The Irish Sweep, 124,129. On 1 September, both Tobin and McCartan arrived in Quebec, Ontario aboard the SS Duchess of Richmond. Tobin remained on the ship and disembarked at the US port of St Alban’s, Vermont. McCartan was destined for Montreal, Canada. He presumably arrived in New York some time after this journey. See NAB, RG 85, Manifests of Passengers Arriving at St. Albans, Vermont, District through Canadian Pacific and Atlantic Ports, 1895–1954, entry for ‘Liam Tobin’, arrived 1 September 1933 on SS Duchess of Richmond, M1464, 584, 3, 1 (www. ancestry.com) (accessed 19 June 2011); LAC, Passenger Lists, 1865–1935, Record Group 76 (hereafter RG 76), T-14785, 5, 8, entry for ‘Patrick McCartan’, arrived 1 September 1933 on SS Duchess of Richmond (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 19 June 2011). 79 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,450, Enright to McGarrity, 27 November 1933. 80 Coleman, The Irish Sweep, 125. 81 CCCA, CNP, PR7/1, Connie Neenan interview transcripts, undated, Belt 5,1–2. 82 Coleman, The Irish Sweep, 120. 83 See AIA, JCMOHC, Paul O’Dwyer interview, CD 22, Track 2, 17 April 1991.

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7 Guiding a bombing campaign from the United States, 1936–9 On the night of 3 July 1936 US Post Office officials, accompanied by local police officers, conducted a series of ‘raids’ in New York on supposed Irish Hospitals Sweepstake offices. Ten people were arrested and ‘more than 1,000,000 genuine sweepstakes tickets’ were seized.1 Hours after this government operation Joseph McGarrity, according to former Sweepstake employee Joseph G. Andrews, gathered the ‘records of all the agents resident in [the] U.S.’ and immediately departed New York for Philadelphia. The driver of McGarrity’s fleeing car was Clan na Gael Secretary Seán Hayes. This late night escape ensured that the names of a reported 3,000 Sweepstake agents, which included 1,000 supposedly controlled by McGarrity, would remain hidden from the US government.2 This action also guaranteed that McGarrity and his agents would continue to work for the Sweepstake and that any direct connection between the Clan and the Sweepstake would not be revealed. This was significant for, in mid-1936, the Clan was gathering momentum within the transatlantic militant republican movement and was prepared to welcome IRA Quartermaster General Seán Russell.

Public exaggerations In late 1935 and early 1936 McGarrity spent a number of weeks in Ireland.3 His visit occurred after receiving a letter from Maurice Twomey, who once again expressed doubts about the effectiveness of the Clan in inspiring US republican support. Twomey was worried that the Clan ‘ceased to exist outside of New York’. He once again advocated that the Clan broaden its policies and focus on increasing its membership base.4 At this time the IRA, in an effort to challenge the steady progression of Fianna Fáil, had begun to consider a certain re-structuring and had initiated preliminary discussions with members of the Second Dáil Éireann with the aim of uniting the political and militant bodies of the

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republican movement.5 Although the exact nature of McGarrity’s meetings with Twomey and other IRA leaders in Ireland is unclear, he re-confirmed that the Clan would supply the IRA with further ammunition. The IRA also agreed to send a representative to the US in time for the Easter Week celebrations.6 On 24 March 1936 British Vice-Admiral Henry Boyle Somerville was killed by IRA members at his home in Skibbereen, county Cork. Weeks later, IRA leadership authorised the murder of a supposed informer, John Egan, in county Waterford.7 With the IRA once again facing strong Fianna Fáil opposition due to these acts of violence, IRA Quartermaster General Seán Russell emerged during the spring as the leading intermediary between the IRA and the Clan. Writing to McGarrity on 2 May, Russell apologised for not corresponding earlier and stated that McGarrity was not ‘forgotten’ by the organisation. He conveyed regrets that an IRA representative could not travel to the US for the Easter Week celebrations, but stressed that the ammunition McGarrity promised to procure was still necessary and, in fact, ‘urgent-important, essential’. In closing Russell predicted that the coercive measures undertaken by the Fianna Fáil government would result in its downfall.8 On 24 May findings from a British National Council for Civil Liberties investigation on the ‘operation of special powers and acts’ in Northern Ireland appeared in the New York Times. The article, entitled ‘Regime at Belfast Held Dictatorship’, reported that Northern Ireland legislation created to stem growing sectarian violence was primarily utilised in restricting alleged republicans and ‘made little use of the drastic dictatorial powers … against the Orangemen and their sympathizers’.9 With these public revelations a new feature of the republican movement, centred on discrimination in Northern Ireland and the evolving role of the IRA in Northern political affairs, was presented to McGarrity and the Clan. On 16 June McGarrity sent a note, along with money, to Russell seeking first-hand information and requesting that he and a Belfast IRA leader travel to the US ‘at the earliest possible time’ where they could provide a description of ‘the true situation as regards [to] all the country’.10 This invitation for Russell arrived at an opportune time. On 19 June, with the passing of a new Public Safety Act, the Fianna Fáil government declared the IRA an illegal organisation. On the same day Maurice Twomey, arrested weeks earlier, was sentenced to three years in prison.11 Seán MacBride assumed the role of IRA chief of staff during this period but, as he described later in his memoirs, this appointment was ‘very much in a caretaker capacity’.12 Russell arrived in New York on 21 July after departing from Southampton, England.13 Six days later Philadelphia Clan members were notified of a meeting at the city’s Irish-American Club, organised to discuss how to raise funds for recently imprisoned IRA members as well as for the ‘penniless’ families in Belfast

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on the verge of a possible ‘massacre’. ‘A delegate from Ireland’ was promised to attend and all members were expected to be present.14 By the middle of August Russell’s low-key US visit was rapidly transformed into a national spectacle after he spoke to newspaper correspondent, John Walters. In a startling revelation, Russell announced the IRA was planning ‘to rain bombs on England in a do-or-die attempt to overthrow de Valera and obtain complete independence from Britain’. The IRA supposedly had ‘stores of ammunition hidden in both Ireland and England’ and men were ‘drilling in various parts of the British Isles’. Russell also stated he departed Ireland ‘quietly … after playing a dangerous hide-and-seek game with the Free State authorities’ and his arrival in the US was primarily ‘to raise a million dollar fighting fund to finance the Republican forces’.15 These declarations were inconsistent with the state of the IRA at the time, but were consistent with ‘demolition operations’ first prescribed by the Clan in 1934.16 It is clear that by this time Russell had become fully subscribed to the military plans of the Clan.17 For the Clan this support offered two major dividends. Russell was not afraid to provide the public face for the proposed bombing campaign and his backing for the Clan idea also meant the Clan now had an important ally amongst the IRA leadership. Russell’s public remarks did not go unnoticed in the US. On 22 August Neville A. Anderson, a Sebago Lake, New York resident wrote a letter to the US Department of State noting his displeasure at Russell’s future fundraising intentions. He stated that Russell’s visit could prove disastrous for AngloAmerican relations and that US ‘neutrality’ risked being ‘shot to pieces’. In closing, Anderson inquired why Russell was issued a visa.18 On 10 September the Department of State sought an answer from Henry Balch, the consul general in Dublin.19 By October, after a careful search of visa files and further correspondence with Russell’s brother, consular officials realised that Russell had most likely arrived in the US illegally.20 Irish authorities confirmed this suspicion by noting to the US legation that Russell’s passport was ‘not’ issued by the Irish government.21 Michael J. Mansfield, the commissioner of the Garda Siochána Special Branch Metropolitan Division further revealed: Information to hand here is to the effect that he [Russell] obtained a passport in London and I presume, as no inquiries were made here from An Saorstat Representative in London, that Russell’s passport was a faked one and was obtained for him through the efforts of his Organisation in London. It is a well known fact that Passports have been issued to individuals connected with the I.R.A. under similar circumstances in the past, and I have no reason to doubt that this modus operandi for procuring the passport was resorted to by Russell on the present occasion.22

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Despite Russell’s illegal entry into the US and the knowledge that he was an ‘extremist republican’ with supposed ‘very pronounced communist views’, US officials in the Dublin Consulate did not seem overly concerned.23 It appears this relaxed stance was due in large part to Seán Murphy, the Irish assistant secretary for the Department of External Affairs, who stated to US authorities that he and others in the Irish government did not believe that Russell posed a serious risk for any subversive activities.24 Russell attended the annual Clan convention in early September and, according to Joseph McGarrity, he made a ‘most complete statement’ regarding the conditions in Ireland and also requested $5,000 worth of ammunition.25 Clan delegates enthusiastically received Russell and his bold declarations and ‘voted’ that a total of $25,000 be gathered for the IRA.26 Over the next few weeks Russell, along with Seán Hayes, attempted to secure ‘supplies’ for IRA purposes.27 It is also clear that McGarrity continued to directly influence Russell’s activities. After reading a New York Times article, which detailed the Irish government’s refusal to allow German airline Lufthansa ‘to use Galway Bay as a base for their proposed air-mail service to the United States’, McGarrity called on Russell to introduce himself to German diplomats stationed in the US. A draft of a letter was immediately created and sent to Russell.28 Russell was advised by McGarrity to simply ‘sign and forward’ the message he had written to Hans Luther, the German ambassador to the US, in which he thanked Germany for the ‘valued assistance’ given to the Irish republican movement ‘in the early days of the present phase of our present fight’. This letter also included an apology for the present actions of the ‘“Free State”’ government in disallowing the German ‘international air service’ certain ‘landing rights’ in Ireland.29 Before Russell departed New York on 29 October McGarrity also convinced him to approve a mission for Philadelphia Evening Bulletin editor, John O’Hara Harte, to travel to Ireland in order to try to unite Fianna Fáil and the IRA. O’Hara Harte’s subsequent mediation failed and the fact that Russell authorised this visit without IRA consent caused great anger amongst the IRA leadership.30

Influencing events in Ireland Russell’s growing independent alliance with Clan officials and unauthorised activities in the US resulted in an IRA court-martial.31 He continued to have the unlimited support of McGarrity, who once again returned to Ireland in December 1936 and attempted to lessen the charges imposed on Russell.32 McGarrity’s assistance, however, did not diminish the severity of the committed

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actions and Russell was subsequently suspended from the IRA for three months and ‘removed permanently’ as the organisation’s quartermaster general.33 Russell’s suspension from the IRA could not heal the fractures that had developed in the organisation. The new chief of staff, Tom Barry, faced serious problems, primarily due to the inability of the IRA leadership to agree on a future campaign. A series of planned strikes into Northern Ireland had failed to materialise and growing dissatisfaction amongst members caused further friction.34 These organisational fissures created an ideal opportunity for McGarrity and the Clan to further their goals for a bombing campaign by aligning with like-minded IRA officials. Besides Russell, other IRA members with previous US and Clan connections were in support of this action. Peter Kearney maintained contact with McGarrity throughout this period, and Tom McGill toured the country in support of Russell.35 However, as the leading proponents of a bombing campaign were removed from the leadership of the IRA, McGarrity was becoming ‘more and more disturbed with the situation in Ireland’. 36 In a letter to Cork IRA veteran James Brislane, who by this time was most likely the new Clan secretary, McGarrity expressed dissatisfaction with the failure of IRA members to work together. He realised that the Clan’s ‘plan of action’ still faced serious obstacles, especially without approval from the Army Council.37 McGarrity and his Clan associates continued to unilaterally and publicly orchestrate their goals in the US. During March 1937 McGarrity and Brislane travelled to California and addressed a public meeting in San Francisco. On 2 April the two men spoke to the members of the Los Angeles branch of the AARIR, which since the previous October had become disassociated with the national body of their organisation, in protest over Fianna Fáil’s coercionist policies against the IRA. 38 Capitalising on the local group’s growing distrust of the Irish government McGarrity and Brislane condemned Éamon de Valera. Brislane, according to a witness, spoke in ‘a more radical and violent nature’.39 The Clan also maintained close contact with Seán Russell. On 5 May Russell, now in Cambridge, England, sent a letter to McGarrity, noting that he and ‘Jimmy’ had arrived a few days earlier and were attempting to organise local support. It can be deduced that Russell’s companion was most likely IRA veteran and Clan Treasurer James Conaty, who appears to have travelled to Ireland during this period.40 In early June Russell returned to the US and, after convening with McGarrity and members of the Clan, travelled to the west coast and followed the publicity trail that McGarrity and Brislane had previously established.41 In late June he arrived in San Francisco and was ‘kept on the move’ with a number of ‘friends’. According to Russell, McGarrity and Brislane’s initial visit in March had proven a success and McGarrity was ‘very much spoken’ of. Russell believed

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San Francisco to be ‘a place of promise with which constant touch should be maintained’.42 The desire to create publicity continued to motivate Russell and he arranged to speak with a newspaper journalist. On 1 July the San Francisco Chronicle published a photo of ‘Major General Sean Russell’ on the front page and described his appeal for ‘means and moral support’ in order to overthrow the present Irish Free State government. Most importantly, the article noted his upcoming tour of Clan clubs across the US.43 In San Francisco Russell held a public meeting which attracted about 500 people. In Butte, Montana, fifty Clan members listened intently to him.44 However, as he travelled eastward Russell encountered smaller crowds and experienced local internal conflicts. The gathering in Chicago attracted twentyfour Clan members and in Cleveland attendance was hindered after discord between the west side Irish community and their eastern neighbours ‘over the control of a hall’. After appearing in Boston Russell believed the ‘public meeting … was reasonably good’ but that overall the republican movement in the city ‘was very dead’. In New York he was pleased to report that the support was ‘so far the best of any I have seen yet’.45 As Russell was touring the US military operations conducted by Northern Ireland IRA units during late July 1937 proved that elements of the organisation were still viable. On 28 July, with King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in attendance at Belfast’s City Hall, a bomb exploded a few streets away. The explosion caused massive hysteria and shattered numerous windows. Further acts of violence occurred along the border. In Clones, county Monaghan, gunshots were fired and customs huts were burned. Four bombs were also placed under a railway bridge near Dundalk, county Louth. Another bomb exploded causing minor damage and resulting in a ‘temporary halt’ to railway traffic, which, as the New York Times noted, caused passengers to be late for the royal ceremonies.46 These acts did not go unnoticed by the Clan and, during the organisation’s annual convention in New York from 4 to 6 September, Joseph McGarrity conveyed his delight and believed the bombings ‘gave the world to understand that neither British Kings nor British borders will be tolerated in Ireland’.47 By September 1937 the Clan had slowly started to show signs of a revitalisation. During the annual convention McGarrity announced an increase in donations and the formation of four new Clan clubs in Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Detroit and Los Angeles.48 From an analysis of the executive leaders elected during the convention proceedings it is evident that the organisation continued to derive leadership from long-term and established Clan members and dedicated IRA veterans. McGarrity and Michael Enright, two men with established and deep-rooted ties with the Clan, remained central to the leadership

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structure. Amongst the IRA veterans holding vital positions at this point were Castlegregory, county Kerry, IRA veteran Tadg Brosnan along with James Brislane and James Conaty. Brislane and Conaty maintained their respective roles of secretary and treasurer.49

Clan na Gael involvement During late August McGarrity received a letter, probably from Conaty, which detailed his efforts in consolidating support in Ireland for a bombing campaign. Conaty had proposed to the IRA that a new convention be organised which he hoped would eliminate the ‘bickerings of the past few years’ and ultimately shift the balance of power towards Clan supporters.50 On 15 September Conaty returned to the US and around two weeks later McGarrity himself headed to Ireland. Brislane, after missing an opportunity to speak directly to the departing McGarrity, sent a note of encouragement and instructed him to ‘do your best to straighten out matters in some form that won’t leave too much bitterness’.51 Although the exact details of his meeting with IRA officials is unknown, once in Ireland McGarrity met with Russell who had returned also. After departing from Cobh for New York on 23 October McGarrity seemed optimistic about his return voyage and believed that ‘the fighting days are coming soon’.52 Russell and McGarrity remained committed to implementing their plan, regardless of the views of the IRA leadership. At this time Russell had sent supporter and recently deposed Adjutant General Peadar O’Flaherty to England ‘to make a practical survey of all that our policy may demand’.53 On 7 November the Clan Executive Council gathered in New York at the Governor Clinton Hotel where McGarrity and Conaty provided their first-hand reports of the situation in Ireland.54 The executive members wrote to Michael Fitzpatrick, the newly installed IRA chief of staff, and expressed their ‘deepest concern’ regarding the continued ‘friction’ amongst the ranks of the IRA: We have unanimously decided to appeal to you – aye to beg of you to call a conference of all concerned; to even call a convention of all your units and if at this convention a real sense of duty, a real sense of true charity prevails on all sides your convention will evolve from your deliberations a united, harmonious and powerful body that will command the respect and confidence and the undivided support of every member of the Clan-Na-Gael.55

Overall, the Clan hoped for ‘prompt and effective’ action in order to stabilise the IRA as well as to further invigorate the Irish republican base in the US. Besides

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this general appeal the Clan also questioned why Russell, one of the IRA’s ‘old and trusted officers’, had been officially dismissed from the organisation.56 Based on a statement from the ‘outgoing Army Council and Executive’ during the March 1938 IRA General Army Convention Russell had ‘refused to hand over arms under his control’ and ‘refused to obey an order that he was not to go to America’. IRA leaders had also been informed that Russell supposedly ‘suggested to … supporters’ in the US ‘that no money should be sent to the Army in Ireland until the Army was again out fighting in the hills’.57 But Russell was not without support at the 1938 convention and his allies executed a majority takeover of the IRA Army Council during the convention proceedings.58 Russell was re-instated into the organisation and named chief of staff. This move greatly upset others and dissenting members quickly resigned.59 Watching these dramatic proceedings unfold was McGarrity, who afterwards upon returning to the US, declared to Clan members that ‘a real resurgent spirit seemed to pervade the convention’ with the present IRA prepared to move forward with ‘their small but effective military machine’.60 Soon after McGarrity arrived in the US James Brislane left for Ireland, bringing money and where he subsequently attended ‘a number of parades’.61 He also concentrated on changing the minds of those in the IRA who continued to oppose a future bombing campaign.62 On 12 May Brislane reported to McGarrity that ‘the crowd here [in county Cork] are a little different but may see their way out soon so tis better than interfering’.63 In early June Brislane returned to New York and soon after McGarrity once again departed for Ireland.64 Based at the Spa Hotel in Dublin he met with Russell, Peadar O’Flaherty and Maurice Twomey, who had been released from prison during the previous December and had agreed to become the adjutant general on an interim basis. Discussions centred on the impending campaign and Twomey offered a cautious perspective.65 McGarrity and Russell, however, were by this time fully committed to a joint Clan and IRA operation in England referred to as the ‘S-plan’.

The Clan na Gael and the ‘S-plan’ After the March 1938 IRA General Army Convention Seamus (Jim) O’Donovan, the IRA’s former director of chemicals, was asked to formulate an effective plan for a bombing campaign in England. The ‘S-plan’ was an intricate and complex scheme composed of two fundamental layers – sabotage and propaganda. Bombing operations were to be centred on highly visible and strategic targets, including industrial complexes, government buildings and transport infrastructure. In order for the campaign to be effective and to force a British reaction to

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the IRA demands for an end to partition, public support was necessary and a structured propaganda campaign was to complement the military operations. Civilian casualties were to be avoided and publicity was to be garnered on a massive scale from Ireland, Britain and also the US.66 The Clan’s commitment to implementing an effective propaganda and publicity campaign was evident immediately after the IRA convention. On 15 April, coinciding with the exact date of Joseph McGarrity’s return to the US, a request was placed in New York City to create the IRA Veterans Incorporated. Established by the three leading Clan executives and IRA veterans, James Brislane, James Conaty and Tadg Brosnan, this organisation was formed to provide ‘social intercourse among members’. Plans included the creation of a ‘social center’ to provide ‘facilities for the physical and mental recreation of members’. Furthermore, money raised by this organisation was to supposedly assist ‘disabled veterans’.67 The Clan also utilised its connections with the transatlantic shipping industry and a ‘broadcasting machine’ was sent to Southampton, England, during late August.68 Preparations for the ‘S-plan’ continued and the Clan also remained focused on raising money. On 15 August a ‘confidential and urgent’ appeal was sent to all members to ‘give every dollar you can spare’ for an IRA campaign which would ‘challenge England’s right to hold any part of the territory of Ireland’.69 During the annual September Clan convention Clan delegates from San Francisco and Butte were not in attendance ‘in order to conserve their funds for the purposes of the Army’. An ‘urgent appeal’ for financial assistance, originating from the IRA, was also announced at the convention, which resulted in the formation of local fundraising ‘Committees’.70 The September declaration was followed with a drive for further money. The results proved successful, including $3,000 being raised at one New York reunion during late September.71 In October the IRA leadership called on ‘the Irish race everywhere and all lovers of liberty’ to donate to an Ireland Defence Fund.72 For a publicity campaign to be successful and attract non-republican orientated support the Clan needed to connect the impending bombing operations with declarations that could draw in all people. Recognising this, a statement was prepared for publication and sent to newspapers in Irish-American centres.73 It introduced the Clan as an organisation composed of ‘citizens of the United States’, and also included a number of provocative undertones: it noted the continued emigration of the Irish to England; the Irish government’s plans through the recently agreed Anglo-Irish economic treaty to give Britain a supposed $50,000,000 by the end of the year; and it publicised that Britain had war debts still owed to the US government.74 Amidst these scattered, broadly anti-British statements were cleverly placed messages of ‘cheer and hope’ to

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those IRA members ‘languishing in Irish jails’, as well as a blatant statement of the organisation’s ‘pledge’ of ‘moral and financial support to … the Irish Republican Army in their approaching campaign to rid Ireland of English rule and re-establish an independent Republic for a united Ireland’.75 In certain localities this publicity seemed effective. During September McGarrity received a report that Clan members from Roxbury, Massachusetts, were planning on meeting with ‘the officers of all the Irish societys [sic]’ in the area.76 On 21 September Seán Russell revealed to McGarrity that a wireless transmitter sent to assist in publicity operations in Ireland had ‘arrived safely’. As for the campaign, three republicans were working ‘whole time in Britain’ and overall ‘Britain is now as perfect as we can make it’. He assured McGarrity that the campaign would result in ‘reasonable success’ and was to begin ‘according to date and plan’. Training was taking place in Dublin, Waterford and Sligo. However, the Cork units remained inactive.77 During this time the Clan’s continued commitment to remain firmly involved with the impending campaign in England continued when Cornelius (Con) O’Brien, a Roxbury, Massachusetts-based Clan executive leader and IRA veteran from Youghal, county Cork, departed for Ireland.78 O’Brien was asked to exert his influence on those Cork IRA members still uncommitted to the campaign.79 By November the Clan’s propaganda campaign attempted to reach the higher levels of the US government. On 18 November McGarrity sent a personal letter to US Secretary of State Cordell Hull requesting that the words ‘Northern Ireland’ be removed from a trade agreement recently signed and publicised between the US, Canada and the ‘United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland’.80 McGarrity viewed this as an ‘unfriendly act against Ireland’, signifying a recognition of ‘secession … from the original United Country’.81 This campaign against the partition of Ireland was, in fact, shared by a number of Irish organisations at the time. In early November a committee of New York Irish-American leaders organised a conference with the hope of ‘achieving unity amongst the Irish people’ in the US for a ‘united Ireland’. Amongst the organisations represented were the GAA, the United Irish Counties and the American Labor Party. Individuals attending the meeting included IRA veteran and president of the TWU, Michael Quill, and also Connie Neenan.82 The AARIR’s annual convention in Philadelphia also called on ‘all other organizations of Americans of Irish descent to join … in [a] united endeavor to rescue Ireland from the curse and blight of partition’.83 The Clan and IRA, however, would not rely on public protests alone and, as calls for the end of partition were voiced amongst Irish-Americans, they remained committed to achieving results through the use of physical force.

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Commencing the campaign On 1 December Russell wrote to McGarrity and declared that the IRA had ‘launched our campaign’. Russell stated that, adhering to the advice of the Clan, operations had begun ‘in the North’ on 29 November and that, despite ‘a very sad accident’ which took the lives of two IRA members, the work ‘was thoroughly done’.84 Further attacks were conducted against British customs huts along the border.85 It is clear that this phase was the prelude to the major campaign in England. Russell explained that ‘any protracted delay would tend to disconnect the link between the North and our English activities’. With the first phase of the campaign underway, the Clan sent the IRA more ‘wireless parts’ for transmitters. McGarrity also immediately issued a public statement, carried in several US newspapers, which detailed present and future IRA actions in Northern Ireland and England.86 This publicity garnered criticism from John O’Hara Harte who at the time served as an unofficial publicity advisor to McGarrity. O’Hara Harte questioned the timing of the statement for, as he explained to McGarrity, it was important that newspaper editors ‘sense the fact that the American connections knew about the contemplated action’ before the actual event. The supporting role of the Clan needed to be publicised and it was crucial for public statements to ‘tie in with actions’ or the ‘machinery of propaganda tends to collapse’. Furthermore, O’Hara Harte believed that public perception of the IRA had to be transformed. It was necessary ‘to elevate the I.R.A. in the public mind as not only a reasonable body of men but an organized and responsible body of men’. Lastly, he urged McGarrity to continue with the publicity, believing it was of ‘paramount importance from the viewpoint of influencing public opinion’.87 This insight was crucial in educating McGarrity on the nuances of publicity and, as will be seen later, he adopted many of these suggestions. In early December, in an attempt to increase support for the bombing campaign and to eliminate ‘any expression of doubt from known Republicans’, the IRA reached out and became aligned with members of the Second Dáil Éireann. It was agreed that the IRA Army Council would take a leading role in this republican authority, known as the ‘Government of the Irish Republic’.88 On 1 December Russell mentioned to McGarrity that he expected Clan representative Con O’Brien to take part in the meetings between these militant and political republican representatives.89 IRA operations in Northern Ireland, however, received a major setback on 22 December when thirty-four IRA members were arrested by police in Belfast after information was received that Northern Ireland Premier Viscount Craigavon, along with members of his cabinet and other government officials, were under the threat of assassination.

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According to the article, which appeared in the New York Times, the IRA was hoping to stage holiday attacks in an effort to ‘seize the government’.90 Seven days later the New York Times revealed a potentially devastating setback for the Clan. McGarrity, Connie Neenan and six other individuals had been indicted by a New York grand jury for being ‘principal agents’ of the Irish Hospitals Sweepstake. For three years the government had been processing its findings from the investigation originating from the July 1936 seizure of Sweepstake tickets and now appropriate action had been taken.91 It does not appear that the timing of this indictment was related to the bombing campaign. However, in a note to Peter Kearney on 16 January, McGarrity admitted that he was ‘handicapped’ by an ‘embarrising [sic] situation prevailing here just now’. Nonetheless, McGarrity’s personal funds continued to be channelled to the IRA, for also enclosed in the envelope to Kearney was a £1,000 cheque for any ‘emergencies’. In case of any future ‘financial difficulties’ he instructed Kearney to cable him.92 On the same day the message was sent to Kearney the New York Times reported that 2,000 republicans had met in Dublin. Posters of proclamations from the IRA and the Government of the Irish Republic were pasted to walls of buildings across Dublin and Belfast, ‘demanding the ousting of British civil and military representatives from all [of] Ireland’.93 On 17 January a bomb exploded in Belfast with seven more detonated throughout England, including in the cities of Manchester, London, Birmingham and Alnwick. In accordance with the ‘S-plan’ these improvised bombs targeted electrical and natural gas infrastructure. In Manchester an explosion in the centre of the city caused considerable damage to electrical and gas lines and also killed an innocent porter.94 On 25 January Seán Russell declared the initial attacks had ‘succeeded in taking the opposition at home and abroad completely by surprise’. Moreover, the operations displayed the unequivocal difference ‘between the Fianna Fáil policy and that of the IRA’ and he believed that the IRA had ‘captured for the moment favourable public opinion’. With the promise of ‘a few big jobs’ in the future, Russell asserted the IRA would ‘continue to do our best’ and that the support of McGarrity and the Clan was vital.95 Rudolph F. Schoenfield, the first secretary of the US Embassy in London, reported to US Secretary of State Cordell Hull in early February 1939 that a wave of ‘irritant apprehension’ had swept throughout the British population and government. The connection between the bombings of Northern Ireland border customs huts and the English targets was apparent to Schoenfield, as he noted that the ‘wave of lawlessness crossed to England in mid-January’. However, Schoenfield was convinced that these actions by a ‘small group of “hooligans” or “gangsters”’, estimated to be around 3,000, would not affect the relationship between Britain and Ireland and also would not ‘settle the question of

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partition or advance the cause of those who desire to see Ireland – North and South – Protestant and Roman Catholic – amicably united’.96 On 13 February the Daily News of New York published a small article detailing a meeting held the previous night by a recently formed group called the Irish Republican Alliance at the IRA Veterans’ headquarters on 587 West Fifty-seventh Street, where 200 members passed a resolution pledging ‘moral and financial support’ for the IRA ‘in its new offensive against the British Empire’. Eoin McKiernan, the Alliance’s secretary ‘also predicted more acts of sabotage would take place in England this month’.97 Within a few weeks the commissioner of police at Scotland Yard contacted the police commissioner of New York City and requested information on the Republican Alliance and McKiernan.98 It appears the creation of the Irish Republican Alliance was most likely a tactical move orchestrated by McGarrity and the Clan in order to expand the profile of the militant republican movement in the American press and amongst the general public. McKiernan, a 23-year-old, US-born employee at the Irish Industries Depot in New York and a rising figure in Irish-American circles, was an ideal person to present the Clan’s message to the public. He was a charismatic individual and seemingly an excellent communicator, exemplified during this period when he persuaded US actor, Morton Downey, to appear at the 1939 Easter night commemoration in New York’s Pythian Temple.99 The Clan also focused on building relationships with sympathetic US politicians by aligning the Irish republican message with US isolationist policies. On 19 February a public meeting was held in Philadelphia’s Mercantile Hall. Along with declaring ‘Ireland’s independence’, the gathering called for the ‘repayment of England’s war debt to America’. Approximately 5,000 people attended this meeting and listened to a speech delivered by North Carolina Senator, Robert Reynolds. As a committed isolationist and perceived pro-Nazi and anti-Semite, Reynolds brought an obvious radical left-wing political dimension.100 Joining Reynolds at the event were local Philadelphia congressmen Francis J. Meyers and James P. McGranery.101 McGranery, who served as the event’s chairman, also crafted a letter to US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and asked him ‘to appeal to the government of Britain to relinquish her unjust claims to the land and waters of Ireland’.102 In early spring 1939 McGarrity mobilised the Clan organisation on a national level. In Los Angeles the Clan worked with the Los Angeles branch of the AARIR and on 2 April, in Philadelphia, Liam Cripps, ‘a former student under Patrick Pearse’, joined Pennsylvania Senator James J. Davis and former congressman Clare Gerald Fenerty to address over 1,000 supporters in Mercantile Hall. Cripps explained that currently ‘the Irish Republican Army had found the best place to strike … right in the heart of London, Manchester, and other citadels of sin and store-houses of plunder’.103 New York-based Peter MacSwiney and

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Second Dáil Éireann member Mary MacSwiney also addressed Boston and New York Clan members.104 On 29 March the New York Times offered new details of the bombing campaign in England. Hammersmith Bridge, situated over the Thames River in western London, was described as ‘sagging about a foot below its normal level’ after two bombs were ‘dropped from a truck’ by suspected IRA members.105 Upon reading about the destruction James Brislane sent a short note to McGarrity along with a clipping of the related article. Brislane was thrilled with the operation and believed the Clan ‘ought to feel very proud to be associated with such men’.106 In this note, however, Brislane overlooked the fact that, on the day before the bombing, nine IRA members were sentenced to long prison sentences due to their involvement in the campaign.107 With the bombing campaign fully underway James Conaty was once again selected to travel to Ireland and liaise with IRA officials. On 12 April Conaty notified McGarrity of his safe passage. Another message from an unidentified individual was cabled to McGarrity which announced that ‘stuff arrived’.108 Although this vague notation written on one line in McGarrity’s diary does not reveal any further details, ‘stuff’ could have possibly referred to ‘tear gas bombs’, which were used two months later by the IRA in a Liverpool theatre. According to the New York Times, these devices were supposedly the same type used by the US police force and were believed to have been ‘part of a large store smuggled from the United States’.109 After arriving in Ireland Conaty reported that he had ‘met most members of the team’ and all of them wanted to thank McGarrity and the Clan for the assistance received over the last few months. They believed their ‘successes’ were ‘due to the co-operation which they received’. Conaty also spent time watching IRA members ‘at practice’ and he believed that they were ‘most capable … of bringing home the Laurels’. Initially, Conaty was instructed to provide three updates per week to the Clan. However, soon after arriving in Ireland his importance was diminished when the most important ‘member of the team’ had actually left the country for a ‘sudden visit’ to the US.110

The arrival of Seán Russell On 15 April IRA leader Seán Russell arrived in New York aboard the SS Washington with a legal visa issued by the US Consulate in Dublin on 6 March. Plans were quickly made for Russell and James Brislane to travel by train to Philadelphia.111 Upon meeting the two men at Philadelphia’s Thirtieth Street train station in the early afternoon of Sunday 16 April McGarrity noted that

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Russell looked ‘splendid and it was wonderful to see him’. During the course of the day Russell described that the bombing campaign in England was proceeding with ‘confidence and efficiency’. The overall ‘news’ from Ireland was also ‘good’ for Russell also mentioned that the German government, which McGarrity referred to in his diary as a ‘European Power’, had recently contacted the IRA and ‘a valuable understanding’ was ‘reached’.112 Russell’s visit, although the reasons were never specifically disclosed, could have taken place in order to strengthen a developing relationship between the IRA and Germany since it was initiated by Oskar Pfaus, a German agent, who was in Ireland earlier in the year.113 Irish intelligence agents actually suspected that McGarrity and the Clan were using funds acquired from German agents and it is possible that Russell travelled to the US with the intention of raising money through German-American elements in the US.114 Russell’s visit, however, must be viewed in the context of the Clan’s publicity ambitions. Early in 1939 the Clan had realised that American media coverage of the IRA bombing campaign would be forced to compete with that of two British visitors to the US, the King and Queen of England.115 Those within the Clan were concerned about the royal visit and felt the attention would seriously hamper their activities. On 14 March New York Clan publicity director Eoin McKiernan mentioned to McGarrity that he had offered Brislane advice on ‘counter-acting the British prop[aganda]’ for the impending royal couple’s visit.116 Thus, Russell’s arrival one month later was probably far from co-incidental and can be construed as a likely attempt by the Clan to offset attention from the impending royal visit and, in the process, place greater emphasis on the militant republican cause.117 During his initial few weeks in the US Russell maintained a low profile. On 17 April he travelled to Baltimore, Maryland, with McGarrity and Brislane where, according to McGarrity, they met an individual and organised undisclosed ‘affairs’. Russell and McGarrity had a ‘long talk’ on the train and most likely discussed future plans before returning to New York.118 Five days later Russell and Brislane once again met with McGarrity in Philadelphia and it was decided that a ‘special’ Clan convention would be held in New York in the near future.119 On 27 April McGarrity, Russell and Brislane arrived in Philadelphia during the late night. The following day they learnt that a planned US visit by Éamon de Valera had been cancelled in response to the British government’s announcement that conscription could be imposed on the people of Northern Ireland.120 In a last minute change the Clan convention was moved from New York to the Irish-American Club in Philadelphia.121 Held on 6 May it was used by McGarrity to present Russsell to the Clan delegates and also to solicit support for the IRA from the core support base. In addressing these leading members, McGarrity stated:

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They [The IRA] have put their trust in us of the Clan-na-Gael, and in their former comrades, the I.R.A. Veterans … Here we have men in the field in action, in our midst is the Chief. Send him back to his men with a message that, though the world is against them, we are with them to the glorious close, not alone with cheers and praise but with all that is in our power to give; promise him you will go out and canvass friend and stranger, and appeal to them to be workers and helpers in this glorious cause.122

Russell’s appearance at the convention not only provided overwhelming evidence of the organisation’s direct involvement with the IRA bombing campaign but also showed that further financial support was necessary in order for a successful conclusion. Three days after the convention McGarrity organised travel arrangements to Chicago and California for himself and Russell.123 In Chicago the two men met with Michael Enright and other Clan members. According to McGarrity, Russell made a ‘deep impression’ and a ‘public meeting in 2 or 3 weeks’ time was planned.124 On the following day, McGarrity and Russell departed by train for Los Angeles.125 Hoping to capitalise on the militant republican element in the state, Russell met with a Los Angeles Examiner reporter in his hotel room on 14 May and announced publicly for the first time that he had ‘ordered’ the bombings in England and that actions would continue ‘with systematic regularity until the British troops are taken out of Ireland and my men are released from jail’.126 Two days later a public meeting was held in Los Angeles and, with the assistance of AARIR leader Peter Murray, a new Clan club was created with ‘14 men sworn in’. A meeting was also organised with a reporter from the London Chronicle and, furthermore, Russell gave a radio interview in which he appealed for funds.127 The timing of this public discourse that Russell conducted is extremely important for on the same day that his voice was heard over the radio waves in Los Angeles the Empress of Australia, with the King and Queen of England aboard, was sailing down the Saint Lawrence River, about to disembark in Quebec, Ontario.128 At this point it is clear that a deliberate campaign to counter the publicity of the royal visit had begun.

The arrest of Seán Russell On 17 May a telegram was sent from the British Foreign Office to Sir Ronald Lindsay, the British ambassador in Washington, DC, instructing him to explain to US officials their ‘considerable anxiety’ regarding ‘the reported activities of Russell’. It was noted that ‘a serious recrudescence of bombings apparently

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financed or organised from United States territories’ could prove detrimental to Anglo-American relations. The Foreign Office also advised that Seán Russell’s ‘deportation might be considered’, especially with the impending royal visit.129 Lindsay responded that members of the British Consulate in Los Angeles had initiated contact with the FBI and were now following Russell.130 On 19 May at the Knights of the Red Branch Hall in San Francisco, after being introduced by McGarrity, Russell delivered a speech to members of Irish republican societies. According to an eyewitness, Russell delved into the history of the IRA, stating that the IRA members ‘were the spiritual successors of those who had died in Easter Week’. He also declared that the actions of the IRA ‘would not have been possible’ without the Clan’s ‘moral and financial’ support.131 Resolutions passed at the end of the meeting called on President Roosevelt ‘not to become the victim of an intrigue between their Britannic Majesties and Mr. Chamberlain’s “umbrella mender” to bargain away Ireland’s independence’.132 These highly charged statements, however, were delivered to an audience of just 150 to 200 people.133 And, as an Irish Department of External affairs official noted, only one major newspaper, the San Francisco Examiner, actually referred to the event in the following day’s publication. This article did not even name Russell and focused solely on the meeting’s calls for Britain to recompense its war debts to the US.134 McGarrity’s time on the west coast with Russell abruptly ended when, after arriving in San Francisco, he immediately learnt of his brother’s death.135 On 21 May McGarrity boarded a United Airlines flight and began his journey back to Philadelphia.136 Russell now continued his tour alone and left San Francisco for Portland, Oregon, on 22 May before heading to Butte, Montana. At this time the British Foreign Office received ‘various telegrams’ from undisclosed sources which revealed that Russell, while in San Francisco, had ‘been in communication with local communist leaders’.137 Meanwhile, another unidentified source detailed that Russell, while in Los Angeles, had reportedly met with Captain Fritz Wiedemann, the German Consul General in San Francisco, local German-Bund leader Herman Schwinn and Henry Schmidt, who was considered ‘a radical unionist’.138 This meeting was leaked to the press on 29 May by the Los Angeles police department. According to a United Press report, Dr John R. Lechner, the head of the American Legion, had supplied police with ‘photographic and photostatic evidence purporting to link California Nazis with alleged agents of the Irish Republican Army’. This evidence supposedly revealed co-operation between the two elements for an ‘assassination of the visiting British royalty’, the creation of a ‘campaign of sabotage attacking British shipping on the Pacific Coast’, and also a ‘propaganda campaign to foment ill feeling between the British and the American people’.139 The British Embassy in Washington, DC, quickly informed the Foreign Office that there was

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‘considerable doubt’ on the ‘reliability’ of this story. British consular officials in Los Angeles believed that the original informer was Alfred Dinsley, a British citizen and First World War veteran, who claimed to have served for the British intelligence service in Ireland. Suspicion regarding the accuracy of Dinsley’s reports arose when ‘he hurriedly left home’ on 19 May and subsequently could not be found.140 Nonetheless, the report of a possible royal assassination was delivered across the US. In Philadelphia McGarrity described the story in his diary as ‘vile journalism’.141 Nellie Murray (née Hoyne), a former Cumann na mBan member and current secretary of the Los Angeles AARIR, offered to publish a denial of this ‘alleged Nazi link-up and visit to the local bund H.Q. [Headquarters]’.142 Although McGarrity was clearly outraged at the story, it does not appear that he took up her offer. At the end of April Albert Canning, who the New York Herald Tribune described as the ‘vice-marshal of London police and veteran director of Scotland Yard’s campaigns against both spies and Irish terrorists’, arrived in New York and began co-ordinating security measures with US police and the State Department for the royal visit.143 During early May a handwritten letter sent to the British Consulate in New York and addressed to Canning detailed that ‘a desperate attempt will be made by the IRA to eliminate George of England’. The note also stated that ‘Sean Russell C/S [Chief of Staff] I.R.A. has come here 2 weeks ago to organise a group of 25 men who will machine gun the car carrying [King] George … Bombs and machine guns will be directed from windows on the route’ of the parade in New York.144 Another letter sent during the same period to New York Police Commissioner John J. Valentine, signed by an ‘Irish Republican Army Man’ detailed that the King and Queen of England were at risk of an assassination attempt. 145 Furthermore, on 13 May, John A. Garrett of New York wrote to a British consular officer and stated that he was suspicious of a certain individual in the city who supported the IRA bombing campaign. Garrett feared that the royal couple was at risk.146 Although these threats from New York were considered ‘not important’ by detectives, it is clear that once Russell’s whereabouts were publicised he was carefully followed to make sure that he did not get too close to the royal couple.147 With Russell heading northwards in the direction of Butte, Montana, US diplomats ‘assured’ the British Foreign Office that surveillance was continuing. It was believed that Russell ‘was more likely to cross into Canada than to come East’, and appropriate security measures were being undertaken with the Canadian border and immigration authorities.148 However, McGarrity, as described earlier, had arranged for Russell to return eastward through Chicago. On the morning of 1 June Russell arrived in Chicago and checked into the city’s Morrison Hotel under the name of ‘John’ Russell. A few hours after his arrival

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two Post Office inspectors, C.L. Klein and Perry McIntyre, entered the hotel.149 After confirming that Russell was inside, the two inspectors moved into an adjacent room and watched as two unidentified Irishmen with a ‘peculiar manner of speech’ entered Russell’s room. On 2 June the inspectors were forced to move out of the adjacent room due to it being ‘rented out’. However, they were able to report that ‘Russell spent practically the entire day … at the Morrison Hotel, in the company of two men later identified as F.J. Higgins and Matt Harper’. US officials were further informed by a hotel employee that Russell had inquired about trains due from Philadelphia. A ‘sealed note’ from Russell was subsequently left at the front desk addressed to McGarrity who was due to arrive with James Brislane. On 3 June Russell, McGarrity and Brislane met up and were later joined by Higgins, Harper and Michael Enright.150 Newspapers in Chicago had been advised of Russell’s visit and told that the IRA leader ‘could be interviewed’ and that he ‘might have some interesting news for them’, which turned out to be the announcement of ‘two public lectures … held under the auspices of the United Irish Societies and Irish Republican Army Clubs’.151 Inspector McIntyre decided to attend the first meeting at the Park Casino and noted that around 250 people, consisting of ‘mostly men’, were present at the gathering. The American national anthem was recited and Matt Harper and F.J. Higgins gave talks. McIntyre reported that Russell spoke of the common tactics of the bombing campaign: He pictured the soldier of the Irish Republican Army of today as being an ordinary citizen of England, living in a romming [sic] house or hotel, going about his business the same as any other person, who can be seen going down the street with a bundle under his arm and finally placing the bundle down somewhere and going on about his business, returning to his rooming place at the close of his day’s work the same as other working people. He advised that the next day this soldier reads in the papers about a bombing, and thereby sees the result of his previous day’s work.

After being ‘loudly applauded’, Russell appealed for funds. McGarrity followed Russell and asked for ‘financial and moral support’. Instead of money being collected at the event, audience members were handed ‘pledge cards’ detailing ‘arrangements … for collection of such funds’. At the closing of the meeting the Irish national anthem was sung.152 On 5 June Russell, McGarrity and Brislane left Chicago on the 10:00 a.m. train bound for Detroit, Michigan. Following them was Inspector Klein and waiting in Detroit were other US postal inspectors.153 After arriving at Michigan Central Station, the three men were approached by US immigration authorities. Russell was taken into custody and detained.154 A few hours

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later the US Department of State informed British Ambassador Sir Ronald Lindsay that Russell was ‘being arrested tonight at Detroit on the charge of “illegal entry”’.155 The explanation for the swift move was obvious for on 6 June King George VI and Queen Elizabeth arrived in the adjacent Canadian city of Windsor. Many Detroit residents crossed the border to catch a glimpse of the royal couple. Russell who, according to a newspaper correspondent, could hear the distant celebrations, remained in an ‘immigration detention cell’ in Detroit. He explained to reporters that his arrival in the city one day before the royal couple’s arrival in Windsor was ‘just coincidence’.156 Based on the chain of events from Russell’s public statement in Los Angeles to his Detroit visit, it is highly doubtful that his arrival in Detroit was unplanned. For months the Clan had been aware of the royal couple’s visit and had taken deliberate steps to counter affiliated news coverage and, in the process, create republican publicity of its own. The press coverage surrounding Russell during the previous two weeks, which included rumours of IRA and Nazi plans to kill the royal couple, certainly attracted attention. FBI reports and diplomatic correspondence portrayed a heightened sense of alert. But the fact that Russell was not arrested in Chicago while Post Office agents closely watched his activities, suggests a lack of any solid evidence against him. It was not until he arrived in Detroit, so close to the royal couple’s destination, that US officials were forced to detain him. Despite Russell’s absence the Clan publicity campaign proceeded. On the day the King and Queen visited Windsor an airplane flying above Detroit dropped ‘pamphlets’ with deep blue lettering with the statement, ‘Think – Americans – Think’. Included on the flyer was a historic quotation from George Washington and current information regarding England’s debt to the US. The statement read: ‘Today: The King and Queen of England, are on our Border; en route to the United States. Why are they coming? What is the motive? Is this a vacation tour? Or purely a propaganda mission?’ According to the notice, the protest was ‘Sponsored and distributed by a committee of Americans who believe in a revival of the spirit of “76”’. After receiving one of the pamphlets a Detroitbased British consular official visited the local printing office and discovered the publicity stunt was organised by an Irish ‘club’ with ‘three unpronounceable names’. He surmised, ‘I should imagine that this is the Clan-na-Gael’.157

‘The publicity we gained was worth One Hundred Thousand Dollars!’ Until Russell was detained on 5 June public support was drawn largely from the narrow group of republican activists. However, once he was arrested, publicity

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increased. Russell’s story was featured in newspapers across the US, including small local publications such as the Dunkirk Evening Observer in upstate New York and the Daily Mail in Hagerstown, Maryland.158 Meanwhile, McGarrity made contact with Congressman James McGranery, who sent Thomas Chawke, a local Detroit attorney, to meet with Russell.159 McGarrity also urged McGranery to take further political action on the matter.160 McGranery responded by addressing the US House of Representatives and condemned Russell’s arrest. According to McGranery, ‘a distinguished Irish soldier and citizen was placed under arrest by our Government and held incommunicado in Detroit’. McGranery acknowledged that he knew Russell and believed him to be ‘a distinguished soldier and … scholar’. Russell’s actions in Detroit were innocent and he was not ‘endangering the life or affronting the dignity of Their Majesties’ and the arrest was ‘a very stupid blunder’.161 Furthermore, McGranery threatened that if Russell was not immediately released, seventy-five US congressmen would boycott the upcoming Washington, DC, reception for the King and Queen.162 McGranery and other ‘Irish Members of Congress’, including Ohio Congressman Martin L. Sweeney and Connecticut Congressman John Joseph Smith, requested a meeting with President Roosevelt. According to General E.M. Watson, Roosevelt’s secretary, these members would ‘start resoluting’ if not given the meeting. Subsequently a fifteen minute session was organised.163 By this time Roosevelt knew that Russell’s arrest had occurred because he provided ‘false representations’. US consular officials in Dublin detailed that during the initial stages of his visa application Russell provided his name as ‘John’ Russell. After stating that his journey to the US was to visit his aunt and attend the World’s Fair, he was subsequently granted a one month visa, but had outstayed the period. 164 After posting a $5,000 bond, Russell was freed from a detention cell on 8 June.165 Two days later at his immigration hearing he was officially asked why he had extended his visit and his exact reasons for travelling to Detroit. Russell answered that he had intended returning to Ireland within the one month, but that McGarrity asked him to travel to the west coast. Russell did not consider the time limit ‘binding’. He said his original statement ‘was just an estimate of how long I thought I would be in this country’. In response to questions regarding his visit to Detroit, Russell, according to his attorney, stated that he ‘intended to visit friends here’. After Russell was released, his request for a three-month extension in the US was sent to the Department of Labor in Washington, DC, to be processed.166 On 11 June Russell, McGarrity and Brislane left Detroit on an overnight train to Philadelphia.167 Soon after arriving in Philadelphia Russell and McGarrity attended Sunday Mass. They were greeted by the Catholic parish priest who,

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according to McGarrity, ‘blessed Sean Russell and his noble cause’.168 By this time the travails of Russell had gained national and international attention. McGarrity believed ‘the publicity we gained was worth One Hundred Thousand Dollars!’169 On 14 June McGarrity and Russell were ‘guests’ of James McGranery in Washington, DC. McGarrity was excited to have an opportunity to explain ‘Ireland’s and [the] I.R.A.’s story’ to numerous politicians. According to McGarrity, he and Russell spoke with around twenty-five to thirty congressmen.170 For the next two weeks McGarrity and Russell attempted to progress with their publicity campaign. A Clan meeting was held in New York in the Transport Hall, where Russell discussed the IRA bombing campaign to a reported ‘overflow audience’ of 1,200 people.171 McGarrity attempted to organise further events in Chicago and £1,000 was sent to Peter Kearney in Ireland for the ‘campaign’. On 23 June McGarrity was informed by James McGranery that Russell would be allowed by the US government to ‘go on with his lectures, etc’.172 However, just as Russell was afforded an opportunity to move freely around, the Irish government outlawed the IRA.173 In England the bombing campaign continued; on 24 June four bombs exploded in central London in an apparent attack on banks. Although not killing anyone, the attacks injured nineteen, with thirteen people requiring hospital care.174 The connection between the Clan and the IRA was further displayed to the American public on 27 June when the New York Sun published the first of a three-part series of articles detailing the activities of New York-based republicans. Journalist Edmund Gilligan was brought to an undisclosed location in the Bronx, New York, and met with unnamed Clan members who clearly laid out the aims of the bombing campaign. As Gilligan noted in the first article of the series: ‘The existence of the state of war, the aims which the I.R.A. intends to achieve, and the extensive nature of the campaign of force, were revealed for the first time by New York officers of the I.R.A. and of the Clan-na-Gael, which joins in the work.’175 It is evident that Clan Treasurer James Conaty was involved with this meeting, for the article revealed that the ‘spokesman for the group, recently came from Ireland, where he took part in the training of the volunteers who led the invasion of England’.176 On 30 June the British Library of Information transmitted copies of the startling exposé to the British Foreign Office.177 Not only did these articles confirm to British authorities that Russell was fundraising for the bombing campaign in the US, but they also proved ‘that certain members of the Irish organisations’ in the US ‘were actively conspiring to assist in the Irish Republican Army in the matter’. Armed with the articles Victor Mallett, the counsellor for the British Embassy, met with J.C. Dunn, the

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adviser of political relations in the US Department of State, and asked if authorities could ‘put a stop to such proceedings’. Mallett warned that if these activities were not halted a British parliamentary investigation could ensue and embarrass the US government.178 On 29 July Dunn returned the newspaper clippings and indicated the articles were ‘very much exaggerated’. He believed the meeting between the republicans and the journalist was simply ‘for the purpose of helping to raise some of the funds they are after’ and it was ‘doubtful’ if these US-based republicans were ‘having any success outside of wildly fantastic circles’.179 On 2 July Russell and McGarrity gathered with members of the Philadelphia Clan at the Irish-American Club. This meeting, which resulted in $600 being raised, was their final meeting during the summer of 1939.180 Subsequently, McGarrity departed for Ireland and Russell ‘disappeared from the scene’.181 Over the next few weeks unsubstantiated rumours arrived at the British Embassy regarding Russell’s location. One British official questioned if it was true that Russell had ‘been expelled from the United States’.182 Another report stated that Russell and McGarrity were on their way to Germany ‘at the invitation of Adolf Hitler’.183 These stories were proven false for, in mid-August, British officials learned that Russell spoke at a meeting of the Irish-American National Alliance and McGarrity was reported by the US Department of State to be in Dublin.184 McGarrity, however, did not remain in Ireland for the entire summer. On 24 August he noted in his diary that he had spent the day strolling around the streets of Berlin, Germany, with two of his daughters.185 McGarrity’s visit to Germany appears to be much more than a family holiday excursion for, as Mark Hull reveals, he was likely involved in negotiations with the Germans in order to arrange for assistance with the bombing campaign. IRA member Jim O’Donovan, along with his wife, travelled to Germany during the same time as McGarrity and it is known that O’Donovan met with German intelligence officials.186 On 26 August, while McGarrity was having breakfast, he read of the previous day’s IRA bombing in Coventry, England, which injured 72 people and killed five others.187 This act, occurring at a time when O’Donovan and McGarrity were in consultation with German officials, raises the question of whether the IRA attempted to demonstrate its capabilities to the German government through the Coventry bombing. McGarrity seems to have anticipated the bombing and noted in his diary that ‘yesterday while I waited and hoped for action on part of the I.R.A. action was actually taking place in Coventry England’.188 If this bombing was planned with this effect in mind, it had failed. Writing on 31 August McGarrity noted, ‘I fear my Country men must not depend on foreign help if it comes well and good but come or not on

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the work must go’.189 After the German invasion of Poland, McGarrity and his family departed for the US on 12 September from Gothenburg, Sweden.190

Restricted and contained When McGarrity arrived in New York ten days later, he would have clearly seen an increase of security around New York Harbor to guard against any possible sabotage from foreign agents.191 Besides these precautionary measures, US citizens faced extremely stringent rules regarding travel outside of the country. Journeys to Europe were only allowed in extreme circumstances and Americans returning from abroad were required to hand over their existing passports to US Department of State officials.192 These security restrictions ultimately affected Seán Russell. Faced with meeting a 10 September deadline for his US departure Russell had disappeared after his speech in Chicago. In early September his attorney, Thomas Chawke, received a letter from a Detroit immigration official informing him that Russell would have to depart the US by 10 September 1939. He was required, however, to first appear in person before US immigration authorities. If Russell failed to comply, he would be deported.193 Determined to dictate his own personal future, Russell remained in the US after the deadline passed. His options for departing illegally, however, had now become extremely limited.194 It is clear that attempts were made by the Clan, with assistance from Connie Neenan, to smuggle Russell out of the country in the early autumn. On 4 October McGarrity travelled to New York and met with Russell but noted that ‘It does not look like C.S. [Russell] can sail tomorrow … for destination is England’. McGarrity, however, handed Neenan a £1,000 cheque which was to be shipped to Ireland for Peter Kearney.195 Clan fundraising continued with $1,500 raised in Philadelphia on 22 October. By early November around $4,000 was in the organisation’s treasury.196 As the Clan struggled with the deteriorating transatlantic connections, newspaper articles began to reveal the actual extent of American money and weaponry which had been used for the ‘S-plan’. On 20 September the New York Times detailed the arrests of IRA members Peadar O’Flaherty, William McGuinness, Lawrence Grogan and Patrick McGrath.197 These republicans had been arrested in Ireland days after the passage of emergency government legislature which allowed for the internment of individuals suspected of being subversive threats.198 Besides possessing IRA documents and firearms, two of the men were found to have ‘more than $8,000’ in their possession.199 Two weeks later another report from an unnamed source revealed that Russell had arranged for a ‘shipment’ of £250,000 ‘worth of arms and

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ammunition’ for the IRA. Besides ‘$60,300 worth of explosives’ commissioned for the IRA, another $100,500 had been supposedly raised during Russell’s US tour.200 In England the bombing campaign, with its dramatic and deadly climax in Coventry during late August, had significantly regressed.201 Besides facing an increase in security in cities and ports, IRA members throughout England contended with measures stemming from a Prevention of Violence (Temporary Provisions) Bill passed in Parliament in July.202 This bill, which gave British officials wide powers to detain, expel and eliminate rights of appeal, was utilised throughout the summer, including the period following the Coventry bombing. Two IRA members, Peter Barnes and James Richards (also known as James McCormick), were subsequently detained for their suspected role in the Coventry explosion and, by October, both were charged with murder.203 On 15 December the American public read that Barnes and Richards had been convicted the day before of ‘assisting’ in the bombing and were facing a sentence of execution. The conviction was based on Richards’ admission that he had supplied the powder for the bomb, as well as the bicycle which hid the explosive. Barnes, for his part, fully denied being involved.204 Two days after the punishment was announced McGarrity had ‘read the bad news … and felt depressed’. In a letter to Seán Russell McGarrity implored him to also ‘kick off depression’. It was vital that ‘every honorable means’ be used ‘to stop the executions’. He noted that he had requested that Congressman James McGranery get ‘some move started at once’ and exert political pressure. Overall, McGarrity held true to the belief that ‘when things look bleakest a “break” will come’.205

Notes   1 New York Times, 4 July 1936.    2 NACP, RG 59, IARINI, 1930–44, M1231/13, 841D.513/88, Andrews to Styles, American Consul, 15 March 1940; CCCA, CNP, PR7/7, Connie Neenan memoirs, 142, 153.    3 NAB, RG 85, PCLNY, 1897–1957, entry for ‘Joseph McGarrity’, arrived 23 January 1936 on SS Manhattan, T715, 5756, 19, 1 (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 9 November 2010).    4 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,490, Twomey to McGarrity, 7 October 1935; Tarpey, The role of Joseph McGarrity, 298–9.    5 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,490, Twomey to McGarrity, 7 October 1935; Tarpey, The role of Joseph McGarrity, 298; Hanley, The IRA, 1926–1936, 142–4.    6 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,485, Russell to McGarrity, 2 May 1936.   7 Bell, The secret army, 126.

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   8 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,485, Russell to McGarrity, 2 May 1936.   9 New York Times, 24 May 1936. During 1935 sectarian violence between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland escalated dramatically. See Hanley, The IRA, 1926– 1936, 156–7.   10 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,485, McGarrity to Russell, 16 June 1936; Tarpey, The role of Joseph McGarrity, 300. During this time, IRA members from Northern Ireland did not play a dominant role in the overall leadership structure of the IRA, evidenced by the fact that the Army Council was represented solely by southern-based members. See Hanley, The IRA, 1926–1936, 160.  11 Irish Times, 20 June 1936; New York Times, 20 June 1936.   12 Seán MacBride, That day’s struggle: a memoir 1904–1951, ed. Caitriona Lawlor (Dublin, 2005), 121.   13 NAB, RG 85, PCLNY, 1897–1957, entry for ‘John Russell’, arrived 21 July 1936 on Ile De France, T715, 5384, 28, 2 (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 10 November 2010). Based on the passenger list and correspondence from the period, it does not appear that an IRA representative from Belfast travelled with Russell.   14 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,542(4), Clan na Gael circular from McGarrity and Parkhill, 27 July 1936.   15 NAI, Department of Justice (hereafter JUS), 8/802, Daily News (New York), 15 August 1936.   16 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,539, Executive, Clan na Gael to Chairman, A/C, 8 October 1934; Cronin, The McGarrity papers, 162; Tarpey, The role of Joseph McGarrity, 294–6.  17 Cronin, The McGarrity papers, 162.   18 NACP, RG 84, Ireland, Dublin Consulate, General Records, 1936–47 (hereafter DCGR, 1936–47), Box 1, 800-885, Anderson to Phillips, Acting Secretary of State, 22 August 1936.   19 NACP, RG 84, DCGR, 1936–47, Box 1, File 800, unsigned to American Consular Officer in Charge, 10 September 1936.  20 NACP, RG 84, DCGR, 1936–47, Box 1, 800/811.11, Balch, American Consul General to Secretary of State, Washington, DC, 5 October 1936; NACP, RG 84, DCGR, 1936–47, Box 1, 800/811.11, Woods, American Consul, Cork to Balch, American Consul General, Dublin, 6 October 1936.   21 NACP, RG 84, DCGR, 1936–47, Box 1, 800/811.11, Owsley to Secretary of State, 20 October 1936.  22 NAI, JUS 8/802, memorandum from Mansfield, Garda Siochána, Metropolitan Division, Special Branch, Dublin Castle, ‘Seán Russell, Q.M.G. I.R.A.’, 5 October 1936.   23 NACP, RG 84, DCGR, 1936–47, Box 1, 800–885, Owsley to Secretary of State, 20 October 1936.   24 NACP, RG 84, DCGR, 1936–47, Box 1, 800–885, Owsley to Secretary of State, 20 October 1936.   25 VUSC, JMcGCVU, Group II, Series II, Box 2, Folder 5, McGarrity diary, 5,6,7 September, 1936.

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  26 Ibid.; Tarpey, The role of Joseph McGarrity, 302.   27 VUSC, JMcGCVU, Group II, Series II, Box 2, Folder 5, McGarrity diary, 3 October 1936.   28 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,543 (2), McGarrity to Russell, 15 October 1936.   29 VUSC, JMcGCVU, Group II, Series II, Box 2, Folder 5, McGarrity diary, 11 October 1936; Tarpey, The role of Joseph McGarrity, 306–7; NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,485, Russell to Luther, 25 October 1936.   30 VUSC, JMcGCVU, Group II, Series II, Box 2, Folder 5, McGarrity diary, 29 October 1936; NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,542 (1), John O’Hara Harte authorisation, signed by Seán Russell, witnesses, Joseph McGarrity and Seán Hayes, 26 October 1936; NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,485, Russell to McGarrity, 12 January 1937; NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,485, Russell to McGarrity, 29 January 1937;Tarpey, The role of Joseph McGarrity, 307–11; Cronin, The McGarrity papers, 162–3; Coogan, The IRA, 89.  31 Cronin, The McGarrity papers, 163.   32 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,485, Russell to McGarrity, 12 January 1937; NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,485, Russell to McGarrity, 15 January 1937.   33 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,485, Russell to McGarrity, 29 January 1937.  34 Bell, The secret army, 134–6; Meda Ryan, Tom Barry: IRA freedom fighter (Cork, 2003), 222.  35 Bell, The secret army, 136; NLI, JMcGP, Ms, 17,485, Russell to McGarrity, 29 January 1937.   36 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,543 (2), McGarrity to Brislane, 27 January 1937; Bell, The secret army, 136.   37 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,543 (2), McGarrity to Brislane, 27 January 1937.   38 UCDA, ÉdVP), P150/1225, Barry to Byrne, 7 April 1937; SJSUSC, JBC, Series 2, Box 3, Folder 37, Byrne to MacBride, 30 October 1936; Timothy J. Sarbaugh, ‘Culture, militancy and de Valera: Irish-American republican nationalism in California, 1900–1936’ (MA thesis, San José State University, 1980), 167–8.   39 UCDA, ÉdVP, P150/1225, Barry to Byrne, 7 April 1937.   40 As noted in Chapter 3, Conaty served in the IRA Fourth Northern Division before returning to the US in May 1925. He served a total of eight years in the IRA. See UCDA, MTP, P69/167 (105), names of emigrating IRA members, ‘Seamus Conaty’, undated. During a 1949 court hearing, Conaty stated that he was the Clan na Gael national treasurer and that he was born in the US. See LOC, James P. McGranery Papers (hereafter JPMP), Box 44, Folder 2, James J. Conaty, ‘Direct Examination’, in the United States Eastern Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, James Brislane, individually and as Trustees ad litem for Clan na Gael of New York, an unincorporated association vs. James P. McGranery and Kathryn McGarrity, the Reverend Peter McGarrity and William C. Carroll, executors of the estate of Joseph McGarrity, deceased, 28 March 1949’, 128–32.   41 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,543 (5), Telegram from Russell to McGarrity, 4 June 1937.   42 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,485, Russell to McGarrity, 30 June 1937.   43 NAI, JUS 8/802, San Francisco Chronicle, 1 July 1937.

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 44 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,485, Russell to McGarrity, 3 August 1937; Cronin, The McGarrity papers, 164.   45 Ibid., Ms. 17,485, Russell to McGarrity, c. August 1937.  46 New York Times, 29 July 1937; Raymond J. Quinn, A rebel voice: a history of Belfast republicanism 1925–1972 (Belfast, 1999), 51.   47 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,543 (4), ‘Chairman’s report to the convention of the Clan-naGael held in New York’, 4–6 September 1937.  48 Ibid.   49 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,543 (4), ‘Headquarters of the V.C. [Clan na Gael]’, ‘newly elected D.A. [Executive Council]’, 7 September 1937. As noted in Chapter 3, Brosnan and Brislane arrived in the US in 1924 and 1926 respectively. Brosnan was a member of the First Kerry Brigade. See CCCA, CNP, PR7/1, Connie Neenan interview transcripts, undated, Belt 1, 1; Liam Deasy, Brother against brother (Cork, 1998), 55. Brislane noted in a 1949 court hearing that he arrived in the US in 1926 and was the Clan’s secretary during the late 1930s. See LOC, JPMP, Box 44, Folder 2, James Brislane, Direct Examination, in the United States Eastern Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, case of ‘James Brislane, individually and as Trustees ad litem for Clan na Gael of New York, an unincorporated association vs. James P. McGranery and Kathryn McGarrity, the Reverend Peter McGarrity and William C. Carroll, executors of the estate of Joseph McGarrity, deceased, 28 March 1949’, 82–4.   50 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,543 (1), unsigned [Conaty] to ‘J’ [McGarrity], 21 August 1937.   51 NAB, RG 85, PCLNY, 1897–1957, entry for ‘James Conaty’, arrived 15 September 1937 on SS President Harding, T715, 6045, 188, 2 (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 10 November 2010); NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,543 (1), Brislane to McGarrity, 27 September 1937.  52 NAB, RG 85, PCLNY, 1897–1957, entry for ‘Joseph McGarrity’, arrived 29 October 1937 on SS Manhattan, T715, 6070, 22, 12 (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 10 November 2010); NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,543 (4), ‘F.D. for the Clan Executive’ [McGarrity] to ‘men of the Clan-na-Gael’, 28 October 1937.   53 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,485, Russell to McGarrity, 5 November 1937. O’Flaherty was removed from his position of adjutant general in early 1937. See Bell, The secret army, 136.  54 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,543 (1), Mullane to McGarrity, 1 November 1937; NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,543 (4), ‘For the executive’ to Chairman, A/C, 8 November 1937.   55 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,543 (4), ‘For the executive’ to Chairman, A/C, 8 November 1937. Fitzpatrick succeeded Barry as IRA chief of staff during mid-1937. See Bell, The secret army, 136–7.  56 Cronin, The McGarrity papers, 164; NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,543 (4), ‘For the executive’ to Chairman, A/C, 8 November 1937.  57 UCDA, FAP, P104/2833 (1), Statement to the General Army Convention from the outgoing Army Council and Executive, c. March 1938. The actual month of the convention was mentioned in a letter from Brislane to McGarrity. See NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,547 (1), Brislane to McGarrity, 9 February 1940.

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 58 Bell, The secret army, 145–7.   59 Ibid., 146.   60 Ibid., NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,542 (3), ‘Officers and members of the Clan-na-Gael’, from A. of D.A., F. of D.A., Y. of D.A. [Chairman, Treasurer, Secretary], c. April 1938; Coogan, The IRA, 90.   61 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,485, Russell to McGarrity, 7 May 1938.  62 Bell, The secret army, 147.   63 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,544 (1), Brislane to McGarrity, 12 May 1938.   64 NAB, RG 85, PCLNY, 1897–1957, entry for ‘James Brislane’, arrived 9 June 1938 on SS Manhattan, T715, 6165, 47, 4 (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 30 July 2011). To provide a certain amount of flexibility for his travels in Ireland, McGarrity shipped his own automobile. See NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,544 (2), Scanlon, American Travel Exchange to McGarrity, 15 June 1938.  65 Irish Independent, 18 December 1937; Bell, The secret army, 146; MacEoin, Survivors, 397.  66 Jane Cole Woods, ‘“To blow and burn England from her moorings”: the Irish Republican Army and the English bombing campaign of 1939’ (PhD thesis, University of Kentucky, 1995), 28–30; McMahon, British spies and Irish rebels, 266–7; David O’Donoghue, The devil’s deal: the IRA, Nazi Germany and the double life of Jim O’Donovan (Dublin, 2010), 250–77.   67 NAB, RG 85, PCLNY, 1897–1957, entry for ‘Joseph McCarrity [sic]’, arrived 15 April 1938 on SS Deutschland, T715, 6140, 60, 1 (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 10 November 2010); USDOJ, FBI, IRAFFBI, New York, File 61-555, ‘Irish Activities in the United States’, 4 October 1939.   68 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,544 (1), Brislane to McGarrity, 24 August 1938.   69 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,544 (4), ‘Confidential and urgent’, A. of D.A., F. of D.A., Y. of D.A. [Chairman, Treasurer, Secretary of Clan na Gael] to ‘Men of the Clan na Gael’, 15 August 1938.   70 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,544 (4), Mullane for the Executive to officers and members of the Clan na Gael, New York local headquarters,‘Report of Clan-Na-Gael Convention’, 3–5 September 1938.   71 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,550, McGarrity to Enright, 21 September 1938.  72 VUSC, JMcGCVU, Group II, Series VII, Box 6, Folder 10, ‘To the Irish Race Everywhere & All Lovers of Liberty’, The IRA Army Council, October 1938.   73 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,544 (4), List of newspapers, c. September 1938; NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,544 (4), Press Committee of Clan na Gael to Chicago Tribune, 5 September 1938.   74 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,544 (4), ‘Clan na Gael Holds Convention’, c. September 1938. As part of the 1938 Anglo-Irish agreement the Irish government agreed to pay £10 million to England by the end of the year. The ‘treaty ports’ were also returned. See J.J. Lee, Ireland 1912–1985, 214. For a detailed examination of this agreement and the overall dynamics of Anglo-Irish relations during the 1930s, see Deirdre McMahon, Republicans and imperialists: Anglo-Irish relations in the 1930s (New Haven, 1984).   75 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,544 (4), ‘Clan na Gael Holds Convention’, c. September 1938.

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  76 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,544 (2), O’Brien to McGarrity, 13 September 1938.   77 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,485, Russell to McGarrity, 21 September 1938.   78 Ibid.; NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,543 (4), ‘Headquarters of the V.C. [Clan na Gael]’, ‘newly elected D.A. [Executive Council]’, 7 September 1937; NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,544 (2), O’Brien to McGarrity, 12 October 1938; NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,544 (3), McGarrity to O’Brien, 24 October 1938. O’Brien first arrived in the US in early 1928. See NAB, RG 85, Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at Boston, Massachusetts, 1917– 43, entry for ‘Cornelius O’Brien’, arrived 19 February 1928 on SS Carmania, T938, 332, 140, 9 (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 12 November 2010).   79 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,544 (2), O’Brien to McGarrity, 12 October 1938. In December Russell stated to McGarrity that ‘Con reports favourably on the Cork situation, especially Denis O’Connor of North Cork and Liam Leddy of North East Cork. They wish for an understanding’. See NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,485, Russell to McGarrity, 1 December 1938.   80 VUSC, JMcGCVU, Group II, Series I, Box 1, Folder 5, Clan na Gael and IRA Veterans and McGarrity to Hull, 18 November 1938. For information on the trade agreement, see New York Times, 17 November 1938 and 18 November 1938.   81 See VUSC, JMcGCVU, Group II, Series I, Box 1, Folder 5, ‘By leave of His Majesty, a mean deception exposed’, c. November 1938 to c. March 1939.   82 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,544 (3), O’Connor, Lenahan, et al to Brislane, 1 November 1938.  83 New York Times, 13 November 1938.   84 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,485, Russell to McGarrity, 1 December 1938. The accident Russell referred to was when two IRA members, James Reynolds and John Kelly, were killed while a mine they were carrying accidentally exploded. See Bell, The secret army, 153.  85 New York Times, 2 December 1938.   86 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,485, Russell to McGarrity, 1 December 1938; Tarpey, The role of Joseph McGarrity, 324–5; Cronin, The McGarrity papers, 167–8.  87 NLI, JMcGP, Ms.17,544 (2), O’Hara Harte to McGarrity, 21 December 1938; Robert Cole, Propaganda, censorship and Irish neutrality in the Second World War (Edinburgh, 2006),10.   88 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,485, Russell to McGarrity, 1 December 1938; NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,485, Russell to McGarrity, 14 December 1938; Tarpey, The role of Joseph McGarrity, 325–6; Coogan, The IRA, 92; Bell, The secret army, 154.   89 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,485, Russell to McGarrity, 1 December 1938.  90 New York Times, 23 December 1938.  91 New York Times, 30 December 1938.   92 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,546 (4), McGarrity and Brislane to Kearney, 16 January 1939; Tarpey, The role of Joseph McGarrity, 328–9.  93 Ibid.; New York Times, 16 January 1939.   94 Woods, ‘“To blow and burn England from her moorings”’, 35–7; New York Times, 17 January 1939.

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  95 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,485, Russell to McGarrity, 25 January 1939.   96 NACP, RG 84, Foreign Service Posts of the Department of State, London Embassy, 1939, 800, Box 65, Schoenfield, First Secretary of Embassy to Secretary of State, 8 February 1939.  97 Daily News (New York), 13 February 1939; McMahon, British spies and Irish rebels, 271–2.   98 TNA, FO, 371/22831, Canning to Police Commissioner, New York City, 14 March 1939.  99 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,546 (2), McKiernan to McGarrity, 14 March 1939; NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,546 (2), McKiernan to McGarrity, c. March 1939. For more information on the life of McKiernan, see Anonymous, ‘Eoin McKiernan’, in Michael Glazier (ed.), The encyclopedia of the Irish in America (Notre Dame, 1999), 594–5 100 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,544 (5), ‘Great citizens mass meeting to demand Ireland’s independence’, c. February 1939; Rorin Platt, ‘Senator Robert Rice Reynolds: an atypical tar heel politician and isolationist’, North Carolina History Project (www. northcarolinahistory.org/commentary/108/entry/) (accessed 24 October 2010); Philip Jenkins, Hoods and shirts: the extreme right in Pennsylvania, 1925–1950 (Chapel Hill, 1997) 180–1. 101 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,544 (5), ‘Great citizens mass meeting to demand Ireland’s independence’, c. February 1939. 102 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,546 (6), ‘An appeal to the President of our country’, signed by McGranery, c. February 1939; NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,550, McGarrity to Enright, 7 March 1939. The Clan also sent the published report of the passed resolutions ‘to every congressmen and every Senator’. See NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,546 (4), McGarrity to Brislane, 25 February 1939. 103 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,546 (4), McGarrity to Murr[a]y, 6 February 1939; NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,546 (6), Irish Patriot Martyrs Memorial Meeting, 2 April 1939. 104 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,546 (1), Brislane to McGarrity, 6 March 1939; NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,546 (2), Peter MacSwiney to McGarrity, 10 April 1939. According to the Boston Post, Peter MacSwiney spoke to about 250 members. See VUSC, JMcGCVU, Group II, Series II, Box 2, Folder 6, McGarrity diary, Boston Post, 10 April 1939. 105 New York Times, 29 March 1939. 106 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,546 (1), Brislane to McGarrity (Brislane’s clipping is from an unidentified newspaper), 29 March 1939. 107 New York Times, 29 March 1939; Woods, ‘“To blow and burn England from her moorings”’, 226–7. 108 VUSC, JMcGCVU, Group II, Series II, Box 2, Folder 6, McGarrity diary, 12 April 1939. 109 Ibid.; New York Times, 31 May 1939. 110 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,546 (3), ‘Sheamus’ [Conaty] to McGarrity, 16 April 1939. 111 Before departing Ireland, Russell officially transferred the IRA chief of staff duties to Stephen Hayes. See Bell, The secret army, 138–9. NAB, RG 85, PCLNY, 1897–1957, entry for ‘John Russell’, arrived 15 April on SS Washington, T715, 6313, 168, 8 (www.

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ancestry.com) (accessed 10 November 2010); VUSC, JMcGCVU, Group II, Series II, Box 2, Folder 6, McGarrity diary, 16 April 1939. 112 VUSC, JMcGCVU, Group II, Series II, Box 2, Folder 6, McGarrity diary, 16 April 1939. For more information regarding the IRA and the Nazi connection during this time, see Eunan O’Halpin, ‘British intelligence, the Republican movement and the IRA’s German links 1935–45’, in Fearghal McGarry (ed.), Republicanism in modern Ireland (Dublin, 2003), 108–31; Cronin, The McGarrity papers, 170; McMahon, British spies and Irish rebels, 272–3; Carolle J. Carter, The shamrock and the swastika: German espionage in Ireland in World War II (Palo Alto, 1977), 101–3; Mark M. Hull, Irish secrets: German espionage in Ireland 1939–1945 (Dublin, 2003), 41–4. 113 See Bell, The secret army, 157–8; Eunan O’Halpin, Defending Ireland: The Irish State and its enemies since 1922 (Oxford, 1999), 147; Hull, Irish secrets, 55–7. 114 Irish Military Archives, Dublin G2/X/0093, Report from ‘Captain K’., G-2 Southern, 23 November 1943; McMahon, British spies and Irish rebels, 272–3. 115 The royal visit was first announced to the US public in November 1938. See New York Times, 13 November 1938. 116 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,546 (2), McKiernan to McGarrity, 14 March 1939. 117 Ibid. 118 VUSC, JMcGCVU, Group II, Series II, Box 2, Folder 6, McGarrity diary, 17 April 1939. 119 VUSC, JMcGCVU, Group II, Series II, Box 2, Folder 6, McGarrity diary, 22 April 1939. 120 VUSC, JMcGCVU, Group II, Series II, Box 2, Folder 6, McGarrity diary, 27 April 1939; New York Times, 28 April 1939; Stephen Kelly, Fianna Fáil, Partition and Northern Ireland 1926–1971 (Dublin, 2013), 85–6. 121 VUSC, JMcGCVU, Group II, Series II, Box 2, Folder 6, McGarrity diary, 5 May 1939; VUSC, JMcGCVU, Group II, Box 2, Folder 6, McGarrity diary, 6 May 1939. 122 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,546 (6), Clan na Gael convention, ‘Chairman of the Executive reports as follows’, 6 May 1939. 123 VUSC, JMcGCVU, Group II, Series II, Box 2, Folder 6, McGarrity diary, 7 May 1939; VUSC, JMcGCVU, Group II, Box 2, Folder 5, McGarrity diary, 9 May 1939. 124 VUSC, JMcGCVU, Group II, Series II, Box 2, Folder 6, McGarrity diary, 11 May 1939. 125 VUSC, JMcGCVU, Group II, Series II, Box 2, Folder 6, McGarrity diary, 12 May 1939. 126 TNA, FO, 371/22831, ‘Extract from Los Angeles Examiner’, 15 May 1939 127 TNA, FO, 371/22831, Evans, British Consulate, Los Angeles to Lindsay, Ambassador, British Embassy, VUSC, JMcGCVU, Group II, Series II, Box 2, Folder 6, McGarrity diary, 16 May 1939. 128 New York Times, 17 May 1939. 129 TNA, FO, 371/22831, Foreign Office to Lindsay, 17 May 1939. 130 TNA, FO, 371/22831, Lindsay to Foreign Office, 19 May 1939. 131 TNA, FO, 371/22831, ‘Notes of speech delivered by Mr. Sean Russell at the Knights of the Red Branch Hall, San Francisco’, 19 May 1939.

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132 NAI, JUS 8/802, ‘Resolutions passed at the citizens mass meeting held in San Francisco under the auspices of the Irish Republican Societies of San Francisco’, 19 May 1939. 133 TNA, FO, 371/22831, ‘Notes of speech delivered by Mr. Sean Russell at the Knights of the Red Branch Hall, San Francisco’, 19 May 1939; NAI, DOJ, JUS 8/802, M. Murphy to Secretary, Department of External Affairs, 1 June 1939. 134 NAI, JUS 8/802, M. Murphy to Secretary, Department of External Affairs, 1 June 1939. McGarrity was aware that the ensuing newspaper coverage of Russell was sparse, noting in his diary that the ‘Newspapers made no mention of meeting’. See VUSC, JMcGCVU, Group II, Series II, Box 2, Folder 6, McGarrity diary, c. 20 May 1939. 135 VUSC, JMcGCVU, Group II, Series II, Box 2, Folder 6, McGarrity diary, 18 May 1939. 136 VUSC, JMcGCVU, Group II, Series II, Box 2, Folder 6, McGarrity diary, 21 May 1939. 137 TNA, FO, 371/22831, Chancery to American Department, Foreign Office, 29 May 1939. 138 USDOJ, FBI, IRAFFBI, Butte, Montana, ‘Irish Republican Army’, Internal SecurityIrish, File No. 100-3533, 14 January 1943. 139 NAI, JUS 8/802, San Francisco News, 29 May 1939. 140 TNA, FO, 371/22831, Chancery to American Department, Foreign Office, 29 May 1939; TNA, FO, 371/22831, Evans to Lindsay, 23 May 1939. 141 VUSC, JMcGCVU, Group II, Series II, Box 2, Folder 6, McGarrity diary, 29 May 1939. 142 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,546 (2), Murray to McGarrity, 29 May 1939. For more information on Murray (née Hoyne), see An Phoblacht, 11 October 1930. 143 NACP, RG 59, Records of the Department of State relating to internal affairs of Great Britain, 1930–9 (hereafter IAGB, 1930–9), M1455/15, 841.001 George VI/834, New York Herald Tribune, 21 April 1939. 144 NACP, RG 59, IAGB, 1930–9, M1455/15, 841.001 George VI/588, unsigned to Chief Constable Canning, c. May 1939. 145 NACP, RG 59, IAGB, 1930–9, M1455/15, 841.001 George VI/588, ‘Irish Republican Army Man’ to New York City Police Commissioner, Valentine, 9 May 1939. 146 NACP, RG 59, IAGB, 1930–9, M1455/15, 841.001 George VI/588, Garrett to Haggard, British Consulate, 13 May 1939. 147 NACP, RG 59, IAGB, 1930–9, M1455/15, 841.001 George VI/562, F.W. to Messersmith, 1 June 1939. 148 TNA, FO, 371/22831, Chancery to American Department, Foreign Office, 29 May 1939. 149 NACP, RG 59, IARINI, 1930–44, 841D.00/1192, M1231/2, Imus, Inspector in Charge to Bannerman, Chief Special Agent, Department of State, 9 June 1939. It is unclear why the Department of State used Postal Service agents as part of this investigation. However, it is possible that McGarrity’s connections with the Irish Hospitals Sweepstake and the Postal Service’s role in the Sweepstake investigations

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may have precipitated their involvement. Six US government agencies at this time were involved with espionage investigations in the US. See G.J.A. O’Toole, The encyclopedia of American intelligence and espionage: from the revolutionary war to the present (New York, 1988), 183. 150 NACP, RG 59, IARINI, 1930–44, M1231/2, 841D.00/1192, Imus, Inspector in Charge to Bannerman, Chief Special Agent, Department of State, 9 June 1939. 151 McGarrity checked into the hotel under the surname of ‘McErrity’. See NACP, RG 59, IARINI, 1930–44, M1231/2, 841D.00/1192, Imus, Inspector in Charge to Bannerman, Chief Special Agent, Department of State, 9 June 1939. 152 F.J. Higgins was also known as Martin Higgins. See NACP, RG 59, IARINI, 1930– 44, M1231/2, 841D.00/1192, Imus, Inspector in Charge to Bannerman, Chief Special Agent, Department of State, 9 June 1939. 153 NACP, RG 59, IARINI, 1930–44, M1231/2, 841D.00/1192, Imus, Inspector in Charge to Bannerman, Chief Special Agent, Department of State, 9 June 1939. 154 VUSC, JMcGCVU, Group II, Series II, Box 2, Folder 6, McGarrity diary, c. 6 June 1939. 155 TNA, FO, 371/22831, Lindsay to Foreign Office, 5 June 1939. 156 New York Times, 7 June 1939. 157 TNA, FO, 371/22801, Miller to Bray, 15 June 1939; TNA, FO, 371/22801, ‘ThinkAmericans-Think’ pamphlet, c. June 1939. 158 Dunkirk Evening Observer, 6 June 1939 (www.newspaperarchive.com) (accessed 11 November 2010); Daily Mail, 6 June 1939 (www.newspaperarchive.com) (accessed 11 November 2010). For insight into the reaction of Irish newspapers during this time, see Cole, Propaganda, 13–14. 159 CCCA, CNP, PR7/7, Connie Neenan memoirs, 156; LOC, JPMP, Box 44, Folder 1, Chawke to Carroll, 16 September 1939. 160 VUSC, JMcGCVU, Group II, Series II, Box 2, Folder 6, McGarrity to McGranery (located in McGarrity diary), 7 June 1939. 161 NACP, RG 59, IARINI, 1930–44, M1231/2, 841D.00/1189, excerpt of Congressional Record, 7 June 1939. 162 New York Times, 8 June 1939. 163 Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, President’s Office File 3705: Russell, Seán, 1939, Memorandum for the President, 7 June 1939; New York Times, 7 June 1939. 164 FDRL, OF 3705: Russell, Seán, 1939, Messersmith, Department of State to Watson, 7 June 1939. 165 NACP, RG 59, IARINI, 1930–44, M1231/2, 841D.00/1193, Imus to Bannerman, 13 June 1939. 166 Ibid.; LOC, JPMP, Box 44, Folder 1, Chawke to US Department of Labor Immigration and Naturalization Service, ‘In the matter of John Russell or Sean Russell’, File 8811/ A-1630, Department Warrant 56011/571, c. June 1939. 167 NACP, RG 59, IARINI, 1930–44, M1231/2, 841D.00/1193, Imus to Bannerman, 13 June 1939.

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168 VUSC, JMcGCVU, Group II, Series II, Box 2, Folder 6, McGarrity diary, 11 June 1939. 169 CCCA, CNP, PR7/7, Connie Neenan memoirs, 156; Tarpey, The role of Joseph McGarrity, 333. 170 LOC, JPMP, Box 44, Folder 1, McGarrity to Chawke, 13 June 1939; VUSC, JMcGCVU, Group II, Series II, Box 2, Folder 6, McGarrity diary, 14 June 1939. 171 VUSC, JMcGCVU, Group II, Series II, Box 2, Folder 6, McGarrity diary, newspaper clipping, New York Sun, 16 June 1939. 172 VUSC, JMcGCVU, Group II, Series II, Box 2, Folder 6, McGarrity diary, 23 June 1939. 173 Woods, ‘“To blow and burn England from her moorings”’, 167. 174 Ibid., 168–70; VUSC, JMcGCVU, Group II, Series II, Box 2, Folder 6, McGarrity diary, 25 June 1939. 175 TNA, FO, 371/22831, New York Sun, 27 June 1939. 176 Ibid. 177 TNA, FO, 371/22831, Directors of British Library of Information to Dudley, Esq., 30 June 1939. One of the responsibilities of the British Library of Information was to channel anti-British propaganda found in the US to the British government. See Whelan, United States foreign policy, 449. 178 TNA, FO, 371/22831, Signed for Lindsay to The Viscount Halifax, Esq., 13 July 1939. 179 TNA, FO, 371/22831, Dunn to Mallett, Q.M.G., Counselor of the British Embassy, Washington, DC, 29 July 1930. 180 VUSC, JMcGCVU, Group II, Series II, Box 2, Folder 6, McGarrity diary, 2 July 1939; Group II, Series II, Box 2, Folder 6, McGarrity diary, 3 July 1939. 181 TNA, FO, 371/22831, Lindsay to The Viscount Halifax, Esq., 13 July 1939. 182 TNA, FO, 371/22831, Private Secretary to Lindsay, 9 August 1939. 183 TNA, FO, 371/22831, Palmer to Leach, British Consulate General, New York, 29 July 1939. A copy of this report was passed on to the British Embassy. 184 TNA, FO, 371/22831, Lindsay to Private Secretary, 15 August 1939; New York Times, 13 August 1939. 185 VUSC, JMcGCVU, Group II, Series II, Box 2, Folder 7, McGarrity diary, 24 August 1939. 186 Hull, Irish secrets, 62; Eunan O’Halpin, Spying on Ireland: British intelligence and Irish neutrality during the Second World War (Oxford, 2008), 41; O’Donoghue, The devil’s deal, 135. 187 VUSC, JMcGCVU, Group II, Series II, Box 2, Folder 7, McGarrity diary, 26 August 1939; O’Donoghue, The devil’s deal, 154–5. 188 VUSC, JMcGCVU, Group II, Series II, Box 2, Folder 7, McGarrity diary, 26 August 1939. 189 VUSC, JMcGCVU, Group II, Series II, Box 2, Folder 7, McGarrity diary, 31 August 1939. 190 VUSC, JMcGCVU, Group II, Series II, Box 2, Folder 7, McGarrity diary, 10 September 1939; VUSC, JMcGCVU, Group II, Series II, Box 2, Folder 7, McGarrity

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diary, 11 September 1939; NAB, RG 85, PCLNY, 1897–1957, entry for ‘Joseph McGarrity’, arrived 22 September 1939 on SS Drottningholm, T715, 6401, 10, 15 (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 12 November 2010). 191 NAB, RG 85, PCLNY, 1897–1957, entry for ‘Joseph McGarrity’, arrived 22 September 1939 on SS Drottningholm, T715, 6401, 10, 15 (www.ancestry.com) (accessed 12 November 2010); New York Times, 7 September 1939. 192 New York Times, 5 September 1939. 193 LOC, JPMP, Box 44, Folder 1, Ross, US Department of Labor Immigration and Naturalization Service to Chawke, 1 September 1939. 194 Connie Neeenan personally warned Russell to depart the US during the summer, but according to Neenan, ‘he did not want to go’. See MacEoin, Survivors, 253. 195 Years later, Neenan stated that he told Russell, ‘If you are stuck I can still show you six ways of getting out’. See MacEoin, Survivors, 253. Neenan is noted as ‘C.N’. in McGarrity’s diary entry. See VUSC, JMcGCVU, Group II, Series II, Box 2, Folder 8, McGarrity diary, 4 October 1939. 196 VUSC, JMcGCVU, Group II, Series II, Box 2, Folder 8, McGarrity diary, 22 October 1939; VUSC, JMcGCVU, Group II, Series II, Box 2, Folder 8, McGarrity diary, 5 November 1939. 197 New York Times, 20 September 1939. 198 John Maguire, IRA internments and the Irish government: subversives and the state 1939– 1962 (Dublin, 2008), 25–7. 199 New York Times, 20 September 1939; Bell, The secret army, 168–9. 200 New York Times, 2 October 1939. 201 Woods, ‘“To blow and burn England from her moorings”’, 390–1. 202 Ibid.; Bell, The secret army, 169–71; Coogan, The IRA, 97–8. 203 Coogan, The IRA, 99; Woods, ‘“To blow and burn England from her moorings”’, 429–37. By early 1940, it had become apparent that James Richards’ real name was in fact James McCormick. Nonetheless, leading Irish republicans in the US as well as American newspapers continued to refer to McCormick as James Richards. In order to allow for consistency and eliminate confusion, McCormick’s alias, James Richards, will be used in this narrative. 204 New York Times, 15 December 1939. 205 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,546 (3), ‘Rory’ [McGarrity] to ‘Chief’ [Russell], 17 December 1939.

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8 Restrained action, 1940–5 On 5 January 1940 Joseph McGarrity noted in his diary that ‘about $3,500 [was] on hand’ at a recent Clan executive meeting held in New York.1 For an organisation that had only one day earlier been accused by the Irish government of being the ‘source’ of funds for the IRA, this figure was indeed meagre.2 Faced with a growing financial predicament, the leaders of the Clan turned once again to their members in order to support the ‘men of action’ in the IRA. An internal circular was soon distributed to Clan clubs across the country stating that ‘funds must be secured for the desperate days that are approaching, when undoubtedly blood will flow and men will die’. According to the message, Ireland’s ‘Dawn’ was ‘near’.3 This public proclamation, however, was purely idealistic, for the Clan, as described privately by McGarrity, was ‘in a very tight place at present, cut off as … Ireland was a plague spot’. Furthermore, McGarrity noted that ‘at present the enemy has succeeded in ringing us round and cutting us off fro[m] contact’ with the IRA.4

Sweepstake entanglements In January 1940 reports began circulating in the US and Ireland that the Irish Hospitals Sweepstake would cease operations due to the outbreak of the Second World War.5 Although Sweepstake leader Joseph McGrath initially denied this speculation, 900 Sweepstake employees in Ireland lost their jobs the following month. Many of the unemployed were republicans who had ‘distinguished records in the national struggle’.6 Two months later another 1,300 workers were dismissed and the original Sweepstake organisation was liquidated. A new company called Hospitals Trust (1940) Limited was subsequently formed. However, largely absent from this revised Sweepstake body for the foreseeable future were the American networks, which had accounted for upwards of £4 million in annual proceeds during the late 1930s.7 The demise of the Sweepstake proved disastrous for republicans in the US. During the previous year, Joseph McGarrity and Connie Neenan had managed

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to retain their leadership of US-based Sweepstake operations while evading federal indictments for being ‘principal agents’ of the organisation. McGarrity’s charge was dismissed in April 1939 after a US Post Office official could not properly identify him.8 Neenan, who was in Ireland at the time of his indictment, simply remained overseas and did not return to New York until the summer.9 Although the two continued to boldly conduct business transactions in early 1939, the restrictions placed on transatlantic shipping and the rise of censorship with the outbreak of the Second World War created insurmountable obstacles.10 This development was especially troublesome for McGarrity, because of the connections that he had cultivated between the Sweepstake and the Clan. With the collapse of the US-based Sweepstake networks McGarrity and the republicans who worked under him were suddenly removed from highly lucrative employment. In fact, according to one former Sweepstake employee, Joseph Andrews, McGarrity had amassed nearly £250,000 in commission since becoming an agent.11 Although McGarrity and other Clan members almost certainly used a portion of their Sweepstake earnings to contribute directly to the transatlantic republican movement, many Irish officials wondered at the time how such ‘large sums’ of American money were infused into the republican networks which, according to Irish Minister for Justice Gerald Boland, had not only benefitted the IRA but also enabled IRA members to ‘put cash down for houses, to buy cars, and other things like that’.12 Some British officials suspected that Germany was funnelling money to the IRA through the transatlantic Sweepstake networks.13 When British Chief Constable Albert Canning visited the US in spring 1939 in order to assess the security for the visit of the King and Queen, he specifically investigated if German and IRA collusion existed in the US.14 According to an MI5 report, Canning ‘never found any German connection or any German payments to the I.R.A.’. Instead, he discovered that a ‘percentage of the amount allowed to Irish Sweepstake Agents in America on the sale of tickets was devoted to I.R.A. funds’.15 In 1950 the FBI received similar information that also implied a certain portion of Sweepstake proceeds had been transmitted directly to the IRA years earlier. An FBI informant, who was most likely Joseph Andrews, revealed that McGarrity ‘in about 1939 … asked that a subscription be taken from all agents handling sweepstake tickets in the United States who were appointed by him’. Andrews believed that this unknown amount of money was then transmitted to the IRA.16 The allegations that American Sweepstake money was directly appropriated and used for republican purposes is certainly a distinct possibility, considering the range of McGarrity’s republican connections inside the Sweepstake.

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Although no other evidence appears to exist which directly ties Sweepstake funds to the IRA, McGarrity did comment to a friend in January 1940 that the Clan was now forced ‘to surmount the difficulties in the way of getting finances’.17 This enigmatic message clearly implies that some financial channel had ceased operating for the Clan. Whether or not McGarrity was referring to the disappearance of Sweepstake funds remains elusively inconclusive.

IRA martyrs In January 1940 Clan leadership initiated a publicity campaign centred on the impending executions of IRA members Peter Barnes and James Richards. During this time McGarrity had received word from Congressman James McGranery that President Roosevelt remained apprehensive about appealing to the British for a reprieve, believing ‘it was too hot a matter to touch’.18 Nevertheless, McGarrity was determined to publicise the matter. In early January he personally wrote a letter to ‘all Senators and Congressmen’ in the US appealing for the lives of the republicans.19 The message noted that ‘Ireland is at war with England’ and Barnes and Richards were ‘Patriots’ fighting for a ‘just and noble cause’. These men, according to McGarrity, were prisoners of war and should be ‘accorded the just treatment accorded to any captive soldier’. He appealed for a public condemnation and protest at the death sentences for it would be ‘an act contrary to the age old usages of war’.20 As McGarrity explained to Clan executive member Con O’Brien, ‘if even one or two get up in the house and voice a protest it is bound to have a good effect’.21 O’Brien himself had co-authored a letter to Massachusetts congressmen and urged them to publicly declare their support for the IRA and its commitment ‘to drive every element of foreign authority – political and social – outside the boundaries of Ireland’. The Boston Globe subsequently published parts of this letter on 8 January.22 This publicity campaign proved successful in provoking political action and, by the end of January, a resolution introduced by Democratic Massachusetts Congressman Thomas A. Flaherty requested that President Roosevelt appeal to the British government to commute the two death sentences.23 This public plea was complemented with a private appeal to Roosevelt sent via telegram on 1 February from former anti-treatyite and Cumann na mBan member, Kathleen Clarke, now the Lord Mayor of Dublin.24 Faced with this mounting internal and external pressure Roosevelt decided to act and sent a message to The Marquess of Lothian, the British ambassador to the US. He requested a reprieve of six months for both Barnes and Richards, with the possibility of a further extension. According to Roosevelt, the appeal was made out of concern for the

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‘seriousness’ of the present ‘international situation’. He was particularly worried about the ‘effect of execution’ on Irish groups in the US considering that, by this time, the US had moved into a deeper wartime alliance with Britain.25 Nearly three months before legislation supported by Roosevelt, which effectively legalised indirect American military aid to Britain, had been passed by a Congress consisting of a number of dissenting committed isolationists.26 The Marquess of Lothian was also concerned about American public reaction. A few days before he had noted to the Foreign Office that Robert Brennan, the Irish Minister Plenipotentiary to the US, had recently enlightened him to the fact that Irish-American opinion was ‘swinging more and more to the Allied side because of German atrocities in Poland and their own general support for democracy’. It was believed that the public outcry against the executions could be similar to what happened in 1916 and that the Clan, referred to as the ‘small I.R.A. group’, could increase its support in the US. Overall, there was a distinct possibility that the executions could ‘revive … hostility amongst the powerful Irish-American and Catholic community’. The British ambassador had ‘no doubt that [the] execution[s] would antagonize Irish-American opinion at a moment when it is most important that their great political influence should not be used to make difficulties for the President or for ourselves’. Because of these reasons, he wanted to ‘strongly urge’ the British government ‘to consider whether it would not be a wiser course to commute the sentences to imprisonment for life’.27 On 6 February British Home Secretary John Anderson informed the Marquess of Lothian that ‘commutation … would not be justifiable’ for the two republicans. The deaths and injuries associated with the Coventry bombing, along with the admission from James Richards that he had assisted in the bomb preparation and concealment, meant that the verdict would stand. Although Anderson did indeed ‘regret not being able to make any suggestions to obviate possible ill-feeling over this case’ in the US, he believed that Roosevelt would understand the decision.28 One day later, at 9:00 a.m., Barnes and Richards were hanged at Winton Green Prison in Birmingham.29 According to newspaper reports, 500 police officers were ordered to control the crowds around the prison. 10,000 Scotland Yard agents were also dispersed around London in an effort to thwart any possible acts of sabotage.30 At noon in New York Clan Secretary James Brislane, along with other delegates from the various Irish-American organisations in the city, arrived at the Irish Pavilion of the World’s Fair. In a show of respect for Barnes and Richards, the Irish flag was raised and then lowered to half-mast. A wreath placed by Brislane at the base of the flagpole declared that it was ‘laid on behalf of the Irish Race in America in honor of two men, Peter Barnes and James Richards,

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soldiers of the Irish Republic, who though prisoners of war, were executed this morning in Birmingham, England’. Subsequently, Brislane made a short speech to the 100 people who had gathered around the site and declared that Barnes and Richards were ‘martyrs who had died for their country’.31 The concern expressed by American, Irish and British officials that the Clan would once again be emboldened had, at least on this day in New York, come true. However, the extent and depth of this revitalised activism still remained a very serious question for the government authorities.

Making ‘English fur fly’ On 20 February a New York Clan supporter revealed to a friend in Ireland that ‘a couple of months ago we could’nt (sic) get the people to an I.R.A. meeting’. However, now ‘they are all very enthusiastic about the Irish Movement and the I.R.A’.32 Since the execution of Barnes and Richards nearly two weeks earlier, the Irish-American community in New York had suddenly awoken to the republican cause. This new energy was also emulated across the US. The Tyrone Men’s Society in Philadelphia declared that Barnes and Richards would now be ‘added to the long list of martyrs who have given their lives for Ireland’.33 In Chicago the Irish-American National Alliance cabled a protest telegram to British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain on 8 February and stated that the British actions ‘have made enemies of lovers of liberty everywhere’. They believed that this would end US government aid to England.34 In San Francisco a protest occurred outside the city’s Opera House. The Irish World explained that ‘two lines of pickets, bearing placards and banners’ attempted to upstage a lecture by Lord Alfred Duff Cooper, the former British First Lord of Admiralty. The protesters described the executions to those arriving for the talk and called for the US government to remain neutral in the war. Cooper supposedly proceeded to speak to a ‘skeleton audience’.35 The most scathing public attack against the British actions outside of Clan circles came from the AARIR. In late February the organisation’s leader, John Reilly, declared that Barnes and Richards were ‘hung, not because of convictions of a crime, but because they were who dared protest against the continued Partition of their country and the presence in that country of enemy troops’. Reilly declared that the slogan: ‘DAMN YOUR CONCESSIONS ENGLAND! WE WANT OUR COUNTRY’, should be used to unite the Irish across the US in order to end partition. He believed Barnes and Richards would ‘not be the last’ IRA members to ‘protest’ against partition and called on all IrishAmericans to ‘unite in our opposition’.36

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Reilly’s aggressive and outspoken stance directed at the organisation’s 20,000 members would have obviously offered hope to the Clan leadership that a large national movement organised against partition could become a reality.37 In fact, it appears that during this period the Clan held internal discussions with Reilly about consolidating republican publicity efforts. In early March newspapers across the US reported that the Clan and the AARIR had set aside their ideological differences and begun to ‘unite the Irish race everywhere and “make English fur fly”’. Reilly announced this new co-operation and promised ‘plenty of activity’. He believed this campaign could be comparable or more effective than that in the early 1920s.38 Although Reilly clearly articulated his feelings in a contentious and bellicose manner, any future activism in the US organised by the AARIR remained dependent on the support of Éamon de Valera and his Fianna Fáil government. Since the Second World War had begun partition was often discussed in internal Fianna Fáil circles, as well as between Irish and British officials. Some in Fianna Fáil believed that the war presented an ideal opportunity to gain Northern Ireland by force or through aggressive diplomacy with the British, while others, including de Valera, realised that the difficult dynamics associated with partition would not be solved quickly, especially in the context of a European war. Although de Valera continued to raise his anti-partition perspective with British diplomats during the early stages of the war, as time moved on he began to focus on neutrality.39 By the end of February de Valera told reporters that ‘there is no quick cure for partition’. In a public refutation of the IRA’s militant goals, de Valera further affirmed that ‘there is no use in thinking we can end the partition when we are not united ourselves’.40 By this time de Valera and his government were fully committed to destabilising the IRA. As Irish and British intelligence reports surfaced regarding alleged IRA and German co-ordination it was becoming increasingly clear that any form of militant republicanism would not be tolerated. In January the Irish government approved a policy of internment.41 Through the spring IRA members continued to be arrested and the Irish government’s stance hardened when two IRA prisoners, Tony D’Arcy and Jack McNeela, died during a drawn out hunger strike.42 By early May the IRA and the Fianna Fáil-led government were in direct opposition, clearly evident when two IRA members in Dublin fired machine guns at gardaí who were carrying sensitive Irish diplomatic correspondence meant for the British government.43 De Valera’s campaign against the IRA clearly demonstrated to American observers, and most importantly to AARIR leader John Reilly, that Fianna Fáil would not tolerate any form of militant republican activism. Further discussion of a nationwide campaign in the US against partition organised by the AARIR

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and Clan quickly subsided. Instead, as the war in Europe escalated after the German invasion of western Europe in May 1940, Irish-American leaders and organisations began to focus on demanding the continuation of neutrality in both Ireland and the US.44 Without the assistance of the AARIR the Clan’s hopes for a large nationwide campaign against partition would not take place. Instead they were forced to turn to underground channels for assistance.

German co-operation On 25 May 1940 the New York Times reported that Seán Russell had left the US and ‘might be in Germany or Italy’. It was believed that he had arrived on the European continent to ‘presumably … obtain aid or cooperation’ for a ‘rumored uprising’ in Ireland. This revelation, provided to the United Press agency from ‘private advices in New York’, bolstered fears that the IRA had begun co-ordination with the German military to forcibly oust the Irish government from power.45 Only days before Irish officials in Dublin had discovered the presence of German agent Herman Goertz in the country after a used parachute, German war medals, various documents of a ‘military character’, a wireless transmitter and $20,000 in cash were found in a safe house.46 During the same time documents taken from an IRA member in London described that a ‘rebellion’ in Ireland and Northern Ireland was to begin shortly.47 As the days passed without incident rumours of an imminent German airborne invasion on Irish soil soon subsided.48 Likewise, any further information pertaining to Russell’s whereabouts was never again revealed to the American press. However, this brief and fairly specific message regarding Russell offered the public a small glimpse into a complex transatlantic operation that had been largely orchestrated by the Clan. In late January 1940 Seán (John) McCarthy, a waiter on the SS Washington and a member of the Clan in New York, arrived in Genoa, Italy. While in the northern Italian port town, McCarthy met with German consular officials and inquired whether the German military would consider transporting Russell to Ireland.49 After a lengthy internal debate amongst German Abwehr and Foreign Ministry officials it was agreed that Russell would be welcome in Germany. Upon returning to Genoa in late March McCarthy met with German emissary, Professor Franz Fromme, and stressed that any operation involving Russell would have to occur in the immediate future. In an apparent effort to expedite the actions, McCarthy lied to German officials and told them that Russell still held a valid US visa which was about to expire.50 With the promise of German support the Clan turned to its established shipping networks in order to place Russell aboard an outbound ship for Europe.

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Connie Neenan initiated contact with TWU leaders and IRA veterans Michael Quill and Gerald O’Reilly. They in turn sought assistance from Joe Curran and Fred ‘Blackie’ Myers, the respective president and vice-president of the National Maritime Union (NMU). It was agreed that Jim Gavin, an IRA veteran from county Mayo and the port agent of the NMU, would enlist and hire Russell as a fireman on the SS Washington.51 With this scheme in place Russell departed quietly from New York sometime in late April.52 Russell’s departure from New York offered the Clan hope that the IRA could once again be revitalised through a dependable and committed leader. However, within its own leadership circles the Clan suddenly faced deep uncertainty. Two months earlier Joseph McGarrity had announced his resignation as chairman. Since returning from Europe the previous September McGarrity’s health had declined rapidly. Bouts of dizziness, which he initially believed were due to overexposure to the sun, were revealed to be related to terminal throat cancer.53 McGarrity weakened fast and, in February, he stepped down as chairman of the Clan. His sudden departure proved shocking to James Brislane who noted that McGarrity’s future absence from the republican movement was ‘unthinkable’. McGarrity was the ‘inspiration to the I.R.A. of America’ and without him, Brislane believed, the Clan would struggle for it had ‘no leader in the horizon’. Brislane further lamented that ‘not even one [leader], is in sight in our ranks’.54 On 5 August 1940 McGarrity died in his Philadelphia home.55 The transatlantic impact of his death was evident immediately as numerous bereavement telegrams from friends in Ireland were received by the McGarrity family. IRA veteran Owen Moore described McGarrity’s passing as a ‘great loss’ to both his family and Ireland.56 In another telegram Éamon de Valera referred to McGarrity as ‘the most unselfish lover of his native land’.57 On 9 August 1,000 people attended McGarrity’s funeral in Philadelphia. Friends, including Connie Neenan and Eugene Sheehan, paid their respects along with political figures including James McGranery and Irish Minister Robert Brennan. The executive members of the Clan, including Brislane, James Conaty and Con O’Brien, honoured McGarrity by serving as pall bearers and as members of the honour guard.58 For these republicans, McGarrity’s death officially signalled a new era for the Clan. The dependability, guidance and financial support that McGarrity had provided the militant republican movement in the US for decades had now come to an end.

‘Friend or Foe’ During the summer and autumn of 1940 the German air force engaged in a ferocious air assault on Britain. This campaign, orchestrated in order to set the

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stage for an amphibious invasion, opened the eyes of the world to Germany’s military capabilities. While the Battle of Britain raged on the German spy network in Ireland became more active and continued to connect with elements in the IRA. Similarly, on the heels of the evacuation of Seán Russell from New York, German agents began to initiate further contact with republicans in the US. Many details of these covert German and Clan activities were revealed after the war to MI5 by former German Foreign Office liaison, Kurt Haller.59 According to Haller, after Seán McCarthy established a relationship with German officials during the winter of 1940 he told Franz Fromme that ‘he and his friends would be glad to help the Germans from America’. A few months later Abwehr intelligence agent Carl Rekowski, under the pretence of being an import and export agent, flew to South America and travelled north to Mexico, where he lived. During the following summer Rekowski met McCarthy after the SS Washington berthed at a Mexican port. McCarthy subsequently became a ‘full time German agent’ and served as the link between the German Abwehr and the Clan. The Germans hoped that, through these initial efforts, a courier service connecting Germany to the IRA through Mexico and the US could be established. However, as Haller described after the war, the link between the Abwehr and the IRA resulted in ‘only the loosest contact’ and was ‘maintained by occasional Irishmen who happened to be crossing over’ the border to Mexico.60 Haller further revealed that Rekowski subsequently reported to members of the Abwehr that he had secured assistance from ‘Irish-American radical groups’ to conduct ‘sabotage operations’ on British and American ships. Rekowski supported his claims by including supposed first-hand reports from McCarthy that detailed ‘six successful cases of sabotage on British or American ships carrying war material to Britain’. German officials, however, questioned the authenticity of these reports as Rekowski ‘could not give the names of the ships or any evidence’. Haller believed it was possible that Rekowski and the Abwehr ‘may have been faked’ by these republicans ‘to obtain more money’.61 The more likely scenario, however, is that Rekowski himself fabricated these reports. In 1946, as British and American officials began to uncover Rekowski’s involvement with the Abwehr, it became apparent that he had ‘a large private fortune in Mexico’.62 In other words, he may have used the Abwehr money for his own personal use. As the US government began to focus intently on curtailing domestic German spy activity, as seen in August 1940 when the FBI received nearly $2.5 million for ‘espionage and sabotage work’, the Clan was forced to be cautious with any public declarations that could imply its support of and partnership with German espionage elements.63 However, statements issued during the period

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through the organisation’s newspaper, Irish Republic, provided subtle hints of Clan support for Germany and even veiled co-ordination between the IRA and Germany. In August an editorial declared that the IRA’s bombing campaign in England had proven to Germany that ‘Ireland is still at war with the [British] Empire’. It explained that this was the reason why Ireland had escaped German bombing attacks. Another editorial scolded de Valera’s neutral stance on the war. He was particularly chastised for his criticism of the German invasion of Holland and Belgium. De Valera had ‘rushed to the public with an unusually bitter condemnation of Germany and the violation of rights of small nations’. According to the article, he ‘might better have spent his breath in pointing out the 700 year invasion of Ireland has not yet been broken!’64 Through these statements the Clan had now openly confronted de Valera and Fianna Fáil. This was to be expected for by the end of the summer around 450 republicans had been interned by the Irish government.65 Unlike in the past the Clan reproached de Valera and did not fear that certain remarks could upset members of the organisation who also had ties to Fianna Fáil. In fact, for any current or former Clan member, an association with Fianna Fáil was now considered a mark of disloyalty. For example, in August the Irish Republic referred to Boston IRA veteran Eugene Sheehan as a ‘Free State messenger boy’ and asked whether he was a ‘friend or foe’ of the republican movement.66 Also referred to as a ‘“certain man” in Boston who had a great record in the fight to free Ireland’, Sheehan was noted by the Clan months later as being ‘engaged in the treasonable pastime of subverting the work of the Irish Republican organizations in America’.67 The Clan had issues with Sheehan’s public defence of Irish neutrality, clearly displayed in late January, when he helped organise a mass meeting in Boston which supported Fianna Fáil.68

‘It’s all over now’ On 1 May 1940 the German Foreign Office received word that Seán Russell had arrived in Genoa.69 Franz Fromme subsequently drove Russell to Berlin and, on 4 May, Foreign Office liaison Kurt Haller brought Russell to an airfield to meet Abwehr agent Herman Goertz who was about to depart for Ireland.70 The meeting with Goertz did not take place, however, due to a communication breakdown.71 After returning to Berlin Russell lived in a ‘small villa’ outside the city. According to Haller, Russell’s movement in Germany was quite restricted and he was ‘practically a prisoner’ during this time.72 The German government allowed Russell to meet only certain individuals, including Haller, Fromme and Edmund Veesenmayer, an SS officer who worked

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for the German Foreign Office.73 During the first few weeks of his stay in Germany Russell trained with explosives and visited various military facilities. On 25 May, at a meeting between Russell and German officials, it was agreed that Russell and two radio operators would travel to Ireland by submarine in early June.74 One day later, as previously mentioned, the report of Russell’s arrival in Europe was publicised in the American media. Although it cannot be determined who the ‘private advices from New York’ were that supplied this information to the United Press, the coincidence is startling and definitely suggests German or Irish-American sources.75 The submarine mission was subsequently delayed twice and throughout June and July Russell was forced to continue the monotony of daily life in Germany.76 He met at various times with German officials and, according to Haller, they began to clearly understand from these conversations that the connection between the IRA and the Clan in the US ‘was so loose that it barely constituted a link’. This discovery was compounded by the fact that Russell himself proved to be an unimpressive collaborator. Now, over a year since his departure from Ireland, Haller recalled that Russell proved ‘out of touch with current events’ and he lacked ‘detailed knowledge’ of the IRA. Although he desired German assistance for an IRA uprising he could not provide a clear outline for any future government of Ireland. He also portrayed a ‘considerable reticence towards the Germans’. These inadequacies severely hurt his standing and some Germans, including Veesenmayer and Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbbentrop, suspected the possibility that Russell could be a ‘British plant’.77 As the summer continued the plan to transport Russell to Ireland gathered momentum, even though doubts about Russell’s authenticity lingered. During this time the German government had secured the prison release of left-wing Irish republican Frank Ryan, who had fought with the 15th International Brigade in Spain before being captured by forces loyal to Spanish General Francisco Franco in 1938.78 Russell was unaware of Ryan’s release and their unexpected reunion in Berlin on 4 August evoked a ‘touching scene’.79 As Haller revealed, the spontaneous reaction from both men was ‘so genuine that their credentials were established beyond doubt’. Russell subsequently agreed to include Ryan in the Irish mission. This pleased those in Abwehr II, the sabotage section of German military intelligence, who believed that Ryan, although not fully advised of the mission, would still be more willing than Russell to co-ordinate future German espionage operations after he reached Ireland.80 On the same day that Ryan arrived in Berlin Russell met with von Ribbentrop and Veesenmayer, along with Abwehr leader Wilhelm Canaris and Abwehr official Erwin von Lahousen. Final preparations for the operation, now named Dove (Taube) were made. Ribbentrop authorised the mission and it was agreed that if a German

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invasion of Britain occurred, Russell would ‘take such steps as he thinks fit’ for the IRA.81 After one more postponement of the operation, on 8 August U-boat U-65 left from the German naval port of Wilhelmshaven bound for Ballyferriter, county Kerry. After departure, Russell soon experienced stomach pains. Without a medic on board Russell’s condition worsened and, on 14 August, he died of what was later described as a perforated ulcer. His body was disposed of at sea and Ryan decided to abandon the operation altogether. After coming within 100 miles of the Irish coast the German U-boat returned to the European continent and arrived in Lorient, France, on 19 August.82 In early autumn rumours of Russell’s death began to circulate amongst a few republicans in Ireland.83 In November 1940 Carl Rekowski, who was still stationed in Mexico, received the following message from Germany: ‘Please tell your friends in New York that Sean Russell died.’ Rekowski soon summoned Clan member Seán McCarthy to Mexico. Upon hearing of Russell’s death McCarthy became expectedly upset and proclaimed to Rekowski that ‘It’s all over now … we lost our best man’.84 Bearing this news, McCarthy returned to New York and apparently passed on the information to those who had helped smuggle Russell out of the country months earlier. One of the collaborators he presumably informed was New York-based IRA veteran, Gerald O’Reilly, who stated later to Leopold Kerney, the Irish Minister in Spain, that he heard of Russell’s death in December 1940 from ‘an officer of a prominent active Irish organisation’.85 For O’Reilly, the revelation of Russell’s death without any definitive details raised questions surrounding its authenticity. He ‘would not or could not depend on the report’.86 Months later, Erich Strunck, a German agent, visited O’Reilly in New York. He delivered two messages from Frank Ryan, both of which confirmed Russell’s death.87 This information erased any doubt in O’Reilly’s mind of Russell’s demise. In July he wrote to his wife, Helen, in Dublin and noted that ‘Definitely Frank was with John when he died’.88 In November he stated to Kerney that ‘I am of the opinion that there is little doubt but that John is dead’.89 The new first-hand message from Frank Ryan was also reported by O’Reilly to Connie Neenan.90 On 17 June Neenan wrote a letter to his brother-in-law, Pat Collins, in Cork and revealed that ‘a rumour exists here that Sean Russell passed away on the Continent’.91 Although O’Reilly and Neenan believed the message, Clan leadership, including James Brislane, were not convinced.92 According to Neenan, ‘some of them [Clan members] spoke to me and refused to believe the truth’. Instead, the Clan continued to circulate a story in Irish circles that Russell had been executed by British authorities after being taken off a ship in Gibraltar.93

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While fresh reports of Russell’s death filtered back to republicans in New York, O’Reilly soon became part of a major FBI investigation. Strunck, the German agent who delivered the messages from Ryan to O’Reilly, was in fact a courier for an elaborate German spy ring that had been operating in the US during the previous few years. By July Strunck and thirty-two other German agents had been arrested in what FBI director J. Edgar Hoover called ‘the greatest spy roundup in U.S. history’.94 Soon after Strunck’s arrest FBI agents arrived at O’Reilly’s home and recovered one of the messages that he had saved from Ryan. Although O’Reilly was not arrested the FBI would closely follow his activities for the remainder of the war period.95 Furthermore, his wife Helen was forced to remain in Ireland. Even though she carried an American passport the British government would not grant her a transit visa, necessary for her return to the US.96 According to an American official, she was recognised as ‘an ardent worker for the Irish Republican Army’ who posed the risk of ‘carrying confidential messages’ from Ireland to republicans in the US.97 The US government’s success in undermining this deeply embedded German spy ring debilitated German espionage in the US.98 Any further co-ordination between German and Irish republican elements in the US also appears to have ceased at this time. In March German agent Carl Rekowski departed from Mexico for Germany travelling through Japan and Russia. He would spend the remainder of the war serving in various roles with the German Foreign Office.99 For the Clan, although the facts regarding Russell’s death would continue to be shrouded in mystery, it was obvious to all involved that the former IRA chief of staff had indeed died. Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 also offered clear evidence that any major German military offensive into Britain and Ireland would not take place in the short term. These realities, combined with the concerted efforts on the part of the FBI to counter any subversive activities in the US, meant that the Clan would once again have to refine its goals and channels of activism.

The collapse of the IRA The failure of Russell’s mission, coupled with the deficiency of the German and IRA co-ordination, along with the continued lack of funds from the US, led to confusion and distrust within IRA ranks. During spring 1941, a number of republicans from Northern Ireland began to suspect that IRA Chief of Staff Stephen Hayes was acting as an informant for Fianna Fáil.100 In late June Hayes was kidnapped in county Dublin in an operation organised by members of the Northern Command and over the following weeks he was shuttled between

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safe houses. After being court-martialled and sentenced to execution Hayes was ordered to write a detailed confession relating to his supposed treasonous activities. In an attempt to bide time Hayes complied and completed dozens of pages. After nearly ten weeks of confinement Hayes managed to escape and, out of desperation, presented himself at the Rathmines Garda Siochána station in Dublin city.101 As expected, this episode was a major embarrassment for the IRA and over the next few months parts of Hayes’ confession were released to the public. Although Hayes would later vehemently deny the validity of his so-called confession, this affair tainted his reputation in certain republican circles for the remainder of his life.102 While Hayes was subsequently interned in Mountjoy Prison, a letter written by him to republican Máire Comerford was intercepted in December by prison authorities. This document was used as primary evidence in his trial the following June. Besides providing the prosecution with clear proof that Hayes was in the IRA, the letter also offered the public once again a glimpse into the Seán Russell affair. Hayes noted to Comerford that he was aware of the plan to smuggle Russell from the US to the European continent during spring 1940. He also explained that he had received word in the autumn from Maurice Twomey that Russell had indeed died in August. Furthermore, Hayes discounted the report that Russell had been taken off a Genoa-bound boat by a British warship and subsequently executed. As Hayes noted, if this was indeed true, Italian officials would have ‘made full use of it, on her subsequent entry into war, for propaganda purposes’.103 Hayes subsequently received a five-year prison sentence and details of the incriminating letter were publicised in the US.104 Although the information about Russell’s death clearly contradicted what the Clan had believed and disseminated to Irish circles, by this time the militant Irish republican movement in the US had become greatly overshadowed by American military involvement in the Second World War. In fact, since the US entry into the war in December 1941, the collective dynamics of Irish-America had shifted dramatically. Before this military mobilisation the support for Irish neutrality was the major focal point for Irish-Americans. On 29 November 1941 the Irish World declared in a headline that ‘Thirty Million Irish Americans Support Ireland’s Neutrality’.105 Utilising this wave of support, Frank Aiken, the Irish Minister for Co-ordination of Defence, had visited the US the previous spring seeking military supplies from the American government.106 In addition, organisations including the American Friends of Irish Neutrality (AFIN) had been established to support the de Valera government.107 The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December and the subsequent American declaration of war on Japan and Germany, however, rapidly transformed the scope of Irish-American activism.

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On 12 December the executive council of the AFIN announced the organisation’s ‘dissolution’. As publicly declared, the former members of the AFIN were now ‘concentrating every effort on the successful prosecution of the war in which our country is engaged’.108 Faced with this new wave of American patriotism, the Clan was forced to scale back its activism. In early 1943 an angry and colourful letter to the editor of the Irish Advocate from an individual identified as John Walsh revealed the extent of the Clan’s new policies. According to Walsh, during the Clan’s national convention held the previous spring, ‘information was dragged from the executive that they HAD NO CONNECTION WHATSOEVER’ with the IRA. After a vote it was decided that the Clan would offer ‘full support to America and her allies’. Walsh believed that this decision disregarded ‘the objective for which the Clan existed for so many years’. This was ‘plainly … the winding up of the Clan and all out aid to England for the duration of the war’.109 Although Walsh’s disclosure regarding the detachment of the Clan from IRA was indeed correct, his assertion that the Clan had abandoned its republican ethos and subsequently terminated its activities was farfetched. In reality, the Clan did cancel its annual conventions after 1942 and, according to the FBI, ‘drop much of its militant, anti-British attitude’ after Pearl Harbor.110 However, the organisation still played an active role in raising money for a new Green Cross Fund, created in order to assist republican prisoners and their dependents in Ireland.111 The Clan could also at times be very outspoken when condemning certain British actions.

American pressure In the summer of 1942 six republicans, accused of being involved in the murder of a police officer in Dungannon, county Tyrone, during a riot, were sentenced to execution by the Northern Ireland government.112 For the Clan this development served as a catalyst to rekindling militant republican activism. At a public meeting of over 200 people in New York, Seán Hayes, James Brislane and Seán McCarthy condemned partition. They used the gathering as an opportunity to declare the Clan’s implicit support for the IRA and furthermore asserted that the Irish Republican Government was the ‘only legal government in Ireland’.113 A similar event occurred in Philadelphia on 30 August when the city’s Clan members assembled at the Irish-American Club and condemned the impending executions.114 Protests also occurred in the form of letters from other individuals and organisations across the US. In Cleveland James O’Connor, the leader of the

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city’s AOH, wrote to a local congressman and stated that the ‘system of vengeance practiced in Europe by Hitler is also carried out in Northern Ireland’.115 A note with similar sentiment was sent from the Los Angeles Council of the AARIR to President Roosevelt. According to the organisation’s president, John Crean, and secretary, Nellie Murray, members had unanimously passed a resolution demanding that Roosevelt take ‘immediate action in averting the death of the comrades of men who are but serving justice and striving, under oppressive circumstances, to bring about the unity and liberation of their country’.116 In Boston, Massachusetts, Governor Leverett Saltonstall believed that ‘such a violent penalty, even in time of war, may strain [Irish and British] relations’.117 During this time US Department of State officials expressed concern that ‘very wide and unquestionably undesirable publicity would be given’ in the US if the executions occurred. Under Secretary of State Sumner Welles explained to John Winant, the American ambassador to Britain, that influential politicians, including House Majority Leader John McCormack from Massachusetts and others, had expressed ‘urgent hope that the death penalty be commuted to imprisonment’ and that the US government intercede.118 American officials were also concerned about the security situation in both Ireland and Northern Ireland. Welles noted to Winant that Irish Minister Robert Brennan had recently intimated that the Irish government believed that ‘serious trouble’ could occur throughout the island if the executions occurred.119 The possibility of a large scale disturbance in Ireland could potentially place American troops based in Northern Ireland at risk, for as David Gray, the American ambassador in Dublin noted, the US now had ‘interests’ there.120 The security threat became a possibility on 29 August when the IRA issued a ‘special manifesto’ that publicly declared that the presence of American troops in Northern Ireland was an ‘unjustifiable occupation’.121 Facing both public and diplomatic pressure, the Duke of Abercorn, the Governor of Northern Ireland, announced on 30 August that five of the six men were granted a reprieve from execution. However, the sentence of death for Belfast labourer Thomas Williams was upheld.122 Although Irish Minister Robert Brennan, along with other Irish-American societies, once again called on the US government to intercede on behalf of Williams, American officials were largely satisfied with the outcome by this time.123 David Gray’s assumption that the ‘Northern Government [was] unlikely to yield to further pressure’, combined with his belief that Williams’ execution would not inspire a large protest, appears to have been shared by others in the State Department.124 The execution of Thomas Williams in Belfast on 2 September did lead to protests in Belfast and southern Ireland. However, American officials were proven correct in that large scale violence did not occur. The IRA’s threat

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against American military personnel also never materialised, except for one isolated incident in which the car of a US Army officer was stoned in Belfast. The precautions undertaken by the American military leadership in Northern Ireland, which included a ban on troops from entering Belfast, appears to have minimised serious confrontations.125 The IRA threats on American troops, however, did lead to questions in the US about the loyalty of the Irish people and government. On 21 September the New York Times published a story which discussed how certain Irish men and women were in contact with German officials. According to the article, these individuals were reporting the position of American bases in Northern Ireland to the German legation in Dublin. Furthermore, American counter-espionage channels, including those of the FBI, were supposedly ‘handicapped’ by Irish neutrality.126 For the remainder of the war stories of German espionage in Ireland would continue to filter into US newspapers. Irish neutrality would also be a constant source of discussion in both the media and in American and British diplomatic circles. Nevertheless, what the American media and public did not fully comprehend at the time was the high level of American counter-espionage work actually undertaken in Ireland through the Office of Strategic Services and in the US by the FBI.127 The FBI in particular was committed to understanding and preventing any transatlantic militant republican activities that could pose a domestic threat.

‘They had a record file on me’ In early August 1942 Connie Neenan received a cable from Seán MacBride, which requested that he co-ordinate political action in the US against the impending executions of the six IRA members in Belfast. This direct message from the head of the Dublin Reprieve Committee was transmitted through the surreptitious communication channels that Neenan had in place and was delivered to him under the alias ‘Con Collins’ at 3722 Spring Garden Street in Philadelphia. After contacting influential friends, including James McGranery, Neenan was optimistic. Using his alias and the Philadelphia postal address Neenan returned the following telegram to MacBride: ‘Strong influences at work. Outlook very favorable. Continuing effort for increased coordination.’128 This message, due to its enigmatic language soon attracted the attention of wartime censors. By November the FBI had been notified of the cable and J. Edgar Hoover, in particular, was anxious ‘to determine the identity, background and activities of subject Collins and, if possible, to establish his apparent connection with the Reprieve Committee in Dublin’.129

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During the early stage of the investigation, FBI agents quickly discovered that a ‘Con Collins’ did not live at the Spring Garden address. However, the owner of the residence noted that months earlier she had rented one of her apartments to an Irish woman named Bridget Devine. While Devine and her husband Hugh lived in the apartment for a period of six to eight months they had received large amounts of mail addressed to Irish men. In particular, mail and telegrams would arrive ‘for a man by the name of NEENAN’. It was further discovered that other documents were also sent to a ‘Con Collins’ at this same address.130 The agents soon located Devine, an immigrant from Dunmanway, county Cork, who had arrived in the US in 1912. Devine told the agents that she had first met Neenan during a visit to Ireland twenty years earlier. In 1940 she began receiving mail at her Philadelphia apartment addressed to Neenan and ‘Con Collins’. Initially, Neenan would pick the mail up ‘regularly’ during his visits to the city, but recently he advised her to forward any letters addressed to him, Collins or any other individual to 293 West 11th Street in New York. Devine told the investigators that the letters mainly came from Ireland and other parts of the US and, according to Neenan, were supposedly ‘from people who wanted him to obtain employment for them’. Furthermore, she recalled that he had mentioned to her that ‘some of the letters were in regard to stocks and bonds’. She noted that Neenan was a salesman with the New York based New Ray Petroleum Company and ‘drives a new car about the size of a Pontiac’. Neenan was also quite generous to Devine and her husband and had recently provided them with an advance of $3,000 for their home. Furnished with this information the FBI set up a ‘mail cover’ at the Devine’s current home address and moved the investigation to New York.131 Since the Second World War had begun, the FBI was eager to learn more about Neenan’s whereabouts and activities. In March 1941 a note to J. Edgar Hoover revealed that federal agents in New York were seeking the ‘current status of the warrant’ issued in New York for Neenan.132 Agents had also interviewed several people about Neenan during the early 1940s, including John Conlon, a sergeant in the New York City Police Department, and William P. Maloney, the Counsel to the Sub-Committee of the Senate Interstate Commerce Committee.133 Throughout this period Neenan was fully aware that he was a potential government target and, according to his friend, Irish-American attorney Paul O’Dwyer, ‘he lived in New York, he lived everywhere. But nobody knew where he lived’.134 Neenan’s ability to evade the authorities for over four years since his Sweepstake indictment reveals his very deceptive nature. In 1940 a letter sent from an anonymous individual to the office of the US Attorney General also raised the possibility that Neenan had received some form of government assistance. The note asked why Neenan,

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who was supposedly ‘associated with some of the most notorious gun men in the City of New York’, had not been arrested for his involvement with the Irish Sweepstake ‘racket’. The inflammatory letter asserted that it was ‘commonly understood’ that Neenan ‘must be protected by some agency of Government’, because he was not an American citizen and was freely departing and entering the US.135 There is a distinct possibility that he was assisted to some extent in 1940 when he registered with the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) as part of the Alien Registration Act. When completing the initial form Neenan seemingly overlooked his recent indictment and denied that he had ever been charged with any crime. During a later stage of his processing, James McGranery delivered a statement from Neenan to the Commissoner of the INS, Earl G. Harrison, which declared, ‘I have been told, one Cornelius Neenan had been indicted in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, some time ago. I have never been notified that this Cornelius Neenan was my self’.136 It appears that this carefully phrased statement subsequently cleared Neenan from any further examination even though he still faced an outstanding warrant. McGranery and Harrison were both highly respected attorneys in Philadelphia and it is possible that McGranery utilised his professional connection with Harrison in order to help maintain Neenan’s concealment and detachment from the Sweepstake investigation.137 This new FBI investigation, however, severely altered the situation for Neenan and by the end of March 1943 the FBI had concluded that ‘Con Collins’ was in all likelihood Connie Neenan.138 On 23 April Neenan emerged from his underground activities and met with FBI agents at the New York City office of attorney Charles T. Rice.139 Years later Neenan recalled the ‘effective and thorough’ diligence of the investigators as they questioned him. Fully aware that the FBI ‘had a record file on me’, Neenan understood that he would have to be truthful for they were ‘organised Gov[ernmen]t’.140 From the outset he revealed to officials that he had in fact sent the short cable to MacBride. As the FBI report detailed, he understood that the message could appear ‘suspicious’ due to its ‘indefinite reference’. However, he assured the agents that it was merely a response to MacBride’s initial request for assistance. Neenan also told investigators that, after his indictment, he utilised aliases so that mail directed to him would ‘not in any way jeopardize his position in the United States by revealing his true identity’. Now, as he explained, he hoped to finally move forward with his life. He was ‘very desirous of getting his indictment cleared up, resuming his real name, getting citizenship papers, engaging in some business enterprise and in general to get away from all political activity’. Finally, and most importantly, Neenan advised the investigators ‘that he would be willing at any time to

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provide information concerning his activities or activities of the Irish organizations in New York City’.141

‘A highly confidential source’ Since the beginning of the Second World War the FBI, along with the Office of Naval Intelligence, had attempted to examine and probe republican activism in the US, especially as IRA and German co-ordination was suspected. Initially, much of the information that the FBI gathered came from simple newspaper reports and minor sleuthing.142 For example, in 1940 an agent in New York convinced a local Clan member that he was ‘sympathetic with their cause and [was] a possible recruit’. He eventually managed to secure a place on the mailing list for the Clan’s newspaper, the Irish Republic.143 Copies of this newspaper, along with other literature pertaining to the IRA, were received by the agent and forwarded to FBI headquarters in Washington.144 As the war moved on the FBI began to receive first-hand intelligence from sources who had supposed knowledge of the organisation and individuals. In 1941 William P. Maloney, the Counsel to the Sub-Committee of the Senate Interstate Commerce Committee, met with an FBI agent and told him that he believed the IRA in the US was led by Connie Neenan and Irish author, Liam O’Flaherty, who had recently arrived in the US.145 As the FBI would later learn, O’Flaherty was not at all affiliated with the leadership of the republican movement. Furthermore, upon meeting with New York City Police Sergeant John Conlon, agents discovered that Neenan had, for the most part, replaced his republican activities with Irish Sweepstake business.146 In 1942, the Office of Naval Intelligence issued a report that analysed the past and present activities of the IRB and the IRA. Although the analysis correctly inferred that the Clan had sought assistance from Germany, there were also broad generalisations and inaccuracies presented. As with the FBI reports, Neenan was once again ‘reported to be [the] present leader of I.R.A. in the United States’ and Liam O’Flaherty was noted as an ‘organiser’ of republican activities. The most inaccurate conclusions, however, centred on the actual strength of the republican movement in the US. ‘I.R.A. membership in the United States’ was described as being ‘much larger than in Eire’. Another statement explained that, in Boston, IRA members had supposedly ‘penetrated the police force’, while in New York, the IRA had ‘thousands of members’.147 Neenan’s willingness in the spring of 1943 to provide information to the FBI about the militant republican movement offered a major breakthrough for the agency. It appears that the FBI immediately capitalised on Neenan’s compliance

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for, in late September, new intelligence summaries about the IRA were distributed to officials in the Department of State.148 As described by J. Edgar Hoover, the fresh information had been compiled from a ‘highly confidential source which in the past has proved accurate and reliable’. Due to the ‘strictly confidential’ and highly sensitive nature of the material, Neenan was not revealed as the informant.149 However, another memorandum, which provided the basis for the new FBI analysis, clearly implicates Neenan. In fact, at times, this particular document appears to have possibly been written or quoted directly from him.150 This memorandum included deep insights into the structure and objectives of the IRA from 1927 to 1942. The elaborate structure of the organisation, along with the rules pertaining to the General Army Council, was revealed in detail. Names of former influential IRA members, including Maurice Twomey, Michael Price and Seán MacBride, were included along with references to the establishment of Saor Éire and the Republican Congress. Most importantly, the report also offered lucid information about the role of the Clan throughout the period. According to the document, the ‘influence’ of the Clan ‘always played a leading part on the I.R.A. policy at home’. Although ‘funds flowed fairly constantly from America to Ireland … the amount was never sufficient to satisfy the demands.’ Joseph McGarrity, described as ‘the outstanding figure’ of the organisation, was noted as being in ‘personal touch with the [IRA] leaders in Ireland at regular intervals’. It was also revealed that McGarrity ‘actually attended several of the I.R.A. conventions’ and that he and ‘other contemporaries in the United States’ were ‘wholeheartedly behind the English [bombing] campaign’.151 Further details of the relationship between Seán Russell and the Clan were also exposed, including the fact that, after Russell became IRA chief of staff, the Clan contributed large amounts of money to the IRA which helped ‘replenish the empty coffers of the I.R.A’. The Clan had also supposedly supplied the IRA with around 400 Thompson submachine guns in 1936, which were shipped to Ireland and personally collected by Russell at Cobh. This, as described in the report, was one of the IRA’s ‘greatest coups’. Perhaps the most obvious details that identify Neenan as the FBI source is a paragraph devoted to the former ‘leading figures’ of the Clan. Neenan himself is mentioned as having served as the secretary of the organisation for a ‘number of years before jealousy and intrigue amongst its members drove him from that position’. Three of his closest republican friends, Peter Kearney, Dan O’Donovan and Tom McGill, are also noted as serving as ‘representatives’ of the Clan before returning to Ireland.152 Based on the report it is obvious that Neenan was willing to give authorities basic historical information about the transatlantic militant republican movement. However, he was careful not to implicate any republicans who were still residing in the US. Instead, he offered brief facts about McGarrity who had

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since died and former Clan members who had left the country in the early 1930s. Although this information certainly added a new historical texture, as described by a Department of State official, it contained ‘very little that is new or of special interest’.153 What Neenan also failed to provide the government was an authentic account of Seán Russell’s departure from the US. Instead, he provided the vague and inaccurate revelation that Russell ‘left the U.S.A. towards the end of the year 1939’.154 This ambiguity is not surprising, especially considering his direct role in the affair and the German connection. It is clear, however, that by October the FBI had begun to understand the intrinsic nature of Russell’s evacuation and the fact that Neenan was involved. As explained by J. Edgar Hoover to a US Embassy official in London, ‘corroborative information’ had been received that Russell’s departure was ‘engineered’ by the ‘older IRA element’ in the US, of which Neenan was a ‘leader’.155 The question that remains is whether Neenan ever revealed his true role to FBI investigators.156 Neenan’s willingness to speak with the FBI does appear, however, to have given him new options with regard to his Sweepstake indictment. A few weeks after first meeting with investigators, he and his attorney, Charles T. Rice, met with US Assistant District Attorney Richard J. Burke in order to be properly arraigned. On 17 May 1943 E.E. Conroy, an FBI agent in New York, wrote to J. Edgar Hoover and described that he was told by Burke that Neenan ‘was paroled to the custody of his attorney and that he is no longer a fugitive from justice’. Most importantly, Neenan ‘would be “nol-prossed” for lack of evidence’.157 One year later, with his indictment now behind him, Neenan stood before the United States District Court in Philadelphia and became a naturalised US citizen.158

Dual Irish and American ‘allegiance’ In June 1944 the FBI delved even deeper into the republican networks when an agent interviewed Clan leader James Brislane. Earlier in the year Brislane had caught the attention of the FBI when he, along with James Conaty, published a public proposal that requested an Irish Race Convention be held to discuss the post-war status of Ireland.159 As with Connie Neenan, the US government’s knowledge of Brislane had been compiled from intelligence over a number of years. For example, in November 1942 the US Consul in Cork, William A. Smale, wrote to Frederick B. Lyon of the Department of State and noted that he had just spoken with an individual who had received word that Brislane was a leading figure of the IRA in the United States.160 After receiving this information from the Department of State, J. Edgar Hoover commented that the

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FBI had ‘numerous indications’ of Brislane’s local and national leadership of the republican movement in the US.161 Although it is unknown what Brislane actually divulged to investigators, the FBI had by this period developed a firsthand perspective of the extent of republican activism. On 25 April 1943 an FBI agent ‘in an underground capacity’ gained access to a public meeting of the Clan in New York. This Easter Sunday meeting consisted of speeches that focused on the partition of Ireland and honoured the ‘heroic Irish dead’. According to the agent, ‘the speakers [at the meeting] were careful to show no evidence of un-American attitudes’. Instead, all individuals opened their talks by ‘declaring allegiance to America’. The present day IRA struggle was also compared to the late eighteenth century American Revolution.162 One year later another agent gained access to an Easter commemoration meeting held on 13 April at a ‘two-story old fashioned brick house’ in Philadelphia. Upon arrival he was met by an individual ‘who identifies those who seek admission by peering through a peephole in the door’. Once inside he was forced to reveal a password before being allowed into the room where the meeting was held. ‘All the shutters on the windows were ordered closed’ before the 63 people in attendance, who wore a green and white feather with the quotation ‘Remember Easter 1916’, sang the ‘Star Spangled Banner’, followed by a recitation of the Easter proclamation and a number of Irish republican songs. The centrepiece of the meeting was a speech given by Joseph Reynolds, a ‘prominent Clan na Gael and I.R.A. fighter’ from New York, which focused on the situation in Ireland. Reynolds spoke of the plight of IRA prisoners and stated that the IRA remained ‘deserving of loyal support’. After his address a resolution meant for the US secretary of state was passed by those in attendance which, along with a number of anti-British remarks, demanded that Ireland have a ‘voice’ in any future post-war conferences.163 As seen from these two reports, annual Clan events were attended by few, limited in scope and overly restrained. Most importantly, a clear American dimension had been infused into the gatherings. This is not surprising for, as the US deepened its military commitment in the Second World War, entire Irish-American communities were affected. First and second generation Irish-Americans were now fully involved with the war efforts.164 It appears that the leaders of the militant republican movement in the US escaped military service, most likely due to their age. However, for younger IRA veterans enlistment was a distinct possibility. For example, in June 1944 Captain John O’Connell, an IRA veteran from Killorglin, county Kerry, was leading reconnaissance troops on the Italian front. According to the Irish Advocate, O’Connell was once a ‘teen age guerrilla with the Irish Republicans’. This ‘dark eyed captain emigrated 14 years ago’, but ‘still retains a trace of

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brogue and decided views on the “Irish Problem.”’165 Similarly, Roscommon republican Joseph O’Connor joined the US Army in 1944 and was in command of naval landing crafts in southern England during the invasion of Normandy. O’Connor would eventually land in France in August and partake in military operations on the continent through the remainder of the war.166 With certain Irish republicans and the Irish-American community as a whole displaying outward and public loyalty to the US, it had become vital for the Clan to adopt a more transparent and welcoming organisational philosophy. In February 1945 republicans in New York demonstrated this fresh approach when the Clan held its annual ball in the city’s Pythian Temple. Clan members, including James Brislane and Joseph Reynolds, attended the function along with a ‘number of prominent Irish-American figures’, including priests from the Carmelite Order, Irish-American attorney Paul O’Dwyer and Seán Keating, an IRA veteran who would begin work for the city mayor Bill O’Dwyer one year later.167 By including individuals who did not particularly believe in hard-line militant republicanism the Clan was preparing for a post-war environment in which the campaign for a united Ireland would be conducted by all sections of Irish-America. On 12 May, five days after the conclusion of the war in Europe, an editorial in the Irish Advocate provided an optimistic outlook for militant republicanism. Noting that ‘the glamor of a Republic for the whole of Ireland will always have adherents in this country and in Ireland’, the article noted that in ‘recent times’ there was a noticeable ‘flare among the younger generation of Irish-Americans in favor of the republican cause and with it Irish unity and freedom’. However, this was ‘of course … all very well in the abstract, three thousand miles away’.168 Although this assessment of the young Irish-American mentality clearly offered a new feature to the militant republican movement in the US, the guiding force would remain those IRA veterans who had persevered in the shadows during the previous five years. For these men, the Irish Republic would always be much more than a distant ideal.

Notes    1 VUSC, JMcGCVU, Group II, Series II, Box 2, Folder 9, McGarrity diary, 5 January 1940.   2 Emergency Powers (Amendment) Bill, 1940, Second Stage, Dáil Éireann Debate, 3 January 1940, Vol. 78, No. 10 (http://debates.oireachtas.ie/ dail/1940/01/03/00007.asp#N629) (accessed 21 April 2013).    3 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,547 (3), ‘Men of the Clan-na-Gael and I.R.A. Clubs’, 10 January 1940.

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   4 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,547 (2), McGarrity to McGuire, 20 January 1940.   5 Coleman, The Irish Sweep, 145; New York Times, 9 January 1940.   6 Coleman, The Irish Sweep, 145; Irish Press, 6 February 1940.   7 Coleman, The Irish Sweep, 114, 145.    8 Ibid.,127; USDOJ, FBI, IRAFFBI, New York, ‘Irish Activities in the United States, Subersive Activities’, File 61-555, 4 October 1939.   9 MacEoin, Survivors, 253; USDOJ, FBI, CNFFBI, ‘Cornelius Finbar Neenan’, Background Information, 9 September 1959, referenced in File 105-74252, 12 October 1959.  10 VUSC, JMcGCVU, Group II, Series I, Box 1, Folder 3, ‘Rory’ [McGarrity] to Neenan, 7 February 1939.   11 NACP, RG 59, IARINI, 1930–44, M1231/13, 841D.513/83, Davis, American Consul General to Secretary of State, 12 February 1940; NACP, RG 84, DGGR, 1923–47, Box 1, Andrews to Treasury Representative, US Embassy, London, 8 February 1940.  12 Arizona Independent Republic , 4 January 1940 (www.newspaperarchive.com) (accessed 2 July 2013); Emergency Powers (Amendment) Bill, 1940, Second Stage, Dáil Éireann Debate, 3 January 1940, Vol. 78, No. 10 (http://debates.oireachtas.ie/ dail/1940/01/03/00007.asp#N629) (accessed 21 April 2013).  13 Coleman, The Irish Sweep, 126; TNA, HO 45/2550, G.M. Liddell to Garner, 21 March 1940.   14 TNA, KV 2/3119, Captain Cecil Liddell to Lt. Colonel V. Vivian, G.B.E., S.I.S., 15 November 1940.  15 Ibid.   16 USDOJ, FBI, CNFFBI, ‘[Joseph Andrews] – Informant, Interstate Transportation of Lottery Tickets’, Legal Attaché, American Embassy, London to Director, FBI, 13 November 1950.   17 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,547 (2), McGarrity to McGuire, 20 January 1940.   18 VUSC, JMcGCVU, Group II, Series II, Box 2, Folder 9, McGarrity diary, 4 January 1940.   19 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,547 (3), McGarrity to O’Brien, 12 January 1940.   20 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,547 (3), McGarrity to Congressman, ‘Irish Prisoners of War to be put to death by England’, 12 January 1940.   21 NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,547 (3), McGarrity to O’Brien, 12 January 1940.   22 VUSC, JMcGCVU, Group II, Series II, Box 2, Folder 9, McGarrity diary (includes Boston Globe clipping), 8 January 1940.   23 VUSC, JMcGCVU, Group II, Series II, Box 2, Folder 9, McGarrity diary (includes unidentified newspaper clipping), c. 31 January 1940.   24 TNA, FO 371/24252, Clarke to Roosevelt, 1 February 1940.   25 TNA, FO 371/24252, The Marquess of Lothian to British Foreign Office, 3 February 1940.   26 Alan P. Dobson, Anglo-American relations in the twentieth century: of friendship, conflict, and the rise and decline of superpowers (New York, 1995), 72–3; New York Times, 5 November 1939.

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  27 TNA, FO 371/24252, The Marquess of Lothian to British Foreign Office, 31 January 1940.   28 TNA, FO 371/24252, British Foreign Office to The Marquess of Lothian , 6 February 1940.  29 New York Times, 7, 8 February 1940.  30 Irish World, 17 February 1940.  31 Ibid.; New York Times, 8 February 1940.   32 IMA, G2/0257 (Part 1), ‘Peg’ to Dollie O’Connor, 20 February 1940.  33 Irish World, 24 February 1940.  34 New York Times, 9 February 1940.  35 Irish World, 2 March 1940.  36 Ibid.  37 Ironwood Daily Globe (Michigan), 1 March 1940 (www.newspaperarchive.com) (accessed 8 July 2013).  38 Ironwood Daily Globe, 1 March 1940, Hope Star (Arkansas), 7 March 1940, Brownsville Herald (Texas), 14 March 1940 (www.newspaperarchive.com) (accessed 8 July 2013).   39 Report from Joseph P. Walshe to Éamon de Valera (Dublin), London, 6 May 1940, Documents on Irish Foreign Policy online (www.difp.ie/docs/Volume6/1940/3169. htm) (accessed 1 July 2013); Bowman, De Valera and the Ulster question (Oxford, 1982), 208–10, 214–15; Kelly, Fianna Fáil, 87–91.  40 New York Times, 18 February 1940.  41 Maguire, IRA internments and the Irish government, 29.   42 Ibid., 30–3; Bell, The secret army, 178.  43 Irish Press, 8 May 1940.   44 For examples of this activism see Irish World, 15 June 1940, 7 December 1940, 8 February 1941.  45 New York Times, 26 May 1940.  46 Irish Press, 25 May 1940.  47 New York Times, 26 May 1940.   48 Although these public rumours largely disappeared, in late June British officials still believed that a German invasion of Ireland was ‘imminent’. See Memorandum of talks between Éamon de Valera and Malcolm MacDonald by Joseph P. Walshe (Dublin) (Copy No. 1), 28 June 1940, Documents on Irish Foreign Policy online (www.difp. ie/docs/Volume6/1940/3207.htm) (accessed 1 July 2013).  49 Hull, Irish secrets, 129; Seán Cronin, Frank Ryan: the search for the republic (Dublin, 1980), 184.  50 Hull, Irish secrets, 129–31; TNA, KV 2/769, Abwehr II War Diary, 30 March 1940 (part of Special Interrogation Report on General Major Erwin Lahousen and Sdf (z) Kurt Haller, 5 November 1946). German Foreign Office liaison, Kurt Haller, told British officials after the war that he believed Russell ‘invented the story of having to leave the US in order to exert pressure on the Germans’. See TNA, KV 2/769, Abwehr II War Diary, 30 March 1940 [Haller notation] (part of Special Interrogation Report on General Major Erwin Lahousen and Sdf (z) Kurt Haller, 5 November 1946).

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 51 MacEoin, Survivors, 253; Cronin, Frank Ryan, 185.  52 Cronin, Frank Ryan, 185.  53 VUSC, JMcGCVU, Group II, Series II, Box 2, Folder 8, McGarrity diary, 25 September 1939; CCCA, CNP, PR7/7, Connie Neenan memoirs,159.  54 Tarpey, The role of Joseph McGarrity, 337; NLI, JMcGP, Ms. 17,547 (1), Brislane to McGarrity, 9 February 1940.  55 Tarpey, The role of Joseph McGarrity, 340.   56 VUSC, JMcGCVU, Group II, Series II, Box 2, Folder 12, Moore to McGarrity family, 7 August 1940.   57 VUSC, JMcGCVU, Group II, Series II, Box 2, Folder 12, de Valera to Mrs McGarrity and family, 6 August 1940.   58 VUSC, JMcGCVU, Group II, Series II, Box 2, Folder 11, Irish Republic, October 1940.   59 Haller’s discussions with MI5 can be found in TNA, KV 2/769, Special Interrogation Report on General Major Erwin Lahousen and Sdf (z) Kurt Haller, 5 November 1946 and NACP, RG 65, Records of the FBI (hereafter RFBI), Classification 65: Espionage, Box 214, 65-57388, Copy of Final Report on Kurt Haller, 7 August 1946.   60 NACP, RG 65, RFBI, Classification 65: Espionage, Box 214, 65-57388, Copy of Final Report on Kurt Haller, 7 August 1946, xx.   61 NACP, RG 65, RFBI, Classification 65: Espionage, Box 214, 65-57388, Copy of Final Report on Kurt Haller, 7 August 1946, xx–xxi.   62 TNA, KV 2/769, Chenhala to Cimperman, American Embassy, 17 December 1946.  63 New York Times, 11 August 1940.   64 VUSC, JMcGCVU, Group II, Series II, Box 2, Folder 11, Irish Republic, August 1940.   65 NACP, RG 59, IARINI, 1930–44, M1231/9, Copy of United Press report (September 1940), Gray to Secretary of State, 1 October 1940.   66 VUSC, JMcGCVU, Group II, Series II, Box 2, Folder 11, Irish Republic, August 1940.   67 USDOJ, FBI, IRAFFBI, Irish Republic, December 1940 (attached with letter from B.E. Sackett, SAC to Director, FBI, 20 February 1941).  68 Irish World, 8 February 1941.   69 TNA, KV 2/769, Abwehr II War Diary, 1 May 1940 (part of Special Interrogation Report on General Major Erwin Lahousen and Sdf (z) Kurt Haller, 5 November 1946).   70 NACP, RG 65, RFBI, Classification 65: Espionage, Box 214, 65-57388, Copy of Final Report on Kurt Haller, 7 August 1946, xvi.  71 Hull, Irish secrets, 133–4.   72 NACP, RG 65, RFBI, Classification 65: Espionage, Box 214, 65-57388, Copy of Final Report on Kurt Haller, 7 August 1946, xvi.   73 Ibid; Hull, Irish secrets, 131, 134.  74 Hull, Irish secrets, 135.  75 New York Times, 26 May 1940.  76 Hull, Irish secrets, 135.   77 NACP, RG 65, RFBI, Classification 65: Espionage, Box 214, 65-57388, Copy of Final Report on Kurt Haller, 7 August 1946, xvi–xvii.

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  78 For a detailed account of Ryan’s capture, time in prison and subsequent release, see Cronin, Frank Ryan, 134–6, 144–66.   79 NACP, RG 65, RFBI, Classification 65: Espionage, Box 214, 65-57388, Copy of Final Report on Kurt Haller, 7 August 1946, xvii; Cronin, Frank Ryan, 134–8.   80 NACP, RG 65, RFBI, Classification 65: Espionage, Box 214, 65-57388, Copy of Final Report on Kurt Haller, 7 August 1946, xvii.   81 TNA, KV 2/769, Abwehr II War Diary, 4 August 1940 (part of Special Interrogation Report on General Major Erwin Lahousen and Sdf (z) Kurt Haller, 5 November 1946). TNA, KV 2/769, Abwehr II War Diary, 4 August 1940; NACP, RG 65, RFBI, Classification 65: Espionage, Box 214, 65-57388, Copy of Final Report on Kurt Haller, 7 August 1946, xvii.  82 Hull, Irish secrets, 137.   83 Ibid., 138.  84 USDOJ, FBI, IRAFFBI, ‘Re-interrogation Report, Prisoner: Rekowski, Carl Berthold Franz’, 11 October 1945 (included in letter from Cimperman to Hoover, 22 November 1945).   85 NAI, DFA 20/4, Part 1, O’Reilly to Kerney, 22 November 1941.  86 Ibid.  87 Cronin, Fran Ryan, 201–2.  88 IMA, G2/3010, intercepted telegram extract from Gerald O’Reilly to Helen O’Reilly, 9 July 1941 (included in letter from Bryan to Boland, 24 July 1941).   89 NAI, DFA 20/4, Part 1, O’Reilly to Kerney, 22 November 1941.   90 CCCA, CNP, PR7/1, Connie Neenan interview transcripts, undated, Belt 10, 4.   91 IMA, G2/3010, intercepted telegram from Neenan to Collins, 17 June 1941 (included in letter from Bryan to Boland, 24 July 1941).   92 CCCA, CNP, PR7/7, Connie Neenan memoirs (1939–47 section), 2.   93 CCCA, CNP, PR7/1, Connie Neenan interview transcripts, undated, Belt 10, 4.  94 Life, 14 July 1941.  95 Cronin, Fran Ryan, 202.   96 NACP, RG 84, DGGR, 1923–47, Box 2 (1942 folder), Styles, American Consul to Secretary of State, c. November 1942   97 NACP, RG 84, DGGR, 1923–47, Box 2 (1942 folder), Styles, American Consul to Secretary of State, 8 October 1942.  98 See ‘The Duquesne Spy Ring’ (www.fbi.gov/about-us/history/famous-cases/ the-duquesne-spy-ring) (accessed 2 May 2013).  99 NACP, RG 65, RFBI, Classification 65: Espionage, Box 214, 65-57388, Copy of Final Report on Kurt Haller, 7 August 1946, xxi; USDOJ, FBI, IRAFFBI, ‘Re-interrogation Report, Prisoner: Rekowski, Carl Berthold Franz’, 11 October 1945 (included in letter from Cimperman to Hoover, 22 November 1945); Hull, Irish secrets, 327. 100 Bell, The secret army, 199–201. 101 Ibid., 201–7.

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102 Ibid., 210–12. 103 Irish Independent, 20 June 1942. 104 New York Times, 20 June 1942; Irish Advocate, 25 July 1942. 105 Irish World, 29 November 1941. 106 John Day Tully, Ireland and Irish Americans, 1932–1945: the search for identity (Dublin, 2010), 96–100. 107 T. Ryle Dwyer, Behind the green curtain: Ireland’s phoney neutrality during World War II (Dublin, 2010), 117, 182–4. 108 Irish Advocate, 20 December 1941. 109 Irish Advocate, 16 January 1943. 110 LOC, JPMP, Box 44, Folder 2, James J. Conaty, Direct Examination, in the United States Eastern Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, case of ‘James Brislane, individually and as Trustees ad litem for Clan na Gael of New York, an unincorporated association vs. James P. McGranery and Kathryn McGarrity, the Reverend Peter McGarrity and William C. Carroll, executors of the estate of Joseph McGarrity, deceased, 28 March 1949’, 129–30; USDOJ, FBI, IRAFFBI, FBI report, File NY 100–7828, c. 1943. 111 See Irish Advocate, 24 May 1941, 20 June 1942 and 21 February 1942. 112 Irish Advocate, 22 August 1942. 113 Ibid. 114 NACP, RG 59, IARINI, 1930–44, M1231/17, 841E.00/40, Davis to Hull, 1 September 1942. 115 NACP, RG 59, IARINI, 1930–44, M1231/9, 841D.00/1349, O’Connor to Crosser, 28 August 1942. 116 NACP, RG 59, IARINI, 1930–44, M1231/9, 841D.00/1347, Crean and Hoyne Murray to Roosevelt, 14 August 1942. 117 NACP, RG 59, IARINI, 1930–44, M1231/17, 841E.00/24, Saltonstall to Hull, 25 August 1942. 118 NACP, RG 59, IARINI, 1930–44, M1231/17, 841E.00/12, Under Secretary to Ambassador, 25 August 1942. 119 NACP, RG 59, IARINI, 1930–44, M1231/17, 841E.00/18, Under Secretary to Gray (copy of message from Under Secretary to Ambassador, UK, 15 August 1942), 22 August 1942. 120 NACP, RG 59, IARINI, 1930–44, M1231/17, 841E.00/20, Gray to Under Secretary, 26 August 1942. 121 NACP, RG 59, IARINI, 1930–44, M1231/17, 841E.00/50, Copy of IRA ‘Special Manifesto’, 29 August 1942; New York Times, 1 September 1942. 122 Irish Independent, 31 August 1942. 123 NACP, RG 59, IARINI, 1930–44, M1231/17, 841E.00/19, Acting Secretary to Ambassador, 31 August 1942 1888; NACP, RG 59, IARINI, 1930–44, M1231/17, 841E.00/34, Welch to Hull, 31 August 1942; NACP, RG 59, IARINI, 1930–44, M1231/17, 841E.00/51,Welch, House of Representatives to Roosevelt, 31 August 1942. 124 NACP, RG 59, IARINI, 1930–44, M1231/17, 841E.00/38, Gray to Secretary of State, 31 August 1942.

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125 New York Times, 2 September 1942, 3 September 1942. 126 New York Times, 21 September 1942. 127 For more information on the efforts of the OSS in Ireland see O’Halpin, Spying on Ireland, 199–200; Dwyer, Behind the green curtain, 236–46; Martin Quigley, A U.S. spy in Ireland (Dublin, 1999). 128 USDOJ, FBI, CNFFBI, ‘Cornelius Finbar Neenan’, File 65-12426, 18 May 1943. 129 USDOJ, FBI, CNFFBI, Hoover to Special Agent in Charge (hereafter SAC), Philadelphia, 20 November 1942. 130 USDOJ, FBI, CNFFBI, ‘Con Collins’, File 65-3110, 30 January 1943. 131 Ibid. 132 USDOJ, FBI, IRAFFBI, Hottel, SAC to Director, FBI, 1 March 1941. 133 USDOJ, FBI, CNFFBI, ‘Cornelius Finbar Neenan’, Background Information, 9 September 1959, referenced in File 105-74252, 12 October 1959. 134 AIA, JCMOHC, Paul O’Dwyer interview, CD 22, Track 2, 17 April 1991. 135 NACP, RG 59, IARINI, 1930–44, M1231/13, 841D/513/91, ‘A Citizen’ to Attorney General Office, Department of Justice, 16 March 1940. 136 USDOHS, 1940 Alien Registration (AR-2) Form, File 4504767, ‘Cornelius Neenan’, c. 1940; USDOJ, FBI, CNFFBI, Memorandum on ‘Cornelius Neenan’, SAC, New York to Director, FBI, 10 November 1959. 137 For an overview on the career of Harrison, see Lewis M. Stevens, ‘The life and character of Earl G. Harrison’, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, 104:5 (March 1956), 591–602. 138 USDOJ, FBI, CNFFBI, FBI, Philadelphia to Director, FBI, 23 March 1943. 139 USDOJ, FBI, CNFFBI, ‘Cornelius Finbar Neenan’, File 65-12426, 18 May 1943. 140 CCCA, CNP, PR7/7, Connie Neenan memoirs (1939–47 section), 2. 141 USDOJ, FBI, CNFFBI, ‘Cornelius Finbar Neenan’, File 65-12426, 18 May 1943. 142 USDOJ, FBI, IRAFFBI, Memorandum on ‘Irish activities in the United States’, 6 November 1941 (included in a letter from Hoover to O’Donovan, Coordinator of Information, 8 November 1941). 143 USDOJ, FBI, IRAFFBI, Sackett, SAC to Director, FBI, 2 November 1940. 144 Ibid. 145 USDOJ, FBI, CNFFBI, Memorandum on ‘Cornelius Neenan’, SAC, New York to Director, FBI, 10 November 1959. 146 USDOJ, FBI, CNFFBI, ‘Cornelius Finbar Neenan’, Background Information, 9 September 1959, referenced in File 105-74252, 12 October 1959. 147 NACP, RG 59, IARINI, 1930–44, M1231/11, 841D.20200/1, ‘The Irish Republican Brotherhood and Irish Republican Army’, distributed from the Vice Chief of Naval Operations to various government agencies, 24 July 1942. 148 NACP, RG 59, IARINI, 1930–44, M1231/9, 841D.00/1421, ‘Irish Republican Army’, Hoover to Berle, Jnr, Assistant Secretary of State, 30 September 1943; USDOJ, FBI, IRAFFBI, ‘Irish Republican Army’, Hoover to Thurston, Legal Attaché, American Embassy, London, 30 September 1943. 149 NACP, RG 59, IARINI, 1930–44, M1231/9, 841D.00/1421, ‘Irish Republican Army’, Hoover to Berle Jnr, Assistant Secretary of State, 30 September 1943.

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150 NACP, RG 59, IARINI, 1930–44, M1231/17, 841E.00/144, ‘Memo. on the I.R.A. Also known as Oglaigh Na h-Eireann’, c. September 1943. Seán Cronin also suspected that Neenan was the FBI source. See Seán Cronin, Washington’s Irish policy 1916–1986: independence, partition, neutrality (Dublin, 1987), 85–90. 151 NACP, RG 59, IARINI, 1930–44, M1231/17, 841E.00/144, ‘Memo. on the I.R.A. Also known as Oglaigh Na h-Eireann’, c. September 1943. 152 Ibid. 153 NACP, RG 59, IARINI, 1930–44, M1231/17, 841E.00/144, ‘Memo. on the I.R.A. Also known as Oglaigh Na h-Eireann’, cover letter to document, 8 September 1943. 154 NACP, RG 59, IARINI, 1930–44, M1231/17, 841E.00/144, ‘Memo. on the I.R.A. Also known as Oglaigh Na h-Eireann’, c. September 1943. 155 USDOJ, FBI, IRAFFBI, Hoover to Thurston, Legal Attaché, American Embassy, London, 7 October 1943. 156 Neenan describes in his memoirs how the FBI contacted him in 1941 soon after Gerald O’Reilly was found with a letter from Frank Ryan. Neenan asserted that he told FBI agents how Russell departed from the US, but they refused to believe him. Although it is possible that Neenan did speak to investigators about Russell’s departure during this time, their discussions most likely occurred from 1943 onwards. See CCCA, CNP, PR7/1, Connie Neenan interview transcripts, undated, Belt 10, 4. 157 USDOJ, FBI, IRAFFBI, Conroy, SAC, New York to Director, FBI, 17 May 1943. 158 USDOHS, Certificate of Naturalization, ‘Cornelius Neenan’, File 6324283, 19 April 1944; USDOJ, FBI, CNFFBI, ‘Cornelius Finbar Neenan’, Background Information, 9 September 1959, referenced in File 105-74252, 12 October 1959. 159 USDOJ, FBI, IRAFFBI, New York, ‘Irish Republican Army (Oglaigh na h-Eireann); United Irish Republicans’, File 100-7828, 11 August 1944. 160 NACP, RG 59, IARINI, 1930–44, M1231/11, 841D.20211/4, Smale to Lyon, Department of State, 12 November 1942. 161 NACP, RG 59, IARINI, 1930–44, M1231/11, 841D.20211/6, Hoover to Berle Jnr, Assistant Secretary of State, c. January 1943. 162 USDOJ, FBI, IRAFFBI, New York, ‘Irish Republican Army’, File 100-7828, 19 May 1943. 163 USDOJ, FBI, IRAFFBI, Philadelphia, ‘Irish Republican Army’, File 65-370, 2 June 1944. 164 For examples, see Irish World, 18 July 1942, 19 September 1942 and 23 January 1943. 165 Irish Advocate, 17 June 1944. 166 O’Connor, An Irish Civil War exile, 69–71, 79–90. 167 Irish Advocate, 17 February 1945. For background on Keating’s life, see ‘How Sean P. Keating set his stamp on the world’, from Irish Echo online (http://irishecho. com/?p=65639) (accessed 1 July 2013). 168 Irish Advocate, 12 May 1945.

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9 Conclusion From 1923 to 1945 the militant Irish republican movement in the US moved forward with a unique blend of American support and Irish ambitions. From the IRA ceasefire in 1923 it became rapidly apparent that Éamon de Valera was determined to continue to singlehandedly control the US-based republican movement that he had shaped according to his own personal vision. His political foresight, however, neglected to truly understand the personal toll and deep republican ideological development that many IRA members whom he supported during the Irish Civil War had experienced. To de Valera, these men represented a base of support which could propel him to eventual political success. However, for many of the committed IRA members, politics seemed undesirable and worthless. As the republican movement in Ireland under de Valera’s leadership grappled with how to maintain the synthesis between Sinn Féin and the IRA, the Clan na Gael under the leadership of Joseph McGarrity and Luke Dillon was requested to publicly align with the AARIR in order to present a united republican front in the US. Although this co-ordination would have seemed a likely course of action from afar, de Valera misunderstood the ethos of the Clan, which had been formulated since its inception and was now guided by a committed leadership who had played a role in the Irish Civil War. De Valera’s political motives were also at the time being directly contradicted by Cork IRA leader Seán Moylan, who was seemingly on his own personal campaign to maintain militant republicanism in the US and to assist IRA veterans who had begun to arrive into American communities. Moylan understood that these IRA veterans represented an important channel for the militant republican movement. However, his opinions were superseded by IRA Chief of Staff Frank Aiken who, in the immediate years after the Civil War, continued to implement antiquated emigration policies inconsistent with a deteriorating economic situation in Ireland. As Aiken became closely aligned with de Valera’s republican political goals, struggling IRA members were subsequently forced to make independent decisions to emigrate. For those republicans who departed for the US, the communities which they arrived into became the single most important determinant of whether their republican activism would continue.

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The creation of the IRA Foreign Reserve in July 1925 revealed a new organisational philosophy on the part of the IRA towards its members who had departed Ireland or were considering emigration. Although the actual numbers of men who left for the US remains inconclusive, it is evident that the hundreds listed on the Foreign Reserve forms represented the future of the US-based militant republican movement. Organising these men scattered across the US presented an extremely difficult logistical feat. Once the IRA officially removed itself from the political spectrum of Sinn Féin and distanced itself from the firm grip of de Valera, a renewed emphasis was directed towards American elements. Those IRA members who had emigrated over the previous years represented a channel to an American support system which could enhance the capabilities of the IRA and, in the process, provide an international dimension and flexibility for the militant republican movement struggling to operate and define itself in Ireland. During the end of 1925 and into 1926 displaced local IRA leaders attempted to attract and re-organise men who had emigrated to the US, and the revitalisation of a faltering movement began once again. The agreement between the IRA and the Clan in September 1926 provided a clear blueprint for mutual co-operation between the two organisations and the installation of Connie Neenan as An Timthire a few months later brought in a dedicated organiser to further unite and assist IRA veterans. Neenan’s role was extremely difficult. Notwithstanding the restricting communication conditions of the time, he was forced to contend with and balance a variety of internal and external forces. Firstly, he had to carefully implement a public revitalisation of the Clan in order to attract young IRA veterans and funding, while also appeasing older Clan leaders who were wary of such outspoken ventures. Secondly, he was forced to contain the power of de Valera and Fianna Fáil. Thirdly, he had to control the expectations of the IRA with regard to Clan fundraising and organisational procedures. Each separate dimension was difficult, but Neenan and a dedicated supporting cast of republicans proved especially capable. The efforts of the IRA in 1929 to create a new open militant republican organisation in the US, was another example of an overreaching attempt to dictate policies from Ireland without a clear understanding of the dynamics of the Clan. Luke Dillon’s death in early 1930 and the events that followed, however, ultimately brought many of the IRA’s transatlantic goals to fruition. The installation of Connie Neenan as the secretary of the Clan meant that the IRA now had a direct connection into the leadership and administrative decisions of the Clan. The presence of other IRA veterans on the Clan executive, including Dan O’Donovan, Michael McLoughlin and later, Peter Kearney, further solidified the IRA connection. This new era for the Clan was displayed

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in 1930 as Neenan managed the public tour of visiting IRA member Frank Ryan. Although Ryan’s lectures in various Irish-American centres in the northeast US certainly demonstrated that the militant republican movement still consisted of dedicated supporters, the funeral for Michael McLoughlin in December 1930 displayed just how organised and unified the IRA veterans across the US had become. Even with this progress, at the end of 1930 IRA Chief of Staff Maurice Twomey still believed the Clan had much work to accomplish in order to meet the expectations of the IRA. Although US-based republican fundraising efforts would continue to decline with the worldwide economic depression, the Irish Free State government’s coercion policies offered the Clan the impetus for a dramatic publicity campaign from late 1931 to early 1932. Suddenly, the Clan with its IRA veteran leadership had the opportunity to publicise the actions of the Free State government. The alliance with the ICPP portrayed the committed resolve of the Clan. The Fianna Fáil election victory in 1932 brought great hope for IRA veterans in the US, but as the ideological differences between the political and militant bodies of the republican movement failed to reach an agreement, Clan membership turned inwards and by 1934 had begun to create the blueprint for a destructive demolitions campaign in Britain. By this time, the leadership structure of the Clan was in a period of transition. IRA veterans, including former Clan executive leaders Peter Kearney and Dan O’Donovan, had, over the previous two years, returned to Ireland due to unemployment and Connie Neenan, disgusted at internal divisiveness and preoccupied with his burgeoning role in the Irish Hospitals Sweepstake, had resigned his position as secretary. The economic difficulties associated with the Great Depression forced many other IRA veterans to place a greater emphasis on their own individual needs and, in the process, the Clan declined. However, the development of the Irish Hospitals Sweepstake and the leading roles of Neenan and Joseph McGarrity in this international enterprise provided new employment opportunities for IRA veterans and ensured that the militant republican networks in the US would remain alive. As the IRA became fractured with internal division and undermined by Fianna Fáil policies, by 1936 the Clan, composed of a new leadership of IRA veterans, once again assumed an importance and the organisation was now in a position to guide and influence the overall transnational militant republican movement. With the loss of Maurice Twomey as the chief of staff the IRA was left without a dependable leader. The emergence of IRA Quartermaster General Seán Russell as a voice for the IRA during this period was significant, for he was willing to serve as the spokesperson for the hypothetical demolitions campaign created by the Clan.

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Transatlantic defiance

The initial support for Russell and the encouragement of a renewed campaign from IRA members who had been associated with the Clan while residing in the US, established a voice for the US-based republican goals. The arrival of Clan treasurer and former Fourth Northern Division IRA veteran James Conaty into Ireland during the summer of 1937 articulated the Clan’s goals even further and showed that the IRA veterans now involved with the leadership of the Clan would attempt to dictate events into the foreseeable future. Russell’s return to the US during this period was also an opportunity for the Clan to once again utilise the publicity that he could attract. The Clan’s elaborate scheme to influence and guide the IRA proved successful during the 1938 IRA General Army Convention as supporters of Russell overtook the leadership of the organisation, resulting in Russell himself becoming IRA chief of staff. The IRA ‘S-plan’ clearly had a role for US-based republicans in the form of publicity. The establishment of the IRA Veterans Incorporated in New York, on the day that Joseph McGarrity returned to the US after witnessing the dramatic events at the IRA convention, signalled the moment that the Clan would once again attempt to re-organise IRA veterans across Irish-American centres. The Clan also rapidly moved forward to send wireless transmitters, money and weapons to the IRA. These acts, along with the visits of McGarrity, James Brislane and James Conaty to Ireland through the summer of 1939 provides strong evidence that the organisation was not just a distant accomplice, but rather deeply involved with the planning and guidance of IRA operations. Once the initial phase of the IRA bombing campaign began in Northern Ireland during late 1938 the Clan increased its commitment to spreading propaganda. The arrival of Seán Russell in April 1939, and the cleverly devised series of public manoeuvres organised to upstage the visit of the King and Queen of England, brought a period of recognition for the IRA and the Clan not seen in the US since the early 1920s. However, this publicity was fleeting for, as British and Irish authorities began to enact legislative measures to curb and undermine the IRA, the bombing campaign lost momentum. The outbreak of the Second World War, which caused the closure of the transatlantic shipping channels vital to the IRA and Clan, proved especially damaging. For decades, militant Irish republican activism in the US could largely move without boundaries. Now, this fluid state of operations suddenly came to an abrupt halt. The Clan was subsequently forced to adapt to these new conditions. Although the Clan demonstrated persistence in inspiring public support against the executions of Peter Barnes and James Richards, the actions of the Fianna Fáil government against the IRA during this time depreciated any nationwide US-based activism. The successful effort to smuggle Seán Russell out of the US, along with the underground co-ordination with German

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elements, demonstrated the flexibility and tenacity of the militant republican networks in the US. However, the deaths of Russell and Joseph McGarrity in the summer of 1940 once again curtailed any hopes of a republican revival in both the US and Ireland. The American entry into the Second World War in December 1941 transformed the dynamics of Irish-America. Similarly, with American war efforts fully underway, the Clan was forced to publicly transform into an organisation that professed American principles along with Irish demands. However, with this new war footing, certain influential IRA veterans living in the US were under greater threat of government inspection. The FBI surveillance on Connie Neenan in 1943 portrayed these new features. Neenan’s willingness to speak with investigators and divulge certain information on the republican movement that he was once so actively involved in, demonstrated the power and influence of government intervention. For the remainder of the Second World War, those IRA veterans who, as with Neenan, thrived in the US before the outbreak of war would remain careful to retain a low profile. As republicans in the US looked ahead to the post-war world in early 1945, it was clear that in order for the goal of a united Ireland to become a reality, Irish-America would have to become re-energised. With the US emerging as an international leader, the stage was set once again for a renewal of republican activism. However, for any progress to occur, the transatlantic republican networks needed to be revitalised. After more than five years of relative disconnect with the IRA, the militant republican movement in the US was forced to begin anew.

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Index Abwehr 166, 168, 169, 170 Aiken, Frank 14, 15, 17, 18, 20–1, 30–1, 173, 191 American Association for the Recognition of the Irish Republic (AARIR) 7–8, 14–17, 19, 27, 59, 62, 82, 88, 101, 113, 128, 133, 136, 139, 141, 164–6, 175, 191 American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) 85, 100 American Civil War 3 American Friends of Irish Neutrality (AFIN) 173–4 Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH) 2, 15, 88, 175 Anglo-Irish Treaty 8, 27, 55 arms 5, 6, 13–14, 18–20, 54, 82, 90–2, 96–7, 131, 147–8, 180 Army Pensions Act 115 assassinations 8, 85 threatened 134, 140–1, 143–4 Associated Irish Societies 87 Aud 6, 82 Baldwin, Roger 85, 86–7, 88, 89, 100, 101 Barnes, Peter 148, 162–4, 194 Barry, Tom 128 Belfast 125, 129, 134, 135, 175–6 Blake, Joseph 28, 62 Boer War 4, 7 Boland, Harry 7, 8, 18 bombing campaigns 126, 128–39, 142, 145–8, 162–4, 169, 194 Boston 2, 16, 32, 37, 41–3, 58, 60, 66–7, 70, 83–4, 93–4, 101, 129, 137, 169, 175, 179 Breen, Dan 15, 26, 64 Brennan, Robert 163, 167, 175

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Brislane, James 33, 110, 128, 130–2, 137–8, 142, 144, 163–4, 167, 171, 174, 181, 183, 194 British Foreign Office 58, 139–41, 145, 163 Brosnan, Tadg 39, 130, 132 Buffalo, NY 13, 37, 100 Butte, MT 68, 83, 129, 132, 140, 141 Canada 3, 7, 35–6, 41, 139, 143 Canning, Albert 141, 161 Casement, Roger 5, 82 Chamberlain, Neville 164 Chicago 2, 4, 19, 32, 37, 63–4, 67, 83, 99–100, 110, 129, 139, 141–3, 145, 147, 164 civil war see American Civil War; Irish Civil War Clan na Gael 3–8, 13–21, 26, 38–41, 54–63, 66–71, 81–101, 110, 113–18, 124–47, 160–75, 179–83, 191–5 Clan na Gael Clubs 7, 19, 40, 55, 57–9, 63–4, 67–8, 70–1, 88, 93, 99, 129, 139 Cleveland 29, 32, 34, 37, 39–41, 59, 66–7, 83–4, 88, 94, 110–11, 129, 174–5 Cobh 31–2, 36, 41, 91, 111, 112, 116, 130, 180 Cohalan, Daniel 5, 6, 7 Collins, Michael 8 Comerford, Máire 15, 16, 173 Comhairle na Poblachta 68–9 communism 85, 86, 99, 127, 140 Conaty, James 39, 128, 130, 132, 137, 145, 167, 181, 194 Connolly, James 54, 99 Cooney, Andrew 18–19, 20, 21, 26, 36, 69 Cork 54–5, 133 Coventry 146, 148, 163 Craig, James, Viscount Craigavon 134 Crowley, Michael 57, 63–4, 71, 113

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Cumann na mBan 15, 28, 68, 91, 141, 162 Cumann na nGaedheal 29, 85, 112 Dáil Éireann 8, 15 Second 13, 61, 124, 134, 137 Daly, Tom 60, 62, 67, 69, 70 Davitt, Michael 4 de Valera, Éamon 6–8, 13–20, 29, 57–9, 69, 88–92, 96, 100–1, 112, 126, 128, 138, 165, 167, 169, 173, 191–2 Detroit 37, 101, 129, 142–4 Devoy, John 3–4, 5, 6, 7 Dillon, Luke 7–8, 15, 17–21, 67, 69, 191, 192 disabled veterans 61–3, 114–15, 132 Dublin 6, 8, 26, 30, 91–2, 118, 131, 133, 135, 146, 165–6, 173 Easter Rising 6 commemorations of 82–3, 136, 182 emigration 2, 16, 27–8, 30–43, 55–7, 126–7, 132, 191–2 employment 27–31, 41–2, 55, 63–6, 84, 109–11, 113, 116–18, 160–1 Enright, Michael 19, 69, 94–6, 101, 118, 129, 139, 142 espionage 166, 168–72, 176 Eucharistic Congress 84, 91 executions 3, 6, 85, 148, 162–4, 174–6, 194 Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) 117, 140, 161, 168, 172, 174, 176–82, 195 Fenian Brotherhood 3 Fenian uprising 3 Fianna Fáil 20–1, 57–9, 68–9, 88–94, 96–7, 100, 112–13, 115, 124–5, 127–8, 135, 165–6, 169, 172, 192–4 First World War 5–6 Fitzpatrick, Michael 130 Flannery, Michael 26, 34, 57, 64, 110 Fleming, Patrick J. 117, 118 Friends of Irish Freedom (FOIF) 6–7, 8 Fromme, Franz 166, 168, 169 fundraising 1, 3–6, 8, 13–16, 19, 57–63, 66, 81, 88, 93, 95–7, 114, 125–6, 132, 139, 142, 145–8, 160–2, 174, 180, 192, 193 Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) 60, 88, 133

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Gaelic League 5 Gallagher, Frank 57–8, 59, 63, 65 Garda Siochaná 100, 126, 165, 173 George VI 129, 138, 139, 140–1, 143–4, 194 Germany 5–6, 13–14, 82–3, 127, 138, 140–1, 146–7, 161, 165–72, 176, 179, 181, 194–5 Gilmore, George 36, 100 Goertz, Herman 166, 169 Great Depression 109–11, 114, 193 Great Famine 2 Griffith, Arthur 5 Haller, Kurt 168, 169–70 Hamilton, James, Duke of Abercorn 175 Hayes, Seán 87, 95, 98, 101, 124, 127, 174 Hayes, Stephen 172–3 health care 27–8, 61–3, 114–16 Home Rule movement 4, 5 Hoover, J. Edgar 172, 176, 177, 180, 181–2 Hull, Cordell 133, 135 hunger strikes 26–7, 115, 165 illegal immigration 34–7, 126–7 International Committee for Political Prisoners (ICPP) 85–9, 100–1, 193 internment 147, 165, 169, 173 IRA Army Council 18, 20, 31, 56, 59–61, 89–90, 92–7, 128, 131, 134, 180 IRA Clubs 38–9, 56, 57, 59, 63–4, 99, 142 IRA Foreign Reserve 18, 37, 38, 39, 43, 55, 192 IRA General Army Conventions 18, 100, 131, 194 IRA General Headquarters 30, 36, 40, 65, 114 IRA Soldiers’ and Prisoners’ Dependents Fund (IRPDF) 15–16 IRA Veterans’ Association 16–17 IRA Veterans Incorporated 132, 194 Irish-American Clubs 67, 125–6, 138, 146, 164, 174 Irish American Labor League 99 Irish Civil War 1, 8, 27, 28, 29, 32, 55, 115, 191 Irish Free State 8, 27, 28, 30, 85–8 Irish Hospitals Sweepstake 116–18, 124, 135, 160–2, 177–9, 181, 193 Irish-Ireland movement 5 Irish National Aid Association 88

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Index

Irish National Land League of America 4 Irish Parliamentary Party 4, 5 Irish Progressive League (IPL) 6 Irish Race Conventions 6, 94, 181 Irish Republican Alliance 136 Irish Republican Army (IRA) 1, 6–8, 13–21, 26–43, 54–71, 81, 83–101, 110–18, 124–48, 160–76, 179–83, 191–5 Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) 3, 4, 5, 6, 179 Irish Volunteers 5, 58, 82 Irish War of Independence 40, 54 Irish Workers’ Clubs 99, 100 Kearney, Peter 38–9, 57, 62, 64, 82, 90–1, 93, 97–8, 110, 112–13, 128, 135, 145, 147, 180, 192, 193 Keogh, John 36–7, 39, 64 Kerr, Philip, Marquess of Lothian 162–3 land movement 4 Leahy, Michael 13, 27, 83, 113 Lindsay, Sir Ronald 139–40, 143 London 54, 55, 135, 137, 145, 166 Los Angeles 27–8, 58, 62, 68, 83, 113, 128–9, 136, 139–41, 175 Lynch, Liam 1, 14 Macaulay, William 36–7, 90, 112 MacBride, Seán 66–7, 125, 176, 178, 180 McCarthy, Seán 166, 168, 171, 174 McGarrity, Joseph 6–8, 13, 15, 17, 19–20, 34, 55, 60–1, 63–4, 69, 81, 92–8, 101, 118, 124–5, 127–35, 137–42, 144–8, 160–2, 167, 180–1, 191, 193–5 McGill, Tom 39, 89, 90, 91, 112–13, 128, 180 McGranery, James P. 136, 144, 145, 148, 162, 167, 176, 177 McGrath, Joseph 117, 160 McKiernan, Eoin 136, 138 McLoughlin, Michael 33, 39, 65, 69, 70–1, 192–3 MacSwiney, Mary 17, 137 MacSwiney, Peter 136–7 Mellows, Liam 6 Mitchel, John 2 Moore, Owen 36, 167

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219

Moylan, Seán 1, 13, 14, 15, 16–17, 191 Mulcahy, Richard 28, 43 Mulgrew, John 86–7, 88, 89 Murphy, Jeremiah 29, 30–2, 37, 66, 110 Murray, Nellie 141, 175 Murray, Peter 28, 139 Neenan, Connie 32–4, 54–60, 62–4, 66–7, 69–71, 82–4, 89–98, 112–14, 117–18, 133, 135, 147, 160–1, 167, 171, 176–81, 192–3, 195 neutrality 165, 166, 169, 173–4, 176 New Departure movement 4 New York 1, 2, 13–18, 32–9, 54–9, 63–71, 81–9, 94, 101, 109–12, 115–18, 124–5, 129–33, 136–8, 141, 145, 147, 163–4, 171–2, 174, 177–9, 182–3, 194 Northern Ireland 30, 98, 125, 128–9, 133–6, 138, 165–6, 172, 174–6, 194 O’Beirne, Frank 57, 69, 71, 87, 117 O’Brien, Con 133, 134, 162, 167 O’Connor, Joseph 32, 41, 65, 66, 110–11, 183 O’Doherty, Joseph 13, 18 O’Donovan, Dan 20–1, 36, 56, 60, 66–9, 71, 90, 94–6, 98, 111–12, 180, 192, 193 O’Donovan, Jim 131, 146 O’Dwyer, Paul 118, 177, 183 O’Flaherty, Liam 179 O’Flaherty, Peadar 130, 131, 147 O’Hara Harte, John 127, 134 O’Kelly, J.J. 13, 15, 35 O’Kelly, Seán T. 17–18, 20, 41 O’Kiersey, Michael 81–2, 85, 87, 109–10, 116–17 O’Leary, Con 18–19, 20 O’Malley, Ernie 26–7, 29, 41 O’Reilly, Gerald 65, 99, 100, 101, 167, 171, 172 Parnell, Charles Stewart 4 partition 8, 132, 133, 136, 164–6, 174, 182 passports 1, 31–2, 33, 34–5, 147, 172 Pedlar, Liam 17, 18, 42 Philadelphia 1–2, 6–7, 16, 37, 58–60, 67–70, 83–4, 100, 110, 125–6, 133, 136–8, 141, 144–7, 164, 167, 174, 176–7, 181–2

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Portland, OR 68, 140 Prevention of Violence Bill 148 Price, Michael 88, 89, 91, 100, 180 propaganda 5, 15–16, 83, 85–9, 131–8, 140–1, 143, 194 see also publicity Providence, RI 2, 41, 66 Public Safety Acts 29, 85–9, 125 publicity 1, 6, 20, 42, 54, 56, 62–3, 70, 81–9, 126, 128–9, 131–41, 143–7, 162, 193–4 Quill, Michael 29, 32, 37, 38, 41, 65, 71, 99, 101, 111, 133, 167 Quinn, Pádraig 32–3, 63, 71 Redmond, John 4, 5 Reilly, John J. 101, 164–5 Rekowski, Carl 168, 171, 172 Republican Congress 100–1, 180 Reynolds, Joseph 182, 183 Ribbentrop, Joachim von 170–1 Richards, James 148, 162–4, 194 Roosevelt, Franklin D. 136, 140, 144, 162–3, 175 Russell, Charles Edward 85, 87, 101 Russell, Seán 94–6, 124–31, 133–5, 137–48, 166, 169–73, 180, 181, 193–5 Ryan, Frank 70, 92, 100, 170–1, 193 Ryan, John T. 13–16, 18, 67, 69, 70, 82, 87, 96 Ryan (Lacken), Paddy 94, 112 S-plan 131–9, 142, 145–8, 162–4, 169, 194 San Francisco 2, 37, 58, 60, 64–5, 68, 83–4, 88, 94, 111, 117, 128–9, 132, 140, 164 Saor Éire scheme 85, 86, 90, 180 Seattle 58, 68 Second World War 147, 160–76, 182–3, 194–5 Sheehan, Eugene 41–3, 66, 71, 83, 93, 167, 169

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Sheehy, John Joe 59–60, 115 Sheehy Skeffington, Hanna 6, 15, 91 shipping 83–4, 88, 91, 117, 132, 166–7 Sinn Féin 5–8, 13–15, 18–19, 30, 55, 68, 191, 192 Sinn Féin Clubs 55 socialism 99–101 see also communism Spike Island 36, 98 Spindler, Karl 82–3, 90 Springfield, MA 67, 70, 84, 113 Stanton, John 19, 83, 88, 94, 95, 110 Stephens, James 2–3 Strunck, Erich 171, 172 Sullivan, Alexander 4 Tone, Theobald Wolfe 1 trade unions 2, 99, 111 Transport Workers Union (TWU) 99, 111, 133, 167 Twomey, Maurice 56–7, 61, 70, 81, 89–93, 95–6, 98, 112–14, 124–5, 131, 173, 180, 193 Ulster Volunteer Force 5 unemployment 29–31, 38, 63, 94, 96, 109–10 United Irish League of America 4 United Irishmen 1 United Irish Republican Committee 100 Veesenmayer, Edmund 169–70 visas 30, 31–4, 126, 137, 144, 166, 172 Washington, DC 144, 145, 179 Williams, Thomas 175 World’s Fair 163–4 Young Ireland movement 2

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