Friday, December 18, 2020

Sean Garland's Account of the Brookeborough Raid

From the WP website at https://workersparty.ie/a-first-hand-account-of-the-ira-border-campaign/

A first hand-account of the IRA Border Campaign

Seán Garland (1934-2018) joined the Irish Republican Army in the early 1950s, leading the Republican Movement forward with unapologetically socialist republican politics, standing firmly against sectarian nationalists, ultra-leftists and careerist politicians all throughout his life.

Garland led the 1956 raid of Gough Barracks in Armagh and the 1957 raid of Brookeborough RUC barracks, made popular by the well-known ballads “Seán South of Garryowen” and Dominic Behan’s “The Patriot Game” when Seán South and Fergal O’Hanlon lost their lives.

While we remember the border campaign and remember proudly the men who lost their lives we also understand the context in which it was undertaken. The failure of the campaign led to the movements change of direction and its new focus on social and political agitation under the direction of people like Cathal Goulding, Tomás MacGiolla and Seán Garland.

Below is a never-before-seen, first-hand account of the beginning of the Border Campaign, written by Garland himself before his passing.

Headquarters decided that 11th December would be the opening date for the campaign it was later postponed to 12th December. All the volunteers assembled at a farmhouse in Athboy a week before to sort out which column would do what, in which area of the country and what target they would chose. Headquarters decided that we would only target the British Army and the B-Specials and the RUC would not be targeted. My Column was given Gough Barracks in Armagh.

We had a Column of about twenty. We had a lorry which arrived late so we were late starting off. Once we got to Armagh Barracks the team were supposed to jump out and plant a mine but a sentry spotted the lorry and the activity of the men running with the mine and fired a shot into the air.

The team dropped the mine on the roadway. With the shot going off we knew the alarm would go off and we retreated. I was in the cab with driver Vince Conlan and Eamon McTomas. Eamon said “fire a few rounds at him” which I did, it had no affect. A voice in the back of the lorry said “ta fear ar an talam” (there is a man on the ground) the voice was that of Seán Sabhat. I got out of the cab and ran back to check but it was in fact the mine that had been dropped. I ran back to the cab, and among other comments, gave instructions to drive away. We sped out of Armagh and headed for Knockatallen in County Monaghan where Big Sean Cronin and Charlie Murphy were waiting.

The column split and half went to Fermanagh and the other half to County Down. From 12th December, for about 10 days, we spent moving around Fermanagh. The instructions were clear no attacks on the B-Specials or the RUC, only the British Army. We spent those ten days roaming around Fermanagh seeking British Army targets which didn’t exist.

In Dublin GHQ some idiot decided to have a truce for Christmas. The Column spent Christmas sitting around in Dublin waiting. We then began assembling a few days after Christmas in Dublin. A few volunteers had dropped out and a number of new ones joined these included Paddy O’Regan from Dublin and Fergal O’Hanlon from Monaghan Town.

We picked Fergal up at his home where we met his mother and his family. After a friendly meeting and a warm goodbye we headed to Fermanagh where we met with Dave O’Connell who had been there for months. Dave was second in command of the column and had got to know the county very well and had secured billets. We then began to develop a plan for an attack on the RUC.

The rules governing a column’s activity not to engage B-men or RUC from 12th December had changed over Christmas. There was a notable lack of British Army activity in Fermanagh. Operation Harvest, which had been created by Big Sean Cronin and had commenced on 12th December had a very sporadic first couple of weeks. An attack on Lisnaskea in which a member of the RUC garrison was killed along with damage to the barracks, a Derry train had been disrupted and a courtroom destroyed. Many men had been captured. After a number of days we decided to carry out an attack on Brookborugh barracks. Reading newspapers at the time it didn’t seem that as much progress had been made, significant numbers of captures of IRA members was one feature so we felt that an attack on Brookborough was a prestige target named after a six county Prime Minster, a well know sectarian bigot who gloried in imposing harsh and vindictive laws and denial of civil and human rights to the minority population who were Roman Catholic Nationalists who gave their loyalty in the main to the Dublin Government, itself a right wing reactionary force.

As usual the Column was late setting out for Brookborough. All volunteers were in good form and looking forward to the attack. They had spent the days tramping around Fermanagh anxious to engage the enemy. The truck did not take long for its journey from the farmhouse to Brookborough.

In the cabin were Vince Conlon, Dave O’Connell and local guide Pat Connelly. The members of the Column were in the body of the truck. Each volunteer had a specific role to play in the attack. Sean Sabhat and Paddy O’Regan were to stay in the truck manning the Bren Gun. Mick O’Brien was to remain at the entry of the town to ensure that no other people could enter and Mickey Kelly to remain at the exit of the town to do the same. Dave O’Connell and a number of volunteers had the task of planting the mine at the barracks door and Fergal O’Hanlon along with rest of the Column remained in the truck to give cover.

The first and most deadly error was the lorry driving on the right hand side on the same side of the street as the barracks. The lorry stopped just at the gable end of the barracks building. Once having stopped all the men moved to take up specific roles. From that moment we were doomed to fail.

The plan was for the truck to stop opposite the barracks on the left side of the road. In such a position the bren gun manned by Sean Sabhat and Paddy O’Regan would have had an open field of fire. Giving cover to the group of volunteers planting the mine. There were also a number of rifle men in the back of the truck which would have almost guaranteed the safety of all volunteers in the truck.

Years later I was told the reason the truck pulled up in the wrong place was because children were playing opposite the barracks. As events turned out the RUC Sergeant Cordner had a field day being able to use the gable window which over looked where the lorry parked. Any volunteer who was shot was shot in the lorry. After a short period of time, with no mine exploding I ran forward and called on the volunteers to withdraw. Some bullets from the Sergeants gun had entered the lorries cabin hitting Vincent Conlan’s foot. Mick O’Brien who had been guarding the entry of the town was getting left behind with the truck moving away and he had to run after it, shouting for it to hold on. He got up and was able to get to the truck. I was shot in the left leg as I got back into the truck.

The task began of assessing our overall situation. It was clear that Seán and Fergal were most serious. When the body of Seán was brought down from the lorry and I put my arms around him, I knew that my comrade was dead. Their two bodies were brought to some outbuildings and the emphasis was to get the column moving. I suggested to Dave O’Connell who was second in command that he should take over the Column and should leave myself and the other wounded behind to give comrades an opportunity to get away. Dave O’Connell rejected this and we organised a retreat.

Having left the bodies of our two fallen comrades the Column headed over the mountains to Monaghan. We could see the actions of the large force of RUC and B-Specials which had been called out to take part in a search for the column. I recall very clearly hearing Pat Connelly’s voice shouting out “we’re in the State, we’re in the State” meaning of course the Free State. We eventually found a farmhouse where the family opened their door and did all they could to help. Dave O’Connell organised to have the weapons put safely away and then went to seek help for the wounded. He found a police and national army road block not far from the farm house and very soon an ambulance arrived and took the wounded to hospital, and lots of Gardai who took the rest of the column into custody.

Within days they were in court and they were sent to prison. The wounded remained in Monaghan Hospital and then transferred to the Mater Hospital in Dublin. On arrival Phil O’Donahue got out of the ambulance and just wandered off.

For myself an abiding memory is watching from the hospital window in Monaghan hospital the funeral cortege of, my comrade, Volunteer Fergal O’Hanlon proceeding slowly through the streets and roads of Monaghan.

"Donal O Se- The Passing of a 1950's Veteran"

This, and all photos, were originally posted by Eirigi on their website - see the original at:

Donal Ó Sé - The Passing Of A 1950s Veteran — Éirígí For A New Republic (eirigi.org)

Donal Ó Sé - The Passing Of A 1950s Veteran

Republican activists in South Dublin woke to the sad news last Thursday morning that the 1950's veteran Donal Ó Sé had passed away. Although Donal had lived in the same house on the Dundrum Road for the last forty years, his life story began far away in the village of Kilgarvan in South Kerry where he was born in 1937.

The hearse bearing the tri-colour draped coffin of Donal Ó Sé, flanked by a republican guard of honour, making the journey from Donal’s home to Milltown Church.

Donal’s earliest days on this earth were a time of simultaneous joy and tragedy for his family - joy in his arrival and tragedy in the passing of his mother who died in childbirth.

As was common with such tragedies at the time, family members stepped forward to help rear the infant Donal - in his case a childless aunt and uncle who had returned to Ireland after spending decades in the United States. While still a child tragedy again visited the young Donal’s life, with the death of his beloved Unlce Jim.

As the ten-year-old ‘man of the house’ Donal had to grow up fast, helping his adoptive mother Minnie with the many chores that came with running a small holding in 1940s Ireland. It was during these formative years that he developed both a strong work ethic and a deep hatred of injustice of every type.

The small holding where Donal Ó Sé grew up pictured today.

His republican beliefs too developed as he moved through his teenage years - influenced by the rich republican history of his native county and by his adoptive parents who had supported the republican cause from America during the revolutionary period.

At some point in his late teens Donal joined the Irish Republican Army, a fact that became known to all when he was arrested along with 37 other republican volunteers during training maneuvers in Glencree, Co Wicklow in 1957.

Among the detained repubilcan’s were many who went on to become well-known national political figures including Seamus Costelloe, Sean Garland, Proinseas De Rossa and Peter Pringle.

Donal Ó Sé pictured in 2019 at the republican monument at the Cúl na Cathrach ambush site at Baile Mhic Íre

Following a period of detention in Mountjoy Prison, Donal was moved to the internment camp in the Curragh, Co Kildare. The government of Eamon De Valera has introduced interment without trial earlier in 1957 in response to the IRA’s ill-fated ‘Operation Harvest’.

Unwilling to wait patiently for De Valera to release him, Donal took part in a mass prison break in December 1958. While many other prisoners were captured during the escape or shortly afterwards, Donal escaped the immediate area and remained at large until a general amnesty for all republican prisoners was introduced.

In the early 1960s Donal emigrated to England where he worked in the construction sector as a carpenter, until his republican activities attracted the attention of British police. A rapidly arranged trip back across the Irish Sea took Donal to Dublin where he gained employment with Dublin Corporation and met his future wife.

Donal Ó Sé remained a committed republican throughout the rest of his life as evidenced by his trade unionism, his love of Gaelic Games, traditional music and the Irish language. In the years leading up to his death Donal offered his support to Éirigí For A New Republic - the party he felt best represented the politics he believed in.

Donal Ó Sé was a quiet, unassuming man of few words. That quietness was not borne out of shyness or lack of confidence. Quite the opposite. It was a quietness borne of a deep understanding of the modern world and an absolute belief in Irish republicanism.

Donal had no need to shout from the hilltops about his exploits or his politics. He knew exactly who he was and what he believed in. Like thousands of other republican activists of his generation he did what he did because it was the right thing to do and he did so without any expectation of fame or fortune.

His republicanism manifested itself in the support that he offered to friend and stranger alike - in his instinctive rallying against injustice - in his support for oppressed people across the globe - in his political campaigning - in the unconditional love that he gave to his family.

Éirígí For A New Republic takes this opportunity to offer our deepest condolences to Donal’s wife Geraldine, his son Eoin and to their wider family during this most difficult of times. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.

Saturday, October 3, 2020

"Phil Clarke - An Appreciation"

Phil Clarke - An Appreciation

Fermanagh Herald, Wednesday, August 23, 1995

Forty years ago, a young Dubliner was selected as the sole anti-Unionist candidate for Fermanagh-South Tyrone. Like his colleague in Mid-Ulster, Tom Mitchell, Phil Clarke was tolerating Her Majesty's hospitality in Crumlin Road prison' having been convicted for his part in the raid on the armaments depot in Omagh. With staunch support from Fermanagh's best known clergyman of the time, Canon Tom Maguire of Newtownbutler, Clarke was elected to represent the constuency of Churchill's dreary steeples in the "Mother of Parliaments".

Not for the first time, nor, as it transpired the last, the mandate of the Fermanagh-Tyrone electorate was ignored by a Tory government and Clarke, like Mitchell, was disqualified; eventually the constituency fell to a Unionist who held it for a long time.

Four decades is a long time- long enough for memories to fade. Last week, Phil Clarke passed unexpectedly to his eternal reward without even a whimper of acknowledgement from his erstwhile constituents. Phil packed more into his sixty-one years than most. An international cyclist prior to his incarceration and a member of the only Irish cycling team to defeat England in a full international, he represented Ireland at a time when Ireland's international representation was adversely affected by Britain's refusal to acknowledge the N.A.C.A.'s right to nominate an International team for the 1948 and 1952 Olympic Games. His interest in cycling never waned; few Irishmen saw more stages of the Tour de France over the years; every year his continental holiday coincided with a major cycling event; and right up to his untimely death, he continued his Sunday morning stint on the bicycle as his gesture to fitness.

A civil servant before his imprisonment, Clarke returned to the public sector on his release from Crumlin Road. Having secured a primary degree before being head-hunted by the Irish Management Institute where his innovative and imaginative approach to management development led to his appointment as Executive Director responsible for In-Company Development. While employed there he was awarded a Master's Degree by Trinity College for a thesis on management development and action-learning which was, then, a relatively new concept.

Never one to suffer fools gladly, Clarke made no secret of his views when the I.M.I.’ s proposed policy indicated a change of direction which he felt was not in the best interests of the Irish economy. After a period of considerable confusion and some personal criticism, Phil left the I.M.I- with a not inconsiderable cash "gratuity" and set up a new consulting company with two of his former I.M.I colleagues. As a consultant he made a huge reputation for himself in the areas of industrial relations and wage payment systems. Regularly, articles by him appeared in management publications and contribution to the Journal of Industrial Relations on Gain-Sharing indicated a novel way of allowing workers to participate in the benefits from improved efficiency; it was a model which subsequently found favour in several of the country's leading companies and, indeed, in National Wage bargaining.

Many, including his former colleague, Noel Mulcahy, now a Professor and Dean of Research at the University of Limerick, had often suggested to Phil that he should chronicle his involvement in political affairs, for he had a strong philosophical bent when discussing such matters. He always resisted. Then earlier this year, he produced a novel entitled "True Blue" (as befitted a died-in-the-wool Dubliner). He vehemently denied any autographical dimension to the book, but his trenchant criticism of politics and of politicians suggested to those who knew him well that part of it, at least, came from his own experiences and all of it came from his heart.

Two weeks ago, he produced a first draft of a second novel to get the reactions of some of his closest friends. No doubt it too will be published even if it may need some re-drafting for its predecessor was rewritten at least three times before it was acceptable to a publisher. But Phil had enough friends to guarantee that his labour will not have been in vain.

Seven years in Crumlin Road have their effects; Phil could survive well in his own company, but for those who made the effort to get to know him the reward was worthwhile; he was loyal to a fault; he had an outstanding intellect; despite his involvement with multinationals and big business, his political philosophy remained "left of centre"; he was a great communicator and an outstanding teacher — I know, for most of what I learned Phil Clarke taught me and I am eternally grateful.

He will be missed by many; by Maeve, his wife his six daughters, Mary, Emer, Nuala, Philomena, Niamh and Ruth, by Adam, his son and fellow Dublin supporter, by his business partner and soulmate, Aileen, and by his brothers and sisters.

Forty years ago Phil was deprived of electoral success; last week he lost an even bigger battle. Those of us who knew him, who considered ourselves his friends, also lost. Ar dheis Dhe go raibh se.

P. O'C July 1995