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From: "conaught" <>
Subject: [MAYO] Easter Week Series #26
Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2001 16:18:21 -0700



Tom Barry - (General) born July 1, 1897 in Rosscarbery, County Cork and died
July 1980. He married Leslie De Barra. He quickly established himself as a
military leader in the IRA and organized the West Cork Flying Column. He
gained military experience from the British Army, he was stationed in
Mesopotamia (Iraq) when he heard about the 1916 Easter Uprising. He was
mesmerized by the words of the Proclamation read by Padraig Pearse. When he
returned to Ireland in 1919 his national pride had surfaced full force.
Until that time he knew all about English history but not about the
Rebellion of 1798 or the other important events in Irish history.

In 1918 a critically important event took place - the elections - where 70%
of the people voted. They voted for Republican candidates. The candidates
pledged to abstain from the British Parliament, this became a long standing
Republican tradition(they refused to take an oath to the British
Government). They voted for the Irish Republic to set up a Government and
Parliament in Dublin. In January 1919 when the representatives gathered in
Dublin they set up Dail Eireann the Irish Parliament and they proclaimed
Irish Independence. This set the stage for the struggle to move one step
further, Dail Eireann set up a de facto Irish Government which could not
coexist with the British Government in Ireland, the two were set on a
collision course. Dail Eireann proceeded to set up various departments.
The Irish Volunteers were now the recognized army of the Irish Republic -
The Irish Republican Army. The Irish Republican Army had moral and legal
status the same as any lawfully formed army of a democratic government.
Michael Collins was the military strategist that devised what we now call
guerilla warfare. Tom Barry had the much needed military experience he
gained when in the British Army. Tom Barry aptly pointed out in his book
Guerilla Days in Ireland that without the Easter Uprising of 1916 there
would not have been a Dail Eireann thus "no sustained fight with moral
force behind it in 1920-1921 and without the guerilla war Dail Eireann would
have been destroyed and the 1916 sacrifices would have been in vain".(1)

Tom Barry was in charge of the West Cork Brigade. The Flying Column was the
back bone of the war against England during the War of Independence. At the
highest point the West Cork Brigade Flying Column had a 110 men, twice the
size of the next largest Flying Column in Ireland. They moved quickly into
an area, chose their battle, then disappeared as quickly as they appeared.
Tom Barry's primary objective with his West Cork Flying Column was not to
fight but merely to stay in existence. The existence of the Flying Columns
challenged the British rule and forced them to maintain barracks and strong
military presence all over Ireland because they didn't know from whence the
Flying Columns would next strike next.
Tom Barry's book, Guerilla Days in Ireland is a fascinating glimpse into
this very important part of Ireland's history. He tells the stories of many
courageous men and women. Some of these people had to endure the "Torture
Squad". Two such courageous men were Tom Hales and Pat Harte, both of
Clonakilty and members of the famed West Cork Brigade. The following
will give you an idea what was happening throughout Ireland during this
time.

Sir Hamar Greenwood, British Chief Secretary for Ireland announced in 1920
that resistance to British rule would be wiped out. 150 of the Auxiliaries
took over Macroom Castle, County Cork.

"Of all the ruthless forces that occupied Ireland through the centuries,
those Auxiliaries were surely the worst. They were recruited from
ex-British officers who had held commissioned rank and had active service
on one or more fronts during the 1914-1918 war. They were openly established
as a terrorist body with the avowed object of breaking by armed force,
Ireland's continued resistance to British rule. Their war ranks ranged from
Lieutenant to Brigadier-General and they were publicized as the very pick of
Britain's' best fighters. Highly paid and with no bothersome discipline,
they were habitual looters. They were even dressed in a special uniform
calculated to cow their opponents. Each carried a rifle, two revolvers, one
strapped to each thigh, and two Mills bombs hung at the waist from their Sam
Browne belts. It should be said in all fairness to the better type of
British officers that they had refused to join this force.

Macroom was outside the West Cork I.R.A. area, but the Company of
Auxiliaries stationed there seemed to concentrate from the time of their
arrival on raiding south of our Brigade area. Day after day they traveled
in to Coppeen, Castletownkenneigh, Dunmanway and even south of Bandon River.
By November 1, it seemed to me they were working on a plan to eliminate the
I.R.A. resistance by terrorism, in one district at a time and then move on
to repeat their activities in some other area They had a special technique.
Fast lorries (trucks) of them would come roaring into a village, the
occupants would jump out, firing shots and ordering all the inhabitants out
of doors. No exceptions were allowed. Men and women, old and young, the
sick and decrepit were lined up against the walls with their hands up,
questioned and searched. No raid was ever carried out by these ex-officers
without their beating up with the butt ends of their revolvers, at least a
half dozen people. They were no respecters of person and seemed to
particularly dislike the Catholic priests. Actually in cold blood they
murdered the aged Very Rev. Canon Magnier, P.P., Dunmanway on one of their
expeditions. For hours they would hold the little community prisoners, and
on more than occasion in different villages they stripped all the men naked
in the presence of the assembled people of both sexes, and beat them
mercilessly with belts and rifles. They commandeered without payment food
and drink and they seldom returned sober to their barracks.Observing some
man working at his bog or small field a few hundred yards from the road,
they would stop their lorries and start their pleasant game. Laughing and
shouting four or five would take aim, no to hit him, but to spatter the
earth or bog around him. The man would run wildly with the Auxies' bullets
clipping the sods all about him. He would stumble and fall, rise again and
continue to run for safety. But sometimes he would not rise as an Auxiliary
bullet was sent through him to stop forever his movements. Still laughing
and joking , these gentlemen and officers would ride away. Why not? The
corpse was only an Irish peasant, and probably a sympathizer with these
rebels, and anyway what did it matter? One more or less made no difference
and it was part of their duty to strike terror into the hearts of all the
Irish." (2)

These were the conditions Tom Barry and the West Cork Brigade and other
Flying Columns were fighting throughout Ireland to gain Ireland's
independence.

Tom Barry took the Republican side during the Civil War and was imprisoned.
In 1927 he was appointed General Superintendent with Cork Harbor
Commissioners and held this position till his retirement in 1965.

© 2001
Margaret Kristich

All rights reserved

References:

A Dictionary of Irish Biography by Henry Boylan;Roberts Rinehart;
1998;Niwot, Colorado

Guerilla Days in Ireland - The story of the famous West Cork Flying Column,
told by the man who led it; by Tom Barry, Anvil Books, Tralee, County Kerry,
Ireland, 1971
Reference #1 - taken from Guerilla Days - page 16
Reference #2 - taken from Guerilla Days - page 38 and 39


The Irish Republic by Dorothy Macardle;Corgi Books 1968; London

Michael Collins, The Man Who Made Ireland by Tim Pat Coogan; p 124; Roberts
Rinehart Publishers; 1992; Boulder, Colorado

Michael Collins The Lost Leader by margery Forester;Sphere Books Limited,
London,1972

My Fight for Irish Freedom by Dan Breen; Anvil Books,Tralee, County Kerry,
Ireland, 1964



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