The Battle for Cork July-August 1922

Description: The full story of the vicious battle between Republican and Provisional Government forces for control of Cork in August of 1922.

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By the sixth week of the Irish Civil War in 1922, all eyes turned to Cork, as the National Army readied its climatic attack on the 'rebel capital'. At 2 a.m. on a Bank Holiday Monday, Emmet Dalton and 450 soldiers of the National Army landed at Passage West, in one of the most famous surprise attacks in Irish military history.

The Battle for Cork July–August 1922
Military History of the Irish Civil War
John Borgonovo
Series Editor: Gabriel Doherty
Mercier Press, Cork

Contents
Acknowledgements   
Language and Sources   
Foreword   
Introduction   
Chapter 1    The Treaty Debate in Cork   
Chapter 2    The Road to Civil War   
Chapter 3    The Republic of Cork   
Chapter 4    Defending Cork   
Chapter 5    Passage Landin
Chapter 6    The Battle Begins    
Chapter 7    The Battle Rages   
Chapter 8    The Battle Ends
Chapter 9    Aftermath   
Endnotes   
Bibliography   
Index   

Language and Sources
This book sets out to examine events in the city of Cork during July and August 1922, in the conventional phase of the Irish Civil War. Its structure and style are intended to appeal to a wide readership; it is not meant to offer the last word on Cork in the Civil War, or on the National Army’s amphibious offensive during August 1922. The Battle for Cork seeks to answer the question: How did a city so closely identified with militant Irish Republicanism from 1917 to 1921 pass so easily into the hands of the Irish Free State? Events are viewed deliberately from a Cork perspective.
My use of language deserves a brief mention. I call members of the anti-Treaty military force IRA Volunteers, and/or Republicans. Anti-Treaty Republicans enjoyed direct continuity with the Irish Volunteer organisation founded in 1913; that organisation became popularly known as the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in 1919, after it pledged allegiance to Dáil Éireann and placed itself under the control of the Dáil minister for defence. Between 1919 and 1921, the Volunteer (or IRA) organisation was led by its General Headquarters Staff (which included Richard Mulcahy and Michael Collins), elected originally by a Volunteer convention in 1917. No Volunteer convention met between 1918 and 1921, and overall control of the IRA/Volunteer organisation remained a contested and nebulous issue. After the ratification of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in 1922, a National Army was formed from pro-Treaty IRA units and other recruits who pledged allegiance to the Irish Free State. This set the stage for the IRA convention of March 1922, where Irish Volunteer organisation delegates voted to elect a new governing executive and to withdraw their allegiance to Dáil Éireann. Members of this organisation retained the title of Volunteer, and promised to defend the Irish Republic that had been declared in 1916. When describing these people or their IRA organisation, I deliberately avoid terms such as Executive Forces, Irregulars, anti-Treaty IRA or Mutineers.
Correspondingly, I describe their military opponents as the Free State Army, National Army, National troops or National soldiers. These combatants were full-time soldiers, paid by the Provisional Government of the Irish Free State, which was a non-Republican dominion of the British crown. Since the Irish Free State was not a republic, I do not refer to its officials or supporters as Republicans. I understand the implications and limitations of terms such as invade, attack, assault, defend and liberate.
Some confusion may arise as a result of Cork’s status as both a city and a county. For the purposes of this book, Cork is used to mean the city of Cork; when the county is intended, I use County Cork.
'The Battle for Cork' relies on three prominent histories of the Irish Civil War. More than twenty years after its publication, Michael Hopkinson’s Green Against Green: the Irish Civil War remains the authoritative work on the subject. Hopkinson builds on the work of two earlier Civil War historians, Calton Younger and Eoin Neeson. While preparing Ireland’s Civil War, Younger conducted extensive interviews with Free State Army leaders, most notably General Emmet Dalton and Commandant Frank O’Friel. For The Civil War in Ireland, Cork native Eoin Neeson met surviving Civil War IRA officers in the city, many of whom knew Neeson’s parents from joint service in the Republican movement. From the different conversations of Younger and Neeson, a discernible narrative emerges that encompasses both sides of the firing line.
I also drew on Gerry White and Dan Harvey’s valuable The Barracks: A History of Victoria/Collins Barracks, Cork. Another Cork authority, Colman O’Mahony, provided excellent material from his book, The Maritime Gateway to Cork: A History of the Outports of Passage West and Monkstown, 1754–1942. In the course of his research, O’Mahony interviewed a surviving member of the IRA garrison at Passage West, who provided insights regarding the landing of National troops there. Finally, I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge Anne Dolan and Cormac O’Malley’s ‘No Surrender Here!’: The Civil War Papers of Ernie O’Malley. This exhaustive and well-organised work serves as an essential reference source for IRA communications in 1922.
Readers will note the frequent mentions of Dr James Lynch’s first-hand account, ‘The Battle of Douglas’. As verified by the 1911 Census, Dr Lynch lived in the area of Douglas/Rochestown that saw the most severe fighting of the battle. His participation as a National Army medical officer was noted in The Cork Examiner, and many of the details in his narrative match different newspaper accounts. Lynch provides the best eyewitness testimony of the battle. Newspapers also provided information about the engagement, with The Cork Examiner offering first-hand accounts from its reporters on the scene. The Irish Independent printed another eyewitness report from a journalist in the city during the three critical days. Correspondents from The Freeman’s Journal and The Irish Times accompanied the invading National Army forces. Photographer W. D. Hogan also travelled with the Free State assault troops, and his pictures frequently verify newspaper details.

Introduction
Following Dáil Éireann’s approval of the Anglo-Irish Treaty on 7 January 1922, the fear of civil war grew throughout Ireland. The Irish Republican Army (IRA) gradually split into pro- and anti-Treaty factions, as its powerful provincial commanders demanded the right to sanction the settlement. After weeks of delays, the Dáil Éireann cabinet (ruling in tandem with the Free State Provisional Government) approved an IRA convention in Dublin, but fearing a coup d’état, the Minister for Defence, Richard Mulcahy, promptly reversed his decision, banned the convention and announced the dismissal of any IRA attendee. Despite Mulcahy’s threats, the convention opened as scheduled on 26 March 1922, and 223 delegates gathered at the Mansion House, representing a strong majority of IRA brigades and battalions, though anti-Treaty officers suspected the government would attempt to arrest delegates en masse. In defying the government ban, they had essentially repudiated their fealty to the civilian authority.
The Cork No. 1 Brigade contingent took no chances, arriving at the Mansion House in their ‘bloody big armoured car’, ‘The River Lee’, a massive home-made contraption described as ‘a labourer’s cottage’ on wheels.1 Wearing trench coats, leggings, collars and ties, the Corkmen filed into the hall past crowds of onlookers, led by their brigade commander, Seán O’Hegarty. Inside, they greeted their cousins from the other Cork brigades, representing the most powerful fighting formations in the independence movement. They sat with the taciturn 1st Southern Division commanders, Florrie O’Donoghue (Cork City), Liam Deasy (West Cork) and Liam Lynch (North Cork), who controlled the IRA in Cork, Kerry and Waterford. The 1st Southern had enough firepower and experience to launch a civil war by itself, if it so
decided.
During the convention proceedings, a series of young speakers denounced Ireland’s new status as a dominion of the British Empire. They urged the army to repudiate the Dáil for voting to disestablish the Irish Republic, which the IRA Volunteers had vowed to defend. A vocal faction proposed the immediate creation of an IRA military government to defeat the Treaty. Despite a hard-line reputation, the 1st Southern officers opposed this proposed dictatorship, and their truculent spokesman Seán O’Hegarty eviscerated its advocates. However, the Munster men supported the convention’s establishment of an independent Army Executive to govern the IRA. Going forward, the IRA would only answer to its own Volunteers and not the Irish parliament. A clash with the new Free State Provisional Government now seemed
possible.
Though the anti-Treaty IRA units enjoyed a strong numeric superiority over the budding National (Free State) Army, they were heavily outgunned. Driving back to Cork city, Republican officers discussed their plan to redress the arms imbalance. Three days later, they launched a naval operation that violated spectacularly the nine-month Truce between the IRA and the crown forces. As the British police and military left Ireland, they had deposited assorted small arms at the Haulbowline naval base in Cork Harbour. At the end of the month, tons of rifles, pistols, ammunition, machine guns and explosives would be transported back to Britain aboard the ordnance steamer Upnor. Unfortunately for the Royal Navy, a Republican shipyard worker gained access to the Upnor’s manifest and notified the Cork No. 1 Brigade of her scheduled departure. As with many of the Cork City IRA’s sallies against the British, the plan was audacious, well-organised and coolly executed.
British coastal forts commanded the mouth of Cork Harbour, while a fleet of Royal Navy warships regularly patrolled the shipping channels. The Upnor, therefore, could only be intercepted in the open ocean. Cobh IRA Volunteers gathered a crew of Republican sailors (abundant in a port town), while the City IRA provided the boarding party. On the morning of the operation (2 April 1922), Cobh Republicans approached the Royal Navy headquarters and stole the Admiralty ensign from its mast. They also secured a large brown envelope, similar to those used for carrying official naval communiqués. The Republicans had selected a tug for the operation, but to their chagrin they discovered its absence from its mooring because of engine trouble. On the quays, despondent IRA Volunteers watched the Upnor push out of the harbour, before they noticed the docked deep-water tug, Viking. They lost valuable time in locating and abducting the Viking’s skipper (to prevent him from notifying the naval authorities) and replacing him with veteran shipmaster and Republican sympathiser, Captain Jeremiah Collins. By the time the Viking got under way with twenty Republicans on board, they were almost two hours behind their quarry. As the Viking steamed out of the harbour at maximum speed, it passed unsuspected beneath British coastal artillery.
In the Celtic Sea a few hours later, the Upnor was sighted in the twilight. Closing the distance, the Viking hoisted the stolen Admiralty ensign, while the IRA Volunteers hid below deck. A lone Republican crew member waved the giant envelope, signaling an urgent message from naval headquarters. The Upnor cut its engines and waited for the Viking to pull alongside. The ship sent a launch over to the Viking, which was boarded by four armed Republicans, one of whom carried a Thompson machine gun under his trench coat. They motored back to the Upnor, climbed aboard, produced their weapons and announced that they were seizing the ship. ‘This is piracy on the high seas and it is a hanging matter,’ spluttered the captain, a quotation that became enshrined in Republican folklore. The two vessels adjusted course, opened their engines and sped to the small port of Ballycotton, located about twenty miles east of Cork city.
On land, the Cork No. 1 Brigade had not been idle. That morning, Cork Republicans methodically visited garages and commercial premises across the city, seizing almost every available lorry and large car. Armed two-man Volunteer teams drove nearly 100 vehicles to Ballycotton Pier. Other IRA parties blocked roads, cut telephone and telegraph wires, and established outposts around the sleepy coastal town. Volunteers seized the coastguard’s wireless station at Roche’s Point to intercept naval messages relating to the Upnor. All told, nearly 300 Volunteers were involved in the complex amphibious operation. By evening, the reception preparations were complete, though there was still no sign of the Upnor. At 4 a.m. Volunteers dozing on the pier were awoken by the sound of engines, and cheering erupted as the two vessels entered the harbour. Once the boats had docked, brigade leaders looked eagerly at their haul, and could hardly believe the deadly bounty they had gained to fight the British Empire.
All through the morning and afternoon, the Republicans off-loaded the weaponry, expecting at any minute to be interrupted by the British. Yet their luck held, as lorry after packed lorry departed for prepared arms dugouts around the county. At midday, the IRA Volunteers had a shock as a warship searching for the Upnor cruised past the harbour, but the warship’s crew failed to see the off-loading proceeding at the pier. The last vehicles pulled out of the town at sunset, just as the Royal Navy sloop HMS Heather docked. The sailors checking the Upnor found only broken packing boxes and the ship’s inebriated captain. The Republicans had invited him ashore for a meal and drinks, and they had parted on the friendliest of terms, with the captain calling them ‘grand fellows’.
In the House of Commons, the embarrassed colonial secretary, Winston Churchill, denounced ‘the gang of Republican conspirators’, who ‘piratically seized’ the Upnor on the high seas. He also pointed out to the Free State Provisional Government, ‘their control over Cork and this district is practically non-existent’. Back in Cork, the IRA distributed 400 rifles, almost doubling the 1st Southern Division’s supply, as well as hundreds of thousands of rounds of precious .303 ammunition, and at least forty machine guns. Brigade engineers eyed greedily numerous crates of high explosives. Having recently mastered the production of landmines, they finally had the means to mass produce them.
Overnight, the Cork No. 1 Brigade had upgraded its firepower dramatically and could meet the British-armed National Army on something like equal terms. For the Free State authorities to secure a lasting settlement between Britain and Ireland, they now needed either to win the Corkmen’s approval or to beat them into submission. Republican Cork prepared for both contingencies.

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