A number of you may think that we don’t give Fianna Fáil a chance and that they are doing their best. But if they are doing their best we came here to tell you that their best is not enough. The attitude they are adopting is the same as that adopted by their predecessors. They have more republicans in prison than were in it at any time during Cosgrave’s term in office.
Three local Republicans who agreed with most, but not all, of the IRA’S message were probably in the crowd that day. Sein F. Lynch, his brotherin-law Tom Brady, and Matt Brady were Independent Republican candidates in the local government elections.
Irish politics were in a state of flux. Fianna Fáil began the 1930s as the leading Republican challenger, but its success was in part the result of the compromises it made. In order to present his message to the people, de Valera had launched the Irish Press in 1931. The daily paper was financed by subscription shares. Among those who purchased shares were Matt and May Brady. They probably supported Fianna Fáil in 1932. But by 1934, distrust of Fianna Fáil kept Matt out of that party, and Sinn FCin was not fielding candidates. Running as Independent Republicans gave Matt Brady, Seán F. Lynch, and Tom Brady the opportunity to express their Republican aspirations.
At this point, Matt and May Brady were the parents of two children—Mary, born in August 1929, and Rory, born October 2, 1932. Mary was referred to as May Og by the family, Og being the Irish word for young or “junior.” Rory’s full name was Peter Roger Casement Brady. He was named Peter after his grandfather and Roger Casement after the 1916 leader who was hanged in Pentonville Prison in London. Sir Roger was knighted for his work exposing the abuses of natives in the Belgian Congo and in the Putumayo area of South America. Born into an AngloIrish family, he arranged the arms shipment from Germany for the 1916 Irish rebels. He was arrested and tried in England, where his name was smeared with the selective and controversial release of alleged diaries indicating he was a homosexual. In naming their child after him, the Bradys indicated their allegiance to Republicanism. The child was called Rory, the Hiberno-English translation of Roger; in the Irish language, it is Ruairí.
The Bradys had moved from a two-room flat over a mechanic’s garage to Silchester, on Battery Road. The IRA march in June 1934 probably formed up in front of Silchester or marched by it. Silchester was actually two sets of two semi-detached two-story homes connected to the main road by a long-perhaps one hundred yards long-avenue. The grounds were spacious, with tall hedges and apple trees and plenty of room for Matt to plant a garden for vegetables, which supplemented the family’s income, making them relatively self-sufficient.
On June 16, 1934, Matt Brady’s “election address” was published in the Longford Leader; it was titled “To the Electors of Ballinalee County Electoral Area.” He pledged “to support the present Government as long as they endeavor to obtain the complete independence of our country" and to “do all that is in my power to foster the revival of our mother tongue, the Irish language, for it is my firm belief that we can never become truly Irish and free until our own tongue is a living language in our midst.” He saw no reason why Ireland could not become bilingual, as was the case in Belgium. He also pledged to “do my best in the interests of the ratepayers" while at the same time trying to maintain an efficient local administration. He had “plenty of time at my disposal to devote to this work, and my services will always be available.” He was interested in the welfare of the “bona fide labourer" and in the state of roads and passes in the area, which were “badly in need of repair.” Not mentioned was a practical benefit to the Brady family if Matt was elected. As secretary of the Board of Health, May Brady was an employee of the County Council. Although council seats were unpaid positions, Matt’s presence on the council would guarantee her a fair hearing if there were ever difficulties.
In the election, Fianna Fáil repeated its success of 1932 and won control of a majority of the County Councils. In Longford, Fianna Fáil won thirteen of twenty-six seats. The other thirteen seats were split between the United Ireland Party (ten seats), the Independent Republicans (two seats), and the Independent Labour Party (one seat). Because ballots call on voters to rank candidates, a complex series of counts is taken to determine the winners. In Drumlish, Sein F. Lynch topped the poll (received the most votes) and was elected on the first count. In Ballinalee, on the sixth and final count, Matt Brady was elected. When the council met for the first time after the election, a Fianna Fáiler was elected the chair and Sein F. Lynch was elected vice chair. More relevant to the Brady family, Sein F. Lynch was appointed to the Board of Health and became its chairman and as such nominally oversaw the work of May Brady. Together, Lynch and Matt Brady used their positions on the County Council to support the Republican cause. Because they were there together, each could second the other and force the discussion of issues. Their importance was enhanced because no party had an overall majority. A high point of their collaboration was in 1937, when Lynch was an unsuccessful candidate for Leinster House and Matt Brady was his election agent. They publicly supported the IRA and the oppressed.
The Depression was especially hard on tenants, whose rents were fixed but whose incomes were declining. At the Sanderson Estate, near Edgeworthstown, Gerald More O’Ferrall was unable to collect from tenants, who demanded a 50 percent reduction in their rents. When he threatened eviction, he received threats. When he initiated eviction proceedings, the Edgeworthstown Town Tenants’ Association turned to the IRA. At a public meeting, IRA representatives, in the tradition of the Land League and the Fenians, pledged “the support of the I.R.A. to the tenants in their fight against landlordism.” One speaker bluntly stated that “if the forces of the state are called in to protect the bailiffs, then force must be met by force.” Opposition to landlords, bailiffs, and sheriffs has a lengthy and violent history in Longford. In the 1830s, tenants who supported landlords were killed, as was a bailiff. In the 1930s, landlords who insisted on their rents were courting trouble. The IRA waited through the Christmas season, then set out in February 1935 to humiliate O’Ferrall by dousing him with tar. It ended in tragedy. Dressed as police officers, IRA men barged into his house. In the scuffle that followed, Gerald More O’Ferrall was beaten and his son, Richard, was shot in the back. He lingered for eleven days and then died.
The attack was denounced all over Ireland, especially by the Catholic clergy. The Dublin County Council passed a resolution condemning the “foul murder of the late Mr. More O’Ferrall in his house,” called on the “Government to make every effort to bring the perpetrators of this foul crime to justice,” and asked that other councils endorse the resolution. At the next meeting of the Longford County Council, Mr. Dunne of the United Ireland Party brought up the resolution. Matt Brady immediately protested with, “I would like to propose that we go on with the next business as that resolution is political. If it was a poor man’s son there would be very little about it.”
Dunne replied, “No matter about that, I have a resolution to propose. It is that we condemn the shooting of any man whether he is rich or poor. There ought to be a way out of these things without going to the extreme of murder. It is a terrible thing that a man can be murdered in his own house.”
Brady persisted, “I protest against that resolution.”
The chairman, Mr. Belton of Fianna Fáil, stated, “Resolutions will not do any good anyway.”
Dunne argued that “if we are not in agreement with [the shooting] we should condemn it. I don’t know why Mr. Brady objects to it.”
Brady held his ground: “The resolution of Dublin County Council is political.” Eventually the chair ruled “the whole thing out as it has been turned into politics.” Dunne walked out of the meeting.
Police in Longford and Leitrim arrested seven people, four of whom were charged with the More O’Ferrall murder. But there was more trouble in Longford when three families were evicted from the Sanderson Estate. At a public protest, a crowd of about 200 was monitored by “a large