RICHARD MULCAHY
RICHARD MULCAHY
From the Politics of War to the Politics of Peace,
1913–1924
PÁDRAIG Ó CAOIMH
First published in 2019 by
Irish Academic Press
10 George’s Street
Newbridge
Co. Kildare
Ireland
© Pádraig Ó Caoimh, 2019
9781788550987 (Cloth)
9781788550994 (Kindle)
9781788551007 (Epub)
9781788551014 (PDF)
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
An entry can be found on request
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
An entry can be found on request
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved alone, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
Typeset in Minion Pro 11.5/15 pt
Front jacket: Image courtesy of the National Library of Ireland, Keogh Brothers Collection, 1922.
Back jacket includes Richard Mulcahy: background (University College Dublin Archives) and foreground (National Library of Ireland).
Contents
Introduction. The Political Life of Richard Mulcahy, 1890–1959
1. Inspired: The Socio-Political Milieu, 1886–1913
2. Zealous: Home Rule and the Irish Volunteers, 1913–16
3. Committed: Rebellion and Reorientation, 1916–17
4. Assiduous: Volunteer Command, 1917–19
6. Pragmatic: Truce, Treaty and Debate, July–December 1921
7. Purposeful: Split, January–June 1922
8. Adamant: The Regular Army, June–December 1922
9. Aloof: The Free State Army, December 1922–June 1923
10. Ambivalent: Demobilisation, Reform and Dissent, June 1923–March 1924
11. Recalcitrant: Mutiny, March 1924
12. Disillusioned: Inquiry, March–June 1924
Conclusion. Enduring: Transition, 1913–24
Text Abbreviations
Appendices
1. Particular Phases in the History of the IRB, 1858–1916
2. Extract from a Seán MacEoin Document on the IRB Supreme Council’s Attitude to Government, 1919–24
3. Jephson O’Connell’s Evidence on the Revived IRB, as Submitted in Writing to the Army Inquiry Committee, 6 May 1924
4. Extracts from Attorney-General Hugh Kennedy’s Memorandum on the Army and its Relationship with Government, 3 April 1923
Endnote Abbreviations
Endnotes
Sources and Select Bibliography
Index
Preface and Acknowledgments
This book is a study of two interrelated processes which transpired during the revolutionary period of Irish national liberation, 1913–24, namely the politico–military career of Richard Mulcahy and the struggle for supremacy within the nationalist elite, especially the struggle for supremacy on the vital question of the nature and extent of the emerging government–army relationship.
As can be gathered, then, in trying to assay the interrelationship between a complex man and a complex topic by dint of accuracy of fact and opinion, an amount of research had to be undertaken. To that end the Mulcahy Papers, which were readied by the man himself and his family during the last ten years of his life in preparation for transfer to University College Dublin’s Archive Department (UCDA), and which offer an abundance of primary source material, especially on the period, 1916–24, were the wellspring of information for me.
Notwithstanding, there was but a relatively negligible amount of private correspondence available in UCDA. Similarly, in regards to the letters he reputedly wrote on a regular basis to Jim Kennedy, his long-term IRB friend from Thurles, a search of the extensive Brother Allan Papers in the Military Archives of Ireland (MAI), wherein merely a small number of pamphlets exists in what is termed the James Kennedy Papers, and a search of the Christian Brothers’ Archive turned up nothing.
Still, at UCDA, I was able to find Mulcahy’s thoughts in his intermittent diary-type notes, his official communications and memoranda and his memoir-type publications, as well as in the tape-recorded conversations he had during the 1960s with former comrades and with his wife, Min, and son, Risteard. I was also able to find references to him in the Cabinet minutes and state paper deposits of the National Archives of Ireland (NAI). Moreover, by means of the wide circle of family correspondences which are available in the Ryans of Tomcoole Papers, as well as in Min’s own personal correspondences in the uncatalogued Min Ryan Papers in the National Library of Ireland (NLI), it became possible to hazard an intelligent guess at the nature of the man’s political relationship with his wife. Equally, a wealth of atmospheric detail was gleaned from the Bureau of Military History (BMH) witness statements and from the Military Service Pensions Collection in the Military Archives of Ireland (MAI), as well as from the colourful memoirs of the likes of Barry, Deasy, Ó Ceallaigh, O’Malley and Ó Maoileóin. And the Papers of Florence O’Donoghue (NLI) and Seán MacEoin (UCDA), together with Pollard, Secret Societies, and Moody/Ó Broin, Documents, were found to be very helpful in tracing the lineage of Mulcahy’s attitude to Collins’ IRB.
A trawl of the impressive library of modern Irish history publications was undertaken additionally. Furthermore, some classic pieces from the disciplines of political science and governmental studies, along with the small, latter-day history corpus dealing with the emergence of Irish democracy, were the better studied in order to understand Mulcahy as a soldier-politician, and to compare and contrast the Irish civil–military question with similar post-imperial state formative processes which were ongoing throughout Europe at the time.
Of course, on occasions, such researches can generate more perspiration than inspiration. Consequently, I am very grateful to those people who went out of their way to be of assistance to me. In that