Bloody Sunday 1920

One hundred years ago today on the streets of Dublin, the British Empire suffered a blow that would ultimately reverse the tide of history on this island.

A young POW in Frongoch internment camp had imagined warfare in a way that suited them and their nation.

It was, quite literally, a wakeup call for the British Empire’s intelligence network in Dublin.

Startled British agents were executed in their pyjamas at addresses across south Dublin.

It was a coordinated operation that proved that the IRA was a sophisticated, well-functioning military organisation.

In other words, an army.

The key targets were that morning Lieutenant Ames and Lieutenant Bennet at 38 Upper Mount Street. These two Brits had been identified as the commanding officers of the British intelligence unit in Dublin.

That is why the job was given to Vinny Byrne and other members of the Squad.

 

These young men were, by that time, seasoned operators who had been handpicked by Collins.

However, the operation required ordinary Volunteers from the Dublin Brigade IRA.

Some of them never fully recovered from what they had to do that day.

What happened around 9.00 am that morning was brutal close-quarters killing.

The British agents were disarmed and sometimes shot in front of their pleading wives.

As the news came in the chaps in Dublin Castle were stunned.

They called it “Black Sunday”.

These assassinations could only have taken place because IRA agents had penetrated the highest echelons of the British intelligence community.

Amazingly Hollywood got all of this badly wrong (gasp).

Neil Jordan’s film Michael Collins (1996) inaccurately depicts Eamonn “Ned” Broy (played by actor Stephen Rea) as having been discovered, tortured, and killed by the British.

 

Also, G Division was based not in Dublin Castle, as indicated in the film, but in Great Brunswick Street.

One thing that is accurate is Broy got Mick into the RIC barracks to read the files!

Collins had a different agent in the Castle, David Neligan.

However, the star asset in Mick’s intelligence network was Lily Mernin.

Her codename was “the little gentleman” or “Lieutenant G”.

In Frongoch Michael Collins had devised a strategy where it would be Irish revolutionaries who would spy on the British and thus reversing the trend of centuries.

By the time, the Óglaigh were sent out that morning Mick’s own first cousin Nancy O’Brien was also at the heart of Dublin castle.

She had the task of typing up the most secret memoirs of the British occupation forces in Ireland.

It underlines the centrality of women to any successful intelligence operation.

Afterwards, Collins did not weep for his enemies.

“There is no crime in detecting and destroying in wartime the spy and informer. They have destroyed without trial. I have paid them back in their own coin.”

Like Captain Nairac half a century later no one forced these men to come to Ireland to play their counter-insurgency games against the mere Irish.

Imperialists often underestimate those who they oppress, and in the end, it rarely ends well for them.

For those of ye who wish to know more about the war in Dublin a century ago then this book by Dominic Price is highly recommended.

The response of the British to the events of that morning was appalling.

It is undeniable that the IRA’s Intelligence Department had worked with great diligence to identify their targets.

Conversely, the Tans decided that any Irish man, Irish woman, or Irish child would do.

Today we remember those innocents who were slaughtered at Croke Park.

What had happened at the Gresham Hotel and numerous private residences that morning would today be classified as “special operations“.

What happened at the football match later was redolent of ISIS in Paris.

However, the British were not done with killing that day.

Two senior IRA officers, along with another Volunteer, were murdered in the Castle.

The official fantasy was “shot while trying to escape”.

However, this convinced no one.

As well as losing the intelligence war in Dublin, the British were losing their reputation on the world stage.

The objective of the IRA was to make Ireland ungovernable for the British.

That was a century ago.

History remembered is a weapon.

History forgotten is a betrayal.

Today there is a polity based in Dublin that, for all of its failings, that can prevent Westminster from getting their own way in the world of states (e.g. the Brexit negotiations).

Sadly, the origins of this state embarrass many in the contemporary Dublin elite.

They like to pretend that it owes nothing to the gun held by young Vinny Byrne at 38 Upper Mount Street on this day one hundred years ago.

Of course, in their private angst, these revisionists know that they are embracing a lie.

On the morning of Bloody Sunday, the good guys won.