Déise Travel

26/03/2024

This statue of St Patrick at St. Patrick's Church Belfast, was the work of James Pearse at his company O'Neill & Pearse on Great Brunswick Street (now Pearse St.)and father of Patrick and William Pearse.

26/03/2024

This St. Patrick's Day postcard was sent to Conor MacGinley, a former pupil of Scoil Éanna, when he was imprisoned in Lewes Prison in 1917 as a result of his participation in the 1916 Rising.
It is signed 'Eunan', probably Conor's brother Eunan MacGinley, who was also a former Scoil Éanna pupil and 1916 Rising veteran.

In the accompanying photo, Conor is on the left, Eunan on the right.

Conchubhar Mac Fhionnlaoich was the son of the famous Donegal writer Peadar Mac Fhionnlaoich (Cú Uladh), Conor McGinley was educated in St. Enda’s College Rathfarnham and was a member of E Company in the 4th Dublin Battalion of the Irish Volunteers. He was an architecture student in UCD when the Easter Rising broke out, and fought in the GPO alongside his brother Eunan. Following his release from internment in June 1917, MacGinley re-entered the Volunteers and participated in the War of Independence until his arrest in 1920. Interned until the end of the conflict, he went on to pursue a career as an architect.

On St. Patrick's Day 1917 Conor McGinley, a former pupil of Patrick Pearse in Scoil Éanna, was incarcerated in Lewes Prison in England as a result of his involvement in the 1916 Rising.

Throughout his time in English prisons he received lots of lettters and postcards from relatives and friends at home.

Some of the St. Patrick's Day postcards he received, included one from his brother Eunan (another former Scoil Éanna pupil and 1916 Rising veteran) and his sister Máire.

Among the other postcards he received was one from Alice Milligan, the nationalist poet and Gaelic League campaigner who seems to have been living in Nottingham at the time.

A studio photograph taken of Conor around this time shows him sitting on the left, his sister Máire standing in the middle and Eunan on the right.

Born: 1897 Died: 1975

Architect, of Dublin. Conor McGinley was born on 26 June 1897, the eldest of the ten sons of Peter T. McGinley (1856-1942), a customs officer, and his wife Elizabeth Woods.

26/03/2024

This sculpture is on display in the Pearse Museum, a representation of the death of of St. Joseph, surrounded by Jesus and the Virgin Mary, which William Pearse carved for the Cross and Passion convent in Bradford, England in 1909.

St. Joseph was also referenced by Pearse in his introduction to the 1910 edition of An Macaomh. Pearse had just moved the school to Rathfarnham and taken on huge extra financial burden. He recalled the story of a parish priest he had known many years ago who had wanted to build a church:

'He went to the bank for a loan. When asked by the bank manager what security he had to offer, he made the simple and natural reply: "St. Joseph will see you paid." "St. Joseph is an estimable saint,"said the bank manager, "but unfortunately he is not a negotiable security." The 'mot' passed as a proverb among commercial folk of Dublin and the bank manager gained the reputation of a wit. Both bank manager and priest have since gone down to dusty death; but the priest's dying eyes saw his church walls rising slowly and to-day the church stands, grave and beautiful, in the midst of the people. The laugh, to speak without irreverence, is on the side of St. Joseph.

26/03/2024

On either Easter Saturday or Sunday 1916 the Scoil Éanna graduates posed for a photo in the rounds of the school with their rifles provocatively raised.

(standing, back row) Eamonn Bulfin, Conor McGinley, Desmond Ryan, Fintan Murphy and Peter Slattery (kneeling) Brian Joyce, Frank Burke, Eunan McGinley and Joseph Sweeney.

In 1967, the surviving members of the group who posed for this photo gathered in Scoil Éanna again and re-posed the photo., leaving gaps for the two missing men.

Their former teacher, Peter Slattery, had died in the intervening years, as had Eunan McGinley. Ironically he was the youngest of the group, but was killed in a motorcycle crash in 1923.

26/03/2024

LIMERICK Greenway is preparing to welcome even more people in 2024, having already counted more than 1.5 million visits since its opening in July of 2021.

The 40km off-road experience, which follows the old Kerry to Limerick railway line, is gearing up for another year of strong visitor numbers.

Limerick Greenway was designed with mobility in mind and is safe and suitable for users of all abilities and ages to visit and enjoy.

With thoughtfully designed pathways and facilities, Limerick Greenway embraces diversity, creating an environment where families, friends, and solo adventurers can connect with nature and each other.

The five hub towns/villages along Limerick Greenway are Rathkeale, Ardagh, Newcastle West, Barnagh and Abbeyfeale.

Visitors can start their journey at Rathkeale or choose to join in at any of the entry points located along the way, with the option to seamlessly continue their journey from Abbeyfeale across the Limerick-Kerry border and onto Listowel.

The public are being encouraged to explore the scenic 40km off-road experience this Easter Holiday period with activities and adventures for all in each of the Hub towns plus on Limerick Greenway itself.

25/03/2024

This is a beautiful setting of Pearse's The Mother to music composed and performed by Eimear Quinn.
It was commissioned by Monaghan County Museum and illustrated with images from the Pearse Museum collection.

A really stunning and moving piece.

'The Mother' by Patrick PearseIn 1916 there was a rising in Ireland to strike against the occupying British regime and regain Irish sovereignty. Irish poet P...

25/03/2024

From Normandy to Palestine, from Ireland to Sicily, whether you you are in France or Scotland you should accept and embrace your Overlords.
They took the time (as well as so many other things valuable things).
So remember conquering is caring!

25/03/2024

The Monument to the Unknown Woman Worker is a 1992 sculpture by Louise Walsh in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
The sculpture is located on the city's Great Victoria Street adjacent to the Europa Hotel. It is cast in bronze and features two working-class women with symbols of women's work embedded on the surfaces. Domestic items such as colanders, a shopping basket and clothes pegs are part of the sculpture.
The Department of the Environment's original commission, in the late 1980s, was for an artwork to reflect the nearby Amelia Street’s history as a red-light district. Walsh's design "Monument to the Unknown Woman Worker" was accepted by the project's landscape architect and the Art in Public Spaces Research Group, however the Belfast Development Office and the Belfast City Council opposed the project and the selected design, and the project was dropped in 1989. A few years later a private developer recommissioned the work and it was erected in 1992.
Walsh was born in County Cork, and received her MA in sculpture from the University of Ulster.

25/03/2024

Reconciliation at Stormont.

This small sculpture is often overlooked but can be found on your left of you’re entering the estate via the side entrance rather than the prince of Wales entrance.

Reconciliation (originally named Reunion) is a sculpture by Josefina de Vasconcellos.

Originally created in 1977 and entitled Reunion, it depicted a man and woman embracing each other.
In May 1998 it was presented to University of Bradford as a memorial to the University's first Vice-Chancellor Professor Ted Edwards.

De Vasconcellos said:

"The sculpture was originally conceived in the aftermath of the War. Europe was in shock, people were stunned. I read in a newspaper about a woman who crossed Europe on foot to find her husband, and I was so moved that I made the sculpture. Then I thought that it wasn't only about the reunion of two people but hopefully a reunion of nations which had been fighting."

Later it was taken for repairs to the sculptor's workshop, and renamed Reconciliation upon the request of the Peace Studies Department of the University. It was unveiled for the second time, under the new name, on de Vasconcellos 90th birthday, October 26, 1994.

In 1995 (to mark the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II) bronze casts of this sculpture (as Reconciliation) were placed in the ruins of Coventry Cathedral and in the Hiroshima Peace Park in Japan. An additional cast can be found in the Stormont Estate in Belfast. To mark the opening of the rebuilt German Reichstag (parliament building) in 1999, another cast was placed as part of the Berlin Wall memorial.

25/03/2024

The grounds of Jerpoint Abbey contain many treasures waiting to be discovered.

Such as the site of Newtown Jerpoint – a once thriving then lost medieval town – and within it, the tomb of St Nicholas

25/03/2024

1829 – The Parliament of the United Kingdom passes the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829, allowing Catholics to serve in Parliament

The Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829, passed by Parliament in 1829, was the culmination of the process of Catholic Emancipation throughout the United Kingdom. In Ireland it repealed the Test Act 1672 and the remaining Penal Laws which had been in force since the passing of the Disenfranchising Act of the Irish Parliament of 1728. Its passage followed a vigorous campaign that threatened insurrection led by Irish lawyer Daniel O'Connell. The British leaders, starting with the Prime Minister the Duke of Wellington and his top aide Robert Peel, although personally opposed, gave in to avoid civil strife. Ireland was quiet after the passage.

The act permitted members of the Catholic Church to sit in the parliament at Westminster. O'Connell had won a seat in a by-election for Clare in 1828 against an Anglican. Under the then extant penal law, O'Connell as a Catholic, was forbidden to take his seat in Parliament. Peel, the Home Secretary, until then was called "Orange Peel" because he always supported the Orange (anti-Catholic) position. Peel now concluded: "though emancipation was a great danger, civil strife was a greater danger."
Fearing a revolution in Ireland, Peel drew up the Catholic Relief Bill and guided it through the House of Commons. To overcome the vehement opposition of both the House of Lords and King George IV, the Duke of Wellington worked tirelessly to ensure passage in the House of Lords, and threatened to resign as Prime Minister if the King did not give Royal Assent

25/03/2024

Reconciliation at Stormont.

This small sculpture is often overlooked but can be found on your left of you’re entering the estate via the side entrance rather than the prince of Wales entrance.

Reconciliation (originally named Reunion) is a sculpture by Josefina de Vasconcellos.

Originally created in 1977 and entitled Reunion, it depicted a man and woman embracing each other.
In May 1998 it was presented to University of Bradford as a memorial to the University's first Vice-Chancellor Professor Ted Edwards.

De Vasconcellos said:

"The sculpture was originally conceived in the aftermath of the War. Europe was in shock, people were stunned. I read in a newspaper about a woman who crossed Europe on foot to find her husband, and I was so moved that I made the sculpture. Then I thought that it wasn't only about the reunion of two people but hopefully a reunion of nations which had been fighting."

Later it was taken for repairs to the sculptor's workshop, and renamed Reconciliation upon the request of the Peace Studies Department of the University. It was unveiled for the second time, under the new name, on de Vasconcellos 90th birthday, October 26, 1994.

In 1995 (to mark the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II) bronze casts of this sculpture (as Reconciliation) were placed in the ruins of Coventry Cathedral and in the Hiroshima Peace Park in Japan. An additional cast can be found in the Stormont Estate in Belfast. To mark the opening of the rebuilt German Reichstag (parliament building) in 1999, another cast was placed as part of the Berlin Wall memorial.

25/03/2024

From Normandy to Palestine, from Ireland to Sicily, whether you you are in France or Scotland you should accept and embrace your Norman Overlords.

After all, they took the time (as well as so many other valuable things).

So remember; conquering is caring!

25/03/2024

The cafe at Mount Melleray Abbey has reopened for the 2024 season.
They offer great coffee, scrumptious treats, a very interesting museum, a large collection of Ogham stones, toilets, a grotto nearby, Harry Clarke Windows in the public church and the large abbey church, and more, much more!!!

Cafe Opening Times for the next few weeks:

Easter Sunday 31st March 11:30am - 5pm

Easter Monday 1st April 12:30pm - 5pm

Saturday 6th April 12 noon - 5pm

Sunday 7th April 11:30am - 5pm

25/03/2024

OPW - Office of Public Works are seeking for a Park Superintendent Grade III's in Kerry/Cork (based in Killarney) and Dublin (based in Dublin Castle/ Phoenix Park) to assist in the care of the OPW's iconic historic landscapes, parks and gardens.

Apply now: https://cutt.pulse.ly/8n0q0jzgnc
Closing Date: 3pm on Thursday 18th of April

25/03/2024

24/03/2024

The bodies of McKee and Clancy were laid side by side at a requiem mass in the Pro-Cathedral after their murder. Both were dressed in their Volunteer uniforms and their tricolour-draped coffins bore their caps and belts. Michael Collins risked his security to be present at the service. According to Richard Mulcahy, Collins was distraught at their deaths, as they were "the two men who fully understood the inside of Collins’ work and his mind, and who were ever ready and able to link up their resources of the Dublin brigade to any work that Collins had in hand, and to do so promptly, effectively and sympathetically.
A photograph of Collins was actually published in the Evening Herald carrying one of the coffins out to the waiting hearse. Collins then went to their graveside, and was filmed stepping from the crowd to lay a wreath on the grave, on which he pinned a farewell note, which read: "In memory of two good friends ― Dick and Peadar ― two of Ireland's best soldiers."
Later Collins, through his intelligence network, discovered the name of Corporal James 'Shankers' Ryan of the Royal Military Police, who was responsible for the arrest of the two Volunteers. He was killed by The Squad at Hynes' pub in Gloucester Place on 5 February of the same year.
Clancy and McKee were buried in the Republican plot in Glasnevin cemetery. Peadar Clancy was 32 years old at the time of his death. The Islandbridge Barracks was renamed Clancy Barracks and the former Marlborough Barracks was renamed McKee Barracks in their honour. A number of streets in Finglas were also named after Clancy, McKee and Clune. In 1939 a commemorative plaque was erected on the external wall of the guardroom of Dublin Castle in Exchange Court next to City Hall.
A commemorative bust of Clancy is also displayed on top of a plinth in the main square in Kildysart, Co. Clare.
Part of Moore Street in Kilrush was also renamed as Clancy Street.
Conor Clune’s body was brought home to Co. Clare for burial. His coffin was draped with the tricolour, but when a British officer objected to it, the presiding priest removed the national flag.
When Clancy was imprisoned in 1920, he participated a hunger strike with his fellow prisoners. It was here that Todd Andrews first met him. In his memoir, Dublin Made Me, Andrews described Clancy's personality: "I was overcome by the extraordinary impact which Clancy’s personality had on me. I had never heard or seen Clancy before nor indeed did I ever see him again but he left an indelible impression of the superman, a man whose commands I at least would have a compulsion to obey as if I had been hypnotised ... In the presence of Clancy I felt a mere puppet on a string."
Andrews also wrote in his book Man of No Property that "I have always believed that all individuals are, as human beings, equally important. My approach to them has been the same, high or low. Two only, among all the people I met, did I put in a class apart: they were Peadar Clancy and Gunnar Myrdal."
Kathleen Clarke said of Clancy that he was of an "outstanding type".
Dan Breen, in his book My Fight for Irish Freedom, described both Clancy and McKee as "kindred spirits", who belonged to a small band of gunmen who would take any risk in the country’s cause.
His great grand nephew, Eoin Neylon was the president of Ogra Fianna Fáil for two terms.

24/03/2024

Peadar Clancy was one of seven sons and six daughters born to James and Mary Clancy (née Keane), of Carrowreagh East, Cranny, County Clare in 1888.
The Clancy home had been the meeting place for local Fenians since the 1860s. Though the Fenians had been instrumental in reawakening Irish culture through the Gaelic League, drama and the Gaelic Athletic Association, this form of "advanced nationalism" was not popular at this time.
From a young age Clancy was a keen Gaelic Leaguer and was engrossed by national activities.
Educated at the local national school, which was close to his family home, at sixteen he became apprenticed in the drapery business of Dan Moloney, in Kildysart. On completing his apprenticeship he went to Newcastle West, County Limerick, where he worked as an assistant in the drapery business of Michael O'Shaughnessy on Bridge Street.
From there, he moved to Youghal, County Cork, where he lived at 6 North Main Street, from which address he wrote to his infant nephew in Chicago on 17 October 1912.
In 1913 he went to work for Harkin's General Drapery, at 70A New Street in Dublin.
On coming to Dublin, Clancy joined the Irish Volunteers at their inception, becoming a Volunteer in "CO" company, 1st Battalion, Dublin Brigade. During the 1916 Easter Rising he served in the Four Courts garrison, whereas Dick McKee fought in the 2nd battalion at Jacob’s biscuit factory.
The area directly behind the Four Courts, extending up Church Street towards Phibsborough, was, after the GPO, the other main area of insurgent activity north of the River Liffey during the Easter Rising. This area included North King Street, the Linenhall Barracks (which was burned down), and the North Dublin Union. Its location gave it a strategic importance. It was adjacent to the north quays, which ensured that Volunteers in this area were in a position to interfere with troop movements to and from both the Royal Barracks and Kingsbridge (Heuston) Station, the terminus of the Great Southern and Western Railway. North of the area seized by the Volunteers was Broadstone Station, the terminus of the Midland Great Western Railway, which was another venue that could facilitate the arrival of reinforcements into the city. In line with the manner in which fighting intensified as the week wore on, the area around Church Street, Brunswick Street and North King Street saw some of the heaviest and most intense fighting in the city during the Rising. This area was also the location of one of the most notorious incidents of the Rising, when members of the South Staffordshire Regiment killed a number of unarmed civilians as they advanced along North King Street.
The biscuit making firm of W. & R. Jacob's were one the largest employers in the Dublin of 1916, and their factory was seized on Easter Monday by perhaps 100 members of the 2nd Battalion of the Dublin Brigade of the Irish Volunteers under Thomas MacDonagh. The factory itself was an enormous and formidable Victorian edifice located on the 'block' enclosed by Bishop St, Bride St, Peter's St and Peter's Row, and between St Patrick's Cathedral and St Stephen's Green.
Its seizure helped to complete a loop of building cross the south inner city; the factory had two large towers that could act as observation points, while its location was very close to both Camden St and Patrick St: natural routeways for troops entering the city centre from Portobello Barracks in Rathmines and Wellington Barracks on the South Circular Road.
Clancy was to distinguish himself in combat, when, with a group of Volunteers, he repelled an infantry attack at Church Street Bridge and forced an enemy retreat towards the Phoenix Park on Easter Monday. Shortly afterwards, Clancy personally burnt out a sniper from a house, and during the course of the Rising single-handedly captured Lord Dunsany and Colonel Lindsay.
Lord Dunsany, though wounded by Clancy, said of the Republicans after his release: "Although in different uniforms, we are all Irishmen and you are all gentlemen."
For the "courage, leadership and intelligence" shown during this period, he was promoted to Lieutenant by Captain Frank Fahy.
After the Rising he was court-martialed and sentenced to death for his part in the rebellion; but his sentence was commuted to penal servitude for 10 years.

24/03/2024

Clancy Memorial bust in Kildysart on the Shannon Estuary Way
The bodies of McKee and Clancy were laid side by side at a requiem mass in the Pro-Cathedral after their murder. Both were dressed in their Volunteer uniforms and their tricolour-draped coffins bore their caps and belts. Michael Collins risked his security to be present at the service. According to Richard Mulcahy, Collins was distraught at their deaths, as they were "the two men who fully understood the inside of Collins’ work and his mind, and who were ever ready and able to link up their resources of the Dublin brigade to any work that Collins had in hand, and to do so promptly, effectively and sympathetically.
A photograph of Collins was actually published in the Evening Herald carrying one of the coffins out to the waiting hearse. Collins then went to their graveside, and was filmed stepping from the crowd to lay a wreath on the grave, on which he pinned a farewell note, which read: "In memory of two good friends ― Dick and Peadar ― two of Ireland's best soldiers."
Later Collins, through his intelligence network, discovered the name of Corporal James 'Shankers' Ryan of the Royal Military Police, who was responsible for the arrest of the two Volunteers. He was killed by The Squad at Hynes' pub in Gloucester Place on 5 February of the same year.
Clancy and McKee were buried in the Republican plot in Glasnevin cemetery. Peadar Clancy was 32 years old at the time of his death. The Islandbridge Barracks was renamed Clancy Barracks and the former Marlborough Barracks was renamed McKee Barracks in their honour. A number of streets in Finglas were also named after Clancy, McKee and Clune. In 1939 a commemorative plaque was erected on the external wall of the guardroom of Dublin Castle in Exchange Court next to City Hall.
A commemorative bust of Clancy is also displayed on top of a plinth in the main square in Kildysart, Co. Clare.
Part of Moore Street in Kilrush was also renamed as Clancy Street.
Conor Clune’s body was brought home to Co. Clare for burial. His coffin was draped with the tricolour, but when a British officer objected to it, the presiding priest removed the national flag.

24/03/2024

The Grave of Clancy and McKee in the Republican Plot, Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin.
According to Sean O'Mahony, Peadar Clancy, Conor Clune and Dick McKee were tortured in the guardroom in order to extort from them the names of the Volunteers who had earlier that morning shot the fourteen members of the Cairo Gang. Refusing to talk, they were "subsequently murdered" on the evening of 21 November 1920.
The condition of their bodies when returned by the British authorities to their families supports this assertion.
There were extensive signs of discolouring, which seemed to indicate extensive bruising. The army doctor claimed that large staining could occur, and this would depend on the way the bodies had been lying. He also said that Clancy had been hit with up to five bullets, which made eight wounds; Dick McKee had three wounds caused by two bullets. He said McKee had no bayonet wounds, but there was a bullet lodged underneath his skin on the right of his chest. Clune, he said, had nine wounds caused by seven bullets. T. Ryle Dwyer also states that David Neligan was adamant that they had not been bayoneted.
Collins arranged for the collection of their bodies when they were released by the military. They were taken to a small chapel at Dublin's Pro-Cathedral. According to Ernie O'Malley, Collins had the bodies of the men examined to ease the minds of their comrades. Piaras Beaslaí contends that the examination showed that McKee had been "savagely mistreated", and said a bayonet had punctured his liver. In addition, he had also suffered broken ribs.
The body of Peadar Clancy, according to Daniel McCarthy, was bullet ridden; while Sean O'Mahony contends that McKee had been bayoneted in the liver, and had suffered from a number of broken ribs, abrasions to the face and many bullet wounds. Robert Kee, in his work The Green Flag, writes, "though their bodies were riddled with bullets, their faces did not bear the marks of torture and brutality as has often been asserted."
Conor Clune’s employer, the genealogist Edward MacLysaght, took charge of his body when the authorities released it. He then had the body medically examined. The examination proved that Clune had been shot thirteen times in the chest. This, Sean O'Mahony writes, was abundant evidence that the excuse put forward that he was trying to escape was a complete fabrication.
On 24 November 1920, The Times newspaper reported that three Irish Republican prisoners were shot while trying to escape military custody. Affidavits by MacLysaght and evidence given by both British and Republican members "give the lie to the false official version", according to Daniel McCarthy, as the article was published even before the military inquiry had reported its findings.
As a result of these deaths in custody the British authorities held a military court of inquiry. Its report, issued on 3 December 1920, found that death was the result of: "Bullet wounds fired by members of the Auxiliary Division, Royal Irish Constabulary, in self defence and in ex*****on of their duty, i.e. in preventing the escape of the deceased party, who was in their lawful custody.
The American Commission for Evidence of Conditions in Ireland commented in 1920 that: "numerous cases had come before the commission where the reason alleged by the Crown forces for shooting civilians has been their connection with the Irish Republican Army and their attempts to escape after they have been made prisoner".
It stretches credibility somewhat, according to Sean O'Mahony, that the garrison of Dublin Castle found it impossible to prevent the escape of three unarmed prisoners from the guardroom without shooting them.
Collins was later provided with information on the Auxiliaries responsible (F Company) through Major Reynolds of F Company. Frank Thornton, one of Collins intelligence staff, was to receive information and photographs of the "murder gang", not only of F Company but of Q Company and a number of others also.
Brigadier-General Frank Percy Crozier later resigned in disgust as leader of the Auxiliaries. This came after General Tudor, head of police operations, undermined Crozier’s efforts to discipline some of his men for their conduct. Among them was Captain William King, who was "particularly notorious", and believed by Republicans to have been involved in the deaths in the Castle. King was charged with the death of another two men who also had been killed while trying to escape. The Times newspaper at the time noted that "the postures suggest that the two men had been placed sided by side and with their backs to the wall before being shot". King along with two others were later acquitted.
A book titled Death in the Castle: Three murders in Dublin Castle 1920, written by Sean O'Mahony, and published by 1916–1921 Club records both the lives and deaths of the three Republicans.

24/03/2024

During the Irish War of Independence, Peadar Clancy became immersed in the underground movement and carried out a number of daring feats, which ensured his rise to become the second-in-command of the Dublin Brigade, IRA, with the rank of Vice-Brigadier. He was also attached to GHQ where he held the rank of Director of Munitions. His immediate superior was his Easter Week colleague Dick McKee.
Clancy, along with chief of staff of the Volunteers Richard Mulcahy, was instrumental in the escape of leading Republican prisoners from Mountjoy Jail on 29 March 1919. Among those to escape were Piaras Beaslaí, J. J. Walsh, Paddy Fleming and Thomas Malone. Clancy and Mulcahy were both in charge of those who were to help the escape plan from outside the prison, while Michael Collins and his intelligence squad were to look after the plans of escape within the prison. In all nineteen prisoners escaped.
The escape was considered a major coup by Republicans and was a boost to morale.
The Squad, also known as the Twelve Apostles, was a counter-intelligence unit established in September 1919. This unit was to function as an urban flying column, which was to specialise in the killing of British intelligence agents and those police who were attentive in combatting the IRA. At its inaugural meeting the IRA leadership was represented by Peadar Clancy, along with Dick McKee, Michael Collins and Mick McDonnell.
Clancy was also involved in the Republican breakout from Strangeways Prison in Manchester, England on 25 October 1919. Michael Collins had taken a particular interest in the escape, and actually visited Austin Stack in the prison to finalise the arrangements. In all six prisoners were to escape, among them Piaras Beaslaí who had again been arrested.
During the last three months of 1919, no less than twelve different ambushes were planned on the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Lord French. In most cases the target failed to show, or was either too late or too early to suit his would-be assassins' designs. On one occasion Peadar Clancy and Dan Breen waited for two hours outside the door of the practice of Dr. James Ashe, a specialist on Merrion Square whom French occasionally visited.
On 19 December 1919, the Squad assembled at Kelly’s, known locally as the Halfway House, on the Navan Road in Cabra. They planned to ambush Lord French, as he made his way from Ashtown railway station to the Phoenix Park. The Lord Lieutenant escaped the ambush, but one of the Volunteers, Martin Savage, was killed.
The next morning, the Irish Independent published an article which described the attackers as "assassins" and included other such terms as "criminal folly", "outrage"' and "murder". Taking these terms as an insult to their dead comrade, the Volunteers decided to attack the paper. On the Sunday, at 9pm, between twenty and thirty Volunteers under Clancy entered the offices of the Independent. They informed the editor of their intentions and began to dismantle and smash the machinery. Despite this action, with the assistance of the other Dublin papers, the Independent was able to appear the next day, and the owners were awarded £16,000 in compensation. According to Breen, neither the Independent nor any other Dublin paper referred to the IRA as murderers or assassins again.
On 5 February 1920, members of the Squad, under Clancy, led a raid on the navy and army canteen board garage. In the raid the Dublin Brigade got away with two Ford motor vans and a motorcycle, along with tools and motor parts. The vans would later be used by the Squad in a number of operations.
On 12 February, Clancy again led a team of the Squad, this time in the attempted rescue of Robert Barton, who was to stand trial before a military tribunal. They planned to intercept the truck transporting the prisoner to Mountjoy Jail. The rescue went according to plan, but when they went to the back of the truck, Barton was not there. Barton had been taken to Marlborough Barracks (now McKee Barracks) instead, and he was sentenced the following week to three years and transferred to a prison in England.
Clancy, again in charge, commanded the daylight raid for weapons on the Kings Inns in Dublin, on 21 June 1920. His unit managed to capture a number of British soldiers and a large quantity of weapons and ammunition. Also with Clancy that day was a young Volunteer named Kevin Barry who, at 18, was to become the first Volunteer to be executed since the Easter Rising.
The haul included 25 rifles, 2 Lewis light machine guns, as well as the ammunition. The 25 British soldiers were then released as the Volunteers withdrew from the area.
On 11 October 1920, Seán Treacy and Dan Breen narrowly escaped capture while staying in a safe house in Fernside, a middle class area of Dublin. Professor Carlon, the owner of the house, was later to die as a result of the attack on the house, along with five British soldiers. Clancy and McKee became actively involved in the protection of both Breen and Tracy.
On 14 October 1920, the Squad, along with Dick McKee and Peadar Clancy, planned to assassinate Hamar Greenwood, and General Tudor, two of the top British officers in Ireland. They met in the back of Clancy’s shop, The Republican Outfitters, in Talbot Street. When they received intelligence that neither of the officers would be present at the intended event, the operation was called off. As some of the Squad was leaving they met Seán Tracy, and informed him of events. Tracy continued on towards the shop.
Tracy was in the process of planning the rescue of Dan Breen, who lay wounded in the Mater Hospital. They had learned that the hospital was to be raided, and wanted to get Breen out in time. According to Dan Breen, Tracy had been so intent on providing for his safety that he had neglected his own. Tracy had been followed to The Republican Outfitters, and he had failed to notice.
The others had not moved much further when they heard the shots ring out. A raid on the shop had been planned, and Tracy had arrived just before the soldiers. Clancy was at Nelson's Pillar when he saw the trucks filled with soldiers pass, he surmised that the shop was to be raided, but had no way of warning his comrades.
Tracy, along with two civilians, was killed in the incident.
McKee only narrowly avoided capture, by escaping on a bicycle during the confusion at the time of the shooting.
On 20 November, Clancy, along with members of the GHQ staff, met at 35 Lower Gardiner Street, Dublin. The meeting was called to discuss the final arrangements for what would be the rout of the British secret service, with the elimination of the Cairo Gang. Cathal Brugha felt there was insufficient evidence against some of those named, and there was to be no room for doubt. Collins stated that the operation must be done at exactly 9am. Collins remarked: "These wh**es, the British, have got to learn that Irishmen can turn up on time."