The IRA, 1926 1936

304 Pages·2002·12.835 MB·English

by  Brian Hanley

Also from Four Courts Press
MacBride’s brigade
Irish commandos in the Anglo-Boer war
Donal P. McCracken
Brendan Behan
Cultural nationalism and the revisionist writer
John Brannigan
Songs of Irish rebellion
Irish political street ballads and rebel songs,
1780-1900
Georges Denis Zimmermann
Irish volunteers in the Second World War
Richard Doherty
Religion, politics and violence in nineteenth-
century Belfast
The Pound and Sandy Row
Catherine Hirst
The Dublin Metropolitan Police
A short history and genealogical guide
Jim Herlihy
Conceiving revolution
Irish nationalist propaganda during the
First World War
Ben Novick
James Hogan: revolutionary, historian
and political scientist
Donnchadh 0 Corrain editor
Priests and people in pre-Famine Ireland
New edition
S.J. Connolly
On the Easter Proclamation and
other declarations
Liam de Paor
Acts of Union
The causes, contexts and consequences
of the Act of Union
Daire Keogh & Kevin Whelan, editors
Ireland and the Crimean war
David Murphy
Withdrawn From Stock
6rains£ CHQLOS
COOLOCK LIBRARY
Dublin City Pubiic libraries
TEL [phone]

The IRA, 1926-1936
To my father and the memory of my mother
The IRA, 1926-1936
BRIAN HANLEY
FOUR COURTS PRESS
Set in 10 on 13 point Janson
by Linda Longmore for
FOUR COURTS PRESS LTD
7 Malpas Street, Dublin 8, Ireland
e-mail: [email protected]
and in North America
FOUR COURTS PRESS
c/o ISBS, 5824 N. E. Hassalo Street, Portland, OR 97213
© Brian Hanley 2002
A catalogue record for this title
is available from the British Library.
ISBN 1-85182-721-8
All rights reserved. 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 publisher of this book.
Printed in England
by MPG Books, Bodmin, Cornwall
Contents
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 6
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 7
INTRODUCTION 9
1 Leaders and men 11
2 The day-to-day working of a ‘secret army’ 28
3 The IRA and nationalist culture 50
4 Enemies and antagonists 71
5 Allies and rivals 93
6 The IRA and Fianna Fail in opposition, 1926-1932 113
7 The IRA and Fianna Fail in government, 1932-1936 126
8 The IRA in Northern Ireland 145
9 The IRA outside Ireland 161
10 The IRA and Irish society, 1926-1936 175
APPENDICES 191
NOTES 213
BIBLIOGRAPHY 273
INDEX 283
Illustrations
{appear between pages 128 and 129)
1 Moss Twomey, November 1926.
2 The Dublin IRA at the 1931 Easter Commemoration, O’Connell Street.
3 IRA prisoners released at the conclusion of the Civil War.
4 Crowds greet the released IRA prisoners at Arbour Hill, March 1932.
5 Frank Ryan, An Phoblacht editor, speaks to the 30,000-strong rally in
College Green to welcome the released prisoners, March 1932.
6 Moss Twomey at Easter Commemoration, Glasnevin, April 1932.
7 Prisoners released from Arbour Hill and Mountjoy, March 1932.
8 Peadar O’Donnell, a leading IRA member until 1934, at the 1930
European Peasants Congress in Berlin.
9 Sighle Humphreys, the driving force behind Cumann na mBan in
Dublin from 1926 onwards.
10 Twomey gives the oration at Bodenstown, 1933.
11 The Tralee IRA at Bodenstown, 1934.
12 An Phoblacht, Saturday 5 May 1934.