Born to George and Susan Goodfellow (née Nicholson), Goodfellow is raised in a Quaker family. Her father and uncle are builders who construct a row of houses on Morehampton Road, Donnybrook, where she lives for the rest of her life. She is educated at Alexandra College and graduates with an Arts degree from Trinity College Dublin (TCD).
Under the pseudonym Michael Scot, Goodfellow publishes Three Tales of the Times in 1921, a work about life in Ireland under the Black and Tans. She also writes poetry and translates French poetry, notably the works of 15th-century poet François Villon, publishing these translations in The Dublin Magazine between 1924 and 1928.
Goodfellow is independently wealthy, inheriting property in Ireland and England after her mother’s death in 1932. She is a generous patron of the arts, supporting The Dublin Magazine, a literary journal owned by her friend Seumas O’Sullivan, to which she contributes articles, poems, and reviews. She also supports children’s charities and serves on the Board of Governors of the Royal Hospital in Donnybrook.
Her philanthropy extends to securing funding for The Dublin Magazine (1926–1958) and gifting a bird sanctuary, The Grove, in Donnybrook to An Taisce. Despite her influence, she remains modest and private about her contributions, and her own photographic collection is destroyed after her death.
In 1939, Goodfellow falls while getting off a tram and breaks her leg badly, which leaves her with a limp. She dies at the aged of 89 on May 20, 1980, and is buried with her parents in Mount Jerome Cemetery in Dublin.
A plaque is erected in memory of Goodfellow’s donation at The Grove, a woodland area at the corner of Morehampton Road and Wellington Place, on October 19, 2022. A plaque commemorating Estella Solomons is placed on the opposite gatepost. Goodfellow’s diaries, poems and literary manuscripts are held in the Trinity College Dublin archives.
Goodfellow’s work and life reflect the intersection of Irish literary culture, nationalist history, and cultural patronage in early-to-mid 20th-century Ireland.
By mid-1922, the Anti-Treaty IRA is in retreat after the Anglo-Irish Treaty has split the IRA into pro- and anti-Treaty factions. Lynch, a staunch opponent of the Treaty, had been appointed Chief of Staff in April 1922 to unify the Anti-Treaty leadership. Fermoy, a key County Cork town, has been a republican stronghold since the Irish War of Independence, but by August 1922, it is under increasing pressure from Free State troops.
Fermoy’s surrender is not a single battle but a series of engagements and encirclements. Free State forces have been systematically dismantling republican positions in County Cork, and Fermoy’s defenses are proving unsustainable. Lynch, recognizing the strategic and tactical inevitability of defeat, orders the withdrawal of IRA forces from the town. This move effectively ends the IRA’s presence in Cork city and its surrounding areas.
Fermoy’s fall is a strategic loss as it removes the last major republican-held town in County Cork, cutting off supply lines and communication with other Anti-Treaty strongholds. The abandonment underscores the crumbling of the Anti-Treaty position and the Free State’s consolidation of control over the south. It also results in a leadership shift as Lynch’s decision reflects his pragmatic approach — while ideologically opposed to the Treaty, he seeks to avoid further bloodshed and preserve the IRA’s remaining forces.
Following Fermoy’s fall, Lynch continues to command the Anti-Treaty IRA from the south, but without a major base. His leadership soon faces further challenges, culminating in his death on April 10, 1923, during a pursuit by Free State troops in the Knockmealdown Mountains.
In short, the abandonment of Fermoy on August 11, 1922, is both a military and symbolic end to the Anti-Treaty IRA’s last stronghold in County Cork, accelerating the end of the Irish Civil War.
On the morning of August 8, 1922, the National Army of the Irish Free State launches a decisive seaborne assault on Cork, County Cork, the Free State’s second largest city, which is held by anti-Treaty Irish Republican Army (IRA) forces. The operation begins at Passage West, a ferry port and fishing village on the estuary of the River Lee, where the steamshipArvonia docks. The anti-Treaty IRA garrison in Cobh across the bay opens fire with three machine guns, but the National Army troops on deck respond with silence, surprising the sentry who had fired a warning shot.
Over 200 pro-Treaty soldiers disembark, quickly securing the town. The Arvonia is unloaded with 450 troops, an 18-pounder field gun, and several armoured cars. Simultaneously, landings are made at Youghal in east County Cork and Union Hall near Skibbereen in west County Cork, disgorging another 350 troops. This is part of Michael Collins’s plan to seize Cork and end the Irish Civil War swiftly.
Cork is a flashpoint of the Treaty split. While the majority of IRA fighters in the county oppose the Anglo-Irish Treaty, the majority of civilians support it. There are also strong neutral tendencies and peace calls within Cork’s civil and military communities. The Free State’s move aims to break the “Munster Republic” stronghold and force a rapid political settlement.
The landing marks the start of the Battle for Cork, which intensifies over the next days. National Army forces advance toward Cork city, encountering fierce resistance from anti-Treaty IRA positions in areas like Rochestown, Oldcourt Wood, and Garryduff. The fighting is brutal, with estimates of up to 20 fatalities and many wounded. The conflict also produces poignant moments, such as the death of Free State soldier Flood, shot by a former Irish War of Independence comrade, Frank O’Donoghue.
The August 8 landings are the decisive military stroke of the Irish Civil War. They re-take Cork for the Irish Free State, dismantle the Munster Republic, and end the conventional phase of the conflict, paving the way for a prolonged guerrilla war until the anti-Treaty side’s defeat. The event remains a key moment in Irish revolutionary history, remembered for its scale, the use of armoured units, and the deep divisions it exposes in Cork.
Burke is born into an influential Drogheda family, the Burkes of Duleek Street. His father, also named Christopher Patrick Burke, is a gas works secretary, and his mother is Mary McQuillan. The family lives initially on Coola Street before moving to Duleek Street after his father’s death in 1906.
Raised in a well-off household, Burke’s early years are shaped by the nationalist and cultural revival movements of the time, including the Gaelic League, which fosters physical resilience and republican ideals. His family connections, including to fellow revolutionary Thomas Burke, provide him with early exposure to Sinn Féin and Irish Volunteers activities.
Burke operates under the nom de guerre “Seán Jones” (also “Seaghan Mac Seaghan”) and is captured on at least one occasion by British forces, later released in a prisoner exchange.
During the Irish Civil War, Burke undertakes a 23-day hunger strike, reflecting his continued commitment to republican resistance against the Irish Free State.
In 1932, Burke is brought to court by his older brother, Michael, after assaulting him in the family home on Duleek Street, Drogheda. The house had been left to Michael in the will of their aunt Jane McQuillan, who died in 1919, leaving the premises to him, but requiring his mother and two sisters, Mary “Maise” and Christina Mary “Tena”, to be supported there. However, Burke insists on living there, along with his brother Joseph, leading to a family dispute. The Justice rules that the will gives Michael Burke the ownership of the house and the tenants subject to the charges set out in it. He fines Burke five shillings.
After this, Burke goes into the dairy business with his brother Joseph, and builds a house on the family farm in Bryanstown, County Meath. He dies from coronary occlusion at the age of 65 in his home on June 23, 1964. His sister, Christina Mary “Tena” Burke is present at his death. His requiem mass is celebrated at St. Mary’s Church in Drogheda. His republican comrades attend the funeral, and the Mayor of Drogheda and members of the Drogheda Corporation walk in the cortége wearing their robes of office.
Burke’s contributions to the IRA’s armament production and his steadfast republican stance cements his place in Irish revolutionary history. His life bridges the technical skills of a craftsman with the political resolve of a nationalist leader, making him a notable figure in the struggle for Irish independence.
The 3rd Tipperary Brigade is one of the most active IRA units in mid-Munster, operating mainly in southern County Tipperary and parts of County Limerick. It is known for its mobility and effectiveness in ambush tactics. Dinny Lacey, as a senior commander, is instrumental in planning and executing these operations.
While the exact details of the July 31 operations are not fully documented in the provided sources, the date falls within a period of intense IRA activity in the region. In July 1920, the IRA has already conducted several notable actions in County Tipperary, including the Newtown Cross Ambush on July 2, 1920, in which Sergeant Robert Tobin is killed and Constable Brady is wounded, and the Dingle Ambush on July 13, 1920, in which two Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) men are killed.
These earlier incidents show that IRA forces in southern County Tipperary are actively targeting RIC patrols and outposts, and the July 31 ambushes are likely part of a similar pattern of harassment and disruption.
Successful ambushes like these weaken British control in rural County Tipperary, disrupt police and military operations, demonstrate the IRA’s ability to strike quickly and effectively in difficult terrain and contribute to the overall IRA strategy of attrition and intimidation.
The brigade continues to operate under Lacey’s leadership until his death in 1923 during the Irish Civil War. His tactics in 1920 help establish the 3rd Tipperary Brigade as a key player in the IRA’s campaign in the south.
In summary, on July 31, 1920, Dinny Lacey’s IRA unit in southern County Tipperary executes two successful ambushes, continuing a series of targeted attacks that are central to the IRA’s guerrilla campaign against British forces in the region.
Will is on duty when he is killed by a bomb during the attack. The IRA’s assault is unsuccessful, but it results in Will’s death and the serious injuries of two other RIC officers. His service number is 70974.
Posthumously, Will is awarded the Constabulary Medal for Gallantry for his bravery under fire. According to RIC forum records, the medal is presented on December 22, 1920.
Will serves in the Scottish Horse Regiment during World War I, where he is wounded just a week before the Armistice. After his death, his body is brought back to Scotland by steamer, and his funeral is attended by RIC officers. His family has roots in Kincardineshire, Scotland, with his father, William Will, and grandfather also named Alexander Will.
Will is remembered as one of the early RIC officers to die in the Irish War of Independence, and his death marked a significant moment in the conflict’s early years. His story is commemorated in police remembrance records and in centenary tributes.
Wexford had been relatively quiet during the Irish War of Independence, but the Treaty split in 1921 creates deep divisions. The South Wexford Brigade under Thomas O’Sullivan is overwhelmingly anti-Treaty, while the North Wexford Brigade under Joseph Cummins is nominally pro-Treaty but contains a significant anti-Treaty minority. This division means that when the Irish Civil War breaks out on June 28, 1922, Wexford becomes one of the most violent counties, with Republican forces rapidly moving to secure strategic towns.
On July 4, anti-Treaty IRA units, including Tipperary volunteers and escaped Four Courts fighters, move into Enniscorthy, take over key positions and force the surrender of Free State troops. In the opening fighting, three combatants are killed — two IRA and one National Army — marking the first major Republican gains in the county. James Roche, an IRA member, is fatally wounded in an accident outside Newtownbarry (now Bunclody) on the same day, one of several accidental deaths among IRA personnel in Wexford during the Irish Civil War.
The capture of Enniscorthy is part of a broader Republican offensive in County Wexford in early July 1922. However, the balance of power shifts quickly. By July 6, a large relief force of government troops sets out from Dublin to retake the town. This marks the beginning of a protracted and bloody campaign in County Wexford, which sees the county become one of the most violent in the Irish Civil War.
In summary, the capture of Enniscorthy on July 4, 1922, is a significant Republican victory in County Wexford, driven by the Treaty split and reinforced by external IRA units. It reflects the rapid escalation of violence in the county and sets the stage for a prolonged and destructive phase of the Irish Civil War in County Wexford.
(Pictured: Enniscorthy at the turn of the last century, National Library of Ireland collections)
Barry returns to Bandon in early 1919. He describes in his guerilla days in Ireland a Damascus-like conversion to Irish nationalism on hearing of the Easter Rising while with the Mesopotamian expeditionary force, but he is only accepted into the IRA with considerable caution. Initially tested in intelligence and training work, in mid-1920 he takes charge of the new brigade flying column, which is used both to train officers and to stage offensive actions.
Barry adapts his military experience successfully to the demands of guerrilla warfare, becoming the most famed of column leaders during the Irish War of Independence. In his memoirs, he pours scorn on the obsession of many with military titles and orthodox procedure, complaining of a “paper army.” He stresses the need for spontaneity, initiative, and knowledge of local conditions. “The reality,” he writes, “was a group of fellows, mostly in caps and not-too-expensive clothing, wondering how to tackle their job and where they would sleep that night or get their supper.” (The Reality of the Anglo–Irish War (1974)). He well realises that the war’s character does not permit any close control from the IRA’s GHQ in Dublin, hence increasing the importance of local leaders. His tactics put strong emphasis on speed of movement and on the need to attack the enemy at his weakest point. The column’s ambush successes are small in number but among the best-remembered of the war. He admits, however, that his own and his column’s lack of experience with mines frequently weakened their offensives.
The column’s first successful ambush is at Tooreen on October 22, 1920, followed on November 28 by the dramatic ambushing of a patrol of auxiliaries at Kilmichael while traveling from their Macroom base. A column of thirty-six men, divided into three sections, kill sixteen auxiliaries, with one captured and later shot, suffering two fatalities of their own. Controversy has raged since over whether a false surrender by the British force caused the brutality of some of the deaths. Together with the Bloody Sunday killings of a week earlier in Dublin, Kilmichael has a profound effect on the British military and political establishment, with the declaration in December of martial law for much of Munster and the implementation of wide-ranging internment, together with the authorisation of official reprisals.
After a short period in hospital with a heart condition, in early 1921 Barry leads unsuccessful attacks on Kilbrittain, Innishannon, Drimoleague, and Bandon barracks. The seizure of Burgatia House, outside Rosscarbery, in early February, and the successful resistance made there to British troops, wins much publicity but has little military significance. He is a leading figure in the brutal final stage of the war in the first six months of 1921, which sees widespread shooting of suspected spies and destruction of loyalist property. By March 1921, his flying column, with 104 men, is easily the largest in Ireland, and an explosives expert, Capt. McCarthy, has joined them.
The protracted engagement between Barry’s column and encircling British forces at Crossbarry on March 19, 1921, comes at a time when large-scale sweeps are making life increasingly difficult for the IRA. It consists of a daring and courageous breakout. Crossbarry is the largest action of the war, and Barry is to regard it as even more important than Kilmichael. Soon afterwards, Rosscarbery barracks is successfully attacked by a Barry-led party, representing one of the few successful such initiatives in 1921. Isolated triumphs, however, cannot hide the fact that pressure is increasing on the column, and he becomes increasingly critical of inactive regions. He is later to say that all County Kerry does during the war is to shoot one decent police inspector at Listowel Racecourse and a colleague of his. He is strongly critical also of the lack of assistance from GHQ and of the divisionalisation policy. He visits Dublin in May, travels around with Michael Collins, and is present when two American officers demonstrate the Thompson submachine gun. He is more aware than most of his 1st Southern Division colleagues of the scarcity of arms and ammunition at the war’s end.
During the truce, Barry becomes liaison officer for Munster, riling the British by insisting on his military rank, and criticising the IRA liaison men in Dublin for being overly deferential. He joins the overwhelming majority of the Cork IRA in opposing the Anglo–Irish Treaty but plays a characteristically maverick role throughout the treaty split. His independent attitude is heightened by his dislike of Liam Lynch, the republican IRA’s Chief of Staff, and his continuing respect for Michael Collins. He shows impatience at the long-drawn-out peace initiatives. In March 1922, therefore, he advocates armed confrontation with pro-treaty units over the occupation of barracks in Limerick, and on June 18 he submits a resolution, which only narrowly fails, at the army convention, giving British troops seventy-two hours to leave Dublin.
At the beginning of the Irish Civil War, Barry is arrested entering the Four Courts disguised as a woman. He escapes from an internment camp at Gormanston in early September 1922. For the rest of the war his actions mirror its confused nature. In late October 1922, he leads successful raids on the small towns of Ballineen and Enniskean, and later on Inchigeelagh and Ballyvourney. In December his column takes Carrick-on-Suir, demonstrating the weakness of the Free State army, but his talk of advancing on the Curragh and of large-scale actions does not materialise. There is no evidence that he is acting in accordance with any coordinated plan. By February 1923, he realises that the Republican IRA cause is hopeless and he is involved with Fr. Tom Duggan in efforts to get 1st Southern Division to declare a ceasefire. He journeys to Dublin to put pressure on the intransigent Lynch in this connection, telling Lynch, “I did more fighting in one week than you did in your whole life.”
Barry avoids capture in roundups after the war, remaining on the run until 1924. Unlike many republicans, he does not turn to constitutionalism, remaining strongly militaristic. He is always an unreconstructed republican, though by no means a naive one. In 1924 he becomes attached to Cleeves Milk Co., based in Limerick and Clonmel, and from 1927 to retirement in 1965 is general superintendent with the Cork harbour commissioners. He strongly advocates preserving the independence of the IRA army executive during the republican split of 1925–27. He is instrumental in continuing the drilling of IRA members and is a strong supporter of armed opposition to the Blueshirts.
During the 1930s Barry is arrested at various times for possession of arms and seditious utterances. He promotes an attack against a Freemasons’ meeting in Cork in 1936 and gives the orders for the killing on March 4 of that year of Vice-AdmiralHenry Boyle Somerville. He is opposed to the use by Frank Ryan of IRA volunteers to support the republican cause in the Spanish Civil War and to the proposals of Seán Russell for a bombing campaign in England. To maintain the link with traditional republicanism, he is elected IRA chief of staff in 1937. His plan, however, for the seizure of Armagh city, as part of a direct northern offensive, quickly collapses due to a leak of information, and he soon resigns his position. He forcefully attacks the bombing of English cities in 1938, regarding attacks on innocent civilians as immoral and counterproductive. He enlists in the National Army on July 12, 1940, only to be demobilised a month later. In 1946, he stands as an independent candidate in a by-election in the Cork Borough constituency, finishing at the bottom of the poll. He is more comfortable the following year touring the United States on an anti-partition platform.
In 1949 his Guerilla Days in Ireland is published. It proves a best-seller and has frequently been reprinted. It is well written in a forceful and direct style, one memoir needing no assistance from a ghost writer. Age does not mellow him: lawyers and bank managers are threatened by him over matters relating to his own column, and in 1974 he publishes a fierce pamphlet, angry at perceived slights in the Irish War of Independence memoir of Liam Deasy. He does strive to achieve a public reconciliation with Collins’s memory by unveiling the memorial to Collins at Sam’s Cross in 1966. On the outbreak of the Northern Ireland crisis in the late 1960s, he takes a militant line, castigating the argument that the Six Counties can be brought into the Republic by peaceful means, and asking when had peaceful means existed there. At the memorial meeting in Carrowkennedy, County Mayo, in 1971, he claims that there is a perfect right at the opportune time to take the Six Counties by force. He remains opposed to IRA bombing of civilian targets.
Barry dies in Cork on July 2, 1980. He is buried in St. Finbarr’s Cemetery, Cork. Early in the truce of 1921 he marries Leslie Price, one of the most active of Cumann na mBan members during and after the rising. They have no children.
While Barry always remains an influential figure in republican circles, he will be remembered best as the pioneer of guerrilla warfare, the hero of Kilmichael and Crossbarry. His military flair, individualism, and ruthlessness are well suited to the 1919–21 conflict. After that, his strained relations with colleagues and his lack of flexibility reduce his importance. While his life after the revolutionary era appears anti-climactic, he retains much of his charisma. In later years, he is ever willing to remind politicians and historians how far Ireland has retreated from republican ideals. He is often prickly and autocratic yet could be generous to old colleagues of either side of the treaty split. He is arguably the most intelligent but also the most intolerant of the revolutionary leaders.
(From: “Barry, Thomas Bernadine (‘Tom’)” by M. A. Hopkinson, Dictionary of Irish Biography, http://www.dib.ie, October 2009)
Born at Hillside Terrace in Howth, County Dublin, on May 5, 1898, Gilmore is the second son of Philip Gilmore, an accountant originally from County Antrim, and Fanny Angus. Despite his father primarily working for Unionist landlords, and being educated at home, George and his brothers Harry and Charlie all turn toward Irish republicanism. By 1916, Gilmore has become a member of Fianna Éireann, the Republican boy scouts, and later a member of the South County Dublin battalion of the Irish Volunteers.
Gilmore fights in the Irish Republican Army in the Irish War of Independence and in the Irish Civil War on the Anti-Treaty IRA side. During the civil war he is captured and imprisoned, but manages to escape custody in August 1923, the aftermath of which causes riots as the remaining prisoners are placed in solitary confinement.
Following the end of the civil war, Gilmore serves as the secretary of future TaoiseachSeán Lemass, as well alongside Frank Aiken. During the early 1920s, he, Lemass and Aiken regularly meet with the IRA army council to represent the emerging political leadership of Irish republicanism that coalesces as Fianna Fáil in 1926. The trio regularly sits opposite IRA leaders Frank Ryan, Peadar O’Donnell, and Seán Russell.
In October 1925, Gilmore and Lemass organise the escape of nineteen IRA prisoners from Mountjoy Prison in Dublin. As part of the jailbreak, Gilmore impersonates a member of Garda Síochána. None of the nineteen escapees are subsequently recaptured, and their escape serves as a major propaganda coup. However, the following month, Gilmore is involved in a riot that takes place on Armistice Day and he is subsequently arrested and sentenced to eighteen months in prison. He resists the entire duration; first resisting the arrest and then, once imprisoned, refusing to wear a prison uniform and going on hunger strike. Early in 1928, members of the IRA attack Mountjoy Prison where he is being held and shoot the warden after a story emerges that Gilmore had previously been the victim of a vicious beating by the guards. He is released in 1929 but re-arrested and re-imprisoned almost immediately, resulting in a retaliatory beating by the guards that leaves him unconscious.
Sometime between 1929 and 1930, Gilmore is sent by the IRA to Russia to receive military training and to seek aid.
Gilmore is arrested yet again upon his return to Ireland in April 1931, charged with having resisted arrest ten months previously. In October he tries to escape with the help of his brother Charlie and almost succeeds, using a plot involving mock pistols wrapped in silver to intimidate the guards. In the aftermath of the failed escape, his treatment in Arbour Hill Prison from 1931-32 is abysmal. He once again refuses to wear prison clothing because of his political status and remains naked in a windowless cell from October 1931 until February 1932. In June 1931, of a cache of weapons are discovered near his home at Killakee in the Dublin Mountains, which results in him and his brother Charlie being placed before a military tribunal which sentences him to five years in prison and Charlie to three (in 1932 Fianna Fail comes to power and the brothers are released). Neither recognises the authority of the court, with George stating, “I do not want anybody to think I excuse myself for such a charge as having arms, I am admittedly hostile to British imperialism and international capitalism.”
Gilmore’s fortunes are dramatically altered when Fianna Fáil emerges victorious in the 1932 Irish general election. In the aftermath, Frank Aiken, former Chief of Staff of the IRA and new Minister for Defence goes to see Gilmore on March 9 and on the next day all republican prisoners are released as part of a general amnesty. Thirty thousand supporters greet the prisoners at College Green, Dublin.
Finally out of long-term imprisonment, Gilmore is eager to resume working toward a socialist Ireland. He has supported Peadar O’Donnell’s shortlived socialist republican group Saor Éire from prison, but in the aftermath of its demise, he concludes that the group has spent too much time imagining what it might do if in government, and not enough time considering what the immediate aims of the IRA should be. With his close personal ties to their leadership, Gilmore has a positive view of Fianna Fáil, and at this point in time believes their goals differ little from his own and those of the IRA. Nevertheless, He encourages the IRA to not become too closely associated with Fianna Fáil, fearing the IRA will become a subservient body. He himself has ascended to the IRA’s army council upon his release, and in March 1932 is among representatives of the Army Council that liaises with Éamon de Valera about a possible partnership between the IRA and Fianna Fáil.
On August 14, 1932, Gilmore and fellow Irish republican T. J. Ryan are beaten badly, shot and wounded by plain-clothes members the Garda Síochána (Criminal Investigation Department) in Kilrush, County Clare. This incident is blamed on the police by an official Tribunal of Inquiry report one month later.
In March 1934, Gilmore, alongside Frank Ryan and Peadar O’Donnell, refuse to continue on as members of the IRA executive as part of a deepening rift over the direction of the IRA. Left-wing members of the IRA such as Gilmore, Ryan and O’Donnell insist that the IRA needs to tie their activity to social agitation in addition to their military aims, but this is a minority viewpoint, with the majority believing the IRA should have a “strictly military” outlook. The rift ultimately spirals into Gilmore, Ryan and O’Donnell being court-martialed and expelled in April.
In the aftermath, Gilmore works with Roddy Connolly, Nora Connolly O’Brien and Peadar O’Donnell to found the Republican Congress, a left-wing socialist Irish republican group. The group breaks up in 1935 over internal differences. Gilmore, Ryan and O’Donnell believe that the Republican Congress should be a united front, an alliance of all republican groups in Ireland. Roddy Connolly and other members of the Communist Party of Ireland believe that the Congress should be a vanguard party. A conference is held by the Republican Congress in Rathmines, Dublin, in September 1934 to vote on the issue. Before the vote is taken, Gilmore gives a speech in which he accuses Fianna Fáil of using republicanism as a means to promote Irish capitalism. When the votes are taken on whether the Republican Congress should be a united front or a vanguard party, Gilmore’s united front faction wins. However, supporters of the vanguard party concept such as Roddy Connolly immediately resign from the Congress in protest and walk out on the group. It proves to be a blow that the Congress never recovers from and the group is defunct by 1936. Gilmore makes a last-ditch effort to save the Congress by traveling to the United States to seek funds from Irish American groups but is not successful.
Upon the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in July 1936, Gilmore and O’Donnell become supporters of the International Brigades. Both men travel to Spain personally, during which they are involved in a plane crash and Gilmore’s leg is broken.
Following the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, Gilmore writes an appeal pleading with the IRA to dump arms until the war in Europe is over and denounces them for flirting with fascism by seeking aid from Germany.
During the 1960s, when the republican movement once again moves to the left, Gilmore and O’Donnell are once again in demand as speakers and as writers in republican publications. In 1966, for the 50th anniversary of the Easter Rising, Gilmore releases a pamphlet entitled “Labour and the republican movement” in which he espouses the principles of James Connolly. Additionally, he appeals to young republicans not to repeat the mistake older republicans had made in being too rigid in their views and too short on policy.
Gilmore dies on June 29, 1985, at the age of 87, in a nursing home in Howth, County Dublin.
The train is returning from Belfast, where King George V has just opened the first Parliament of Northern Ireland on June 22. It is part of a heavy security escort for the King, including the 10th Royal Hussars (machine gun troop) and their horses, who have been stationed at the Curragh in County Meath. Three special trains have been arranged to bring them back to Dublin, but the third is attacked.
The IRA plants a mine or detonates a bomb that partially derails the train a mile north of Adavoyle Station, between Newry and Dundalk. The derailment causes ten carriages to be thrown across an embankment, killing and injuring many soldiers and horses.
At least three British soldiers are killed (including a sergeant and a private) and twenty are wounded, some of whom later die from their injuries. The train guard, Frank Gallagher, is killed and two other railway officials are seriously injured. Reports vary about the number of horses killed. Some say over 40 horses are killed while others claim as many as 100. Many horses are shot to prevent them from being captured or causing further casualties. Soldiers reportedly weep for their dead horses, as they had served together in World War I. A local farmer and a train guard are also shot dead in the aftermath.
The attack causes an outcry in Britain, highlighting the IRA’s ability to strike high-profile military convoys. The incident underscores the vulnerability of British forces returning from political events in Ireland and is one of several such attacks during the War of Independence.
The Adavoyle ambush is remembered as a symbolic and brutal act in the conflict, combining military casualties with the killing of animals that have been comrades in war. It also illustrates the IRA’s use of railways as a strategic target during the campaign.
Today, the Adavoyle railway station is in ruins, though the Belfast-Dublin line still passes the site.
seamus dubhghaill 