Description
Book SynopsisIn 1919, Michael Collins conceived of a scheme to knock out the eyes and ears of the British Administration at Dublin Castle by undermining and terrorising the police so that the British would react blindly and drive the Irish people to support of the Irish Republican Army. The Bureau of Military History interviewed those involved in this scheme in the early 1950s with the assurance that the material would not be published in their lifetimes. A few of the contributions were made available by the families of those involved, but the bulk of them have only recently been released. This is the first book to make use of those interviews. It makes fascinating, almost unique reading, because they contain first-hand descriptions in which men speak candidly of their involvement in killing selected people at close range. As a result it throws a considerable amount of new light on the activities of the Squad and the intelligence operations of Michael Collins.
Table of ContentsPreface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 1 ‘I knew he was the man’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 2 ‘Only the beginning’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 3 ‘Every damn fool’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 4 ‘Almost a miracle I was not landed’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 5 ‘I do not defend the murder simply as such I merely applaud it’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 6 ‘Shooting of a few would-be assassins’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 7 ‘Expect shooting’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 8 ‘A little bit of strategy’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 9 ‘We are going to have sport now’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 10 ‘The first shot was fired from the lord mayor’s own gun’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 11 ‘No harm would come to Mick’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 12 ‘I’ve my orders to shoot him’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 13 ‘Like a town with the plague’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156 14 ‘The Lord have mercy on your souls!’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 15 ‘The most disgraceful show’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188 16 ‘Too good to be true’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203 17 ‘Someone has to die for this’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216 18 ‘She wants to see General MacEoin’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229 19 ‘Miss, you’ll be lucky if you get out with your life’ . . . 244 Epilogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257 Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262 Index of Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
