Hunger Strike in Belfast Jail

Frank Carney's arrest appears on a page in the Freeman's Journal, and on that single page there is a snapshot of the escalating drama in the War of Independence.  It is all there on page 5 of the issue dated Tuesday, March 30^th 1920, the everyday heroics and tragedies in the fight for Irish freedom.

The Freeman's Journal, Tuesday
March 30th 1920, page 5

There is a report on the inquest that is taking place in Cork. The Lord Mayor, Tomás Mac Curtain, was murdered in his own home in front of his wife and son, by men with blackened faces. The beleaguered policemen are taking the law into their own hands, and in this case they were retaliating for the death of one of their own colleagues.¹

There are more murders by policemen reported on this page, two IRA men shot in their homes. All of these are in the wake of sustained attacks on police barracks and policemen throughout the southern counties. What the Fremman's Journal does not yet report is that the force that became known as 'the Black and Tans', the most vicious of all the British Police forces, begins to arrive in Ireland this same week, on March 25th 1920. 

Ireland is out of control. Another article on this same page illustrates just how bad it has become. Here we are told that General Shaw, Commander-in-Chief of the British forces, is being recalled to London.  He is to be replaced by General MacCready, who is to ‘strengthen the administration of the law in Ireland’.

The Freeman's Journal, Tuesday March 30th 1920

“As if by way of a parting shot from General Shaw,” the Freeman’s Journal goes on to report, “there has been accelerated activity by military raiders during the last couple of days, and arrests have been made in the provinces of Ulster, Munster and Leinster.”  

The Freeman's Jounal gives some dramatic reports of those who were arrested in this round-up but Frank Carney's entry is a simple statement announcing the arrest of Mr Francis Carney U.D.C. Enniskillen. 

This mention of Frank in the Freeman’s Journal on March 30^th begins a sequence in which we can trace his activities from March through to early May 1920:

Monday March 21 – Carney House Raided

Frank Carney’s house, 18 Abbey Street, Enniskillen where he lives with his mother and father, is raided and searched by members of the RIC. It is not known what is found, but Frank is not arrested. (Reported in the Freeman’s Jounal, Tuesday 30^th March 1920)

Saturday March 27 – Frank Carney Arrested

An IRA Captain who served under Frank Carney tells us in his Bureau of Military History testimony:

 “Early in 1920 plans were being laid to burn vacated Police barracks and Income Tax offices. Each Battalion Area had its work set out for them. Before these plans matured Mr. Carney was arrested.”² 

The Freeman's Journal, 
Tuesday 30th March 1920

Frank is arrested in Enniskillen on March 27^th and he is transported to Derry Jail.

In the Derry Journal of April 2nd we learn that these prisoners arrived in the city under military and police escort, and they were conveyed by 'motor lorries' to the prison.
"Along the route to the jail, the prisoners sang 'The Soldiers Song' and other Republican songs. At the entrance to the prison they were cheered by sympathisers."

We read in this same ariticle there is now pandemonium in Derry Jail, with over 80 Republican prisoners there, and 'normal prisoners' being moved on to Sligo. In Belfast, people are arriving to the Jail from all over Ireland;
"Two destroyers arrived in Belfast Lough from Queenstown with 38 political prisoners."

Mountjoy prison in Dublin is full, and the prisoners there are protesting at their treatment. The Derry Journal reports that a large number of them are permanently in handcuffs.

Tuesday April 20 – Move to Belfast Jail

Derry Journal, 21st April 1920

After three weeks in Derry Jail, Commandant Frank Carney is taken by train to from Derry to Belfast Jail. He is in a group of prisoners from Tyrone, Donegal, Fermanagh and Derry who are moved to Belfast’s Crumlin Road Jail under heavy military escort. This Jail is totally controlled by the military at this time.

Monday April 26 - Hunger Strike Begins

Six days after Frank's arrival in Belfast Jail, the prisoners decide to go on hunger strike;

“The prisoners in Wormwood Scrubs and Mountjoy went on hunger-strike about this time, and strong appeals were being made by some of the Belfast prisoners to join them. General O'Duffy (Eoin O’Duffy) was in charge  of the prisoners. A general meeting was held and it was unanimously decided to go on hunger-strike."  (James McKenna in his Bureau of Military History statement)³ 

Anglo-Celt, April 30 1920

Eoin O'Duffy was arrested in Omagh in late April and is now leading the Ulster and Connacht prisoners in the jail. The prisoners are demanding their immediate release, and they advertise this in newspapers nationwide;

“On behalf of 145 uncharged and untried men in Belfast Prison, we demand immediate and unconditional release. Failing this, we go on hunger strike on Monday 26^th April, 1920. Signed on behalf of the prisoners, Dan Healy Commandant; Owen O’Duffy, Ulster and Connaght; Philip Lennon, Leinster; Thomas Clifford, Munster. – Prison Council”(Anglo-Celt, Friday April 30^th 1920)

Along with his comrades, Frank Carney goes on hunger strike on April 26th.

Friday May 1 1920 - Frank Carney Rushed to Hospital

After just a few days on hunger strike, Frank Carney becomes seriously ill and is released. He is rushed to the Mater Informum Hospital. (The Mater in Belfast)

“After a few days fast the late Frank Carney, T.D., and a few others who were not very robust were carried out on stretchers. This led to a general release on the sixth day and we were all conveyed to the various hospitals, from where we were discharged in about a week.” (James McKenna, OC North Monaghan Brigade, IRA, 1921)³ 

Fermanagh Herald, May 8th 1920

Not all prisoners were released. About 70 were deported to Wormwood Scrubs prison in England. On their way they were marched to Belfast Docks where they were attacked by dock workers. Their British Army escorts stood idly by while the prisoners were pelted with bolts and metal bars thrown down from the boats. The hunger strike continued in Wormwood Scrubs.

Following his brief hunger strike, Frank Carney was back on his feet with amazing speed, and shortly after this we have news of some of his daring raids.

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Notes and References:

¹ This coroner's inquest into the death of the Lord Mayor was highly significant. It passed a verdict of willful murder against British Prime Minister Lloyd George and against certain named members of the RIC. Michael Collins later ordered the killing of the police officers involved in the attack. RIC District Inspector Oswald Swanzy, who had ordered the attack, was fatally shot with Mac Curtain's own revolver while leaving a Protestant church in Lisburn on 22 August 1920, sparking a pogram against the Catholic residents of the town.

² Bureau of Military History 1913-1921, WS Ref #: 559 , Witness: James J Smyth, Captain IRA, Leitrim, 1921

³  Bureau of Military History 1913-1921, WS Ref #: 1028 , Witness: James McKenna, OC North Monaghan Brigade, IRA, 1921

* Note: All the Newspapers quoted in this article were accessed from Findmypast.ie

Born to be a Soldier

Frank Carney learnt his soldiering skills in the British Army. It is difficult for us today to understand how an ardent Irish republican could have volunteered to join the British Army in 1914. There was no conscription here in Ireland during World War 1, so there was no need to go to war. However times were very different then, and there was a long tradition of soldiering in Ireland. At the turn of the century over 40% of the entire British Army was Irish born and ‘the fighting Irish’ were highly prized by the British in any conflict.¹ In the small streets of Frank Carney’s Enniskillen neighbourhood,  the British army had an even stronger pull and in 1914 the young men flocked to join-up in 'defense of small countries'.

Abbey Street is one of the streets going down to the river

Abbey Street in Enniskillen, where the Carney family lived, was a row of tightly-packed two-storey houses in a poorer area of the town. At the bottom of the small street was the River Erne, that runs through Enniskillen going northwards towards Lough Erne. Frank’s father, Edward Carney, was a fisherman, and he would have fished for salmon on the River Erne using a hand-held net in a small, flat-bottomed wooden boat, called an ‘Erne cot’.

The Castle Barracks, Enniskillen

Frank was born on the 25^th April 1896, the youngest surviving child of Edward Carney and Eliza McCaffrey. There was quite a big age gap between Frank and the other four children in the family. There were three sisters, Lizzy, Mary Ann and Alice, and the eldest of the family was his brother, James, who was seventeen years his senior.

Their home was in a small group of streets in Enniskillen very close to two different military barracks and many of the young men of the neighbourhood were soldiers in the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers.

In 1898,  when Frank was just two years old, his brother James left home for the first time. He joined the 1^st Battalion of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers based at that time in Omagh.²   The following year the British Government decided to embark on another war in South Africa, which became known as the Second Boer War.  James Carney was shipped out with the Royal Inniskillings, and he fought in many different battles during the three years that he was there. Somehow he managed to survive what was largely a disaster for the Inniskillings at the hands of the Boers.

The 1st Inniskillings and the Dublins
at Battle of Tugela River, South Africa

James returned a hero, with medals and commendations for bravery. But he must also have regaled his young brother with tales of the cleverness and effectiveness of the Boer guerilla fighters. This early knowledge of the Boers would have helped Frank Carney appreciate the guerilla warfare concept of Michael Collins, and he retained his respect for the Boers right into his Dáil life. In 1927 when the newly forming Irish Army was being discussed in Dáil Éireann, Frank Carney recommended that they would do better to look to the Boers, rather than the British Army, as their model:

“This is not a country at all for making a pocket edition of the British Army. The most suitable method of warfare to be conducted by us for defensive purposes is the method that had been tried and perfected by de Wett in South Africa and by our own guerilla fighters here in Ireland.” ³ 

After South Africa, his brother James Carney was discharged from the army, but a couple of years later he joined up again and continued to serve with the Royal Inniskillings throughout Frank’s childhood.

Frank attended secondary school in St. Michael’s Intermediate College located at that time in Belmore Street, Enniskillen, quite near to their home.⁴  This was a fee-paying Roman Catholic grammar school and it must have been quite unusual for a child from the Carney's deprived neighbourhood to attend this grammar school. It is unlikely that his father Edward could have raised enough money for the fees so young Frank had probably  won a scholarship to St Michael’s College. If so, it had paid off, for Frank passed with honours in 1913:

Fermanagh Herald, Friday, September 5th 1913

He was also a singer and it is recorded that he won first place in the Men’s Solo in the Fermanagh Feis in 1913 when he was 17 years old. Interestingly, a ‘James Carney’ from Enniskillen came in second place. Could this be brother James, perhaps?

Fermanagh Herald , Saturday, June 20th 1913

Patrick Pearse,
leader of the 1916 Rising

This Fermanagh Feis was one of the indicators of a radical change in attitudes towards Irish culture and the concept of Nationhood in Ireland during Frank's teenage years. The Fermanagh Feis was started in 1906 by Cahir Healy who was secretary of the local branch of the Gaelic League. Cahir Healy was a Donegal man, from Mountcharles, and he had come to Enniskillen as a journalist to work on the Fermanagh News. He had set up a branch of the Gaelic League in Fermanagh and he persuaded Patrick Pearse, future revolutionary, to open the Feis in 1906.

The Gaelic League had begun in 1893 in Dublin with the aim of reversing ‘anglisation’, and restoring the Irish language and culture among its people. The Gaelic League was structured in small local branches throughout Ireland, and Cahir Healy was pivotal in promoting the Gaelic League in County Fermanagh. He had also built up a relationship with Arthur Griffith through writing articles for Griffith's ‘United Irishmen’ publication and when Griffith founded a new political group called 'Sinn Féin' in 1906, Cahir Healy was right there beside him.⁵ 

The Gaelic Leaguers and Sinn Féin were beginning to have some impact on the Roman Catholic population of Enniskillen when Frank Carney was in his late teenage years. There was also a very active group of Irish Volunteers.  The Irish Volunteers had been set up in November 1913 and had been achieving great success recruiting in Enniskillen during 1913 and early 1914. This was largely in reaction to the activities of a violent Protestant group, the Ulster Volunteers, who had been founded in 1912 to oppose the Home Rule Bill. They had been very active throughout Northern Ireland, but were particularly bad in Enniskillen. Many local men had joined the Irish Volunteers simply to defend their own neighbourhoods, and by 1913 there was a battalion of over 300 active members.

However, with the outbreak of war the Irish Volunteer battalion fell apart. Francis O’Duffy, who was Captain in the Enniskillen Volunteers in 1914, records that the war, “disorganised the Volunteers in Enniskillen and throughout Fermanagh.” ⁶

He goes on to explain:

“There was a large number (about 70, as far as I can remember) of members of the British Army reserve in the Enniskillen Battalion of the Volunteers. When these were called up their comrades marched to the station to give them a send-off and many of these comrades soon followed them.”

Gaelic Leaguers, Sinn Féin and Irish Volunteers answered the call from the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. In the small old streets round Frank Carney's home, Head Street, Mary Street, Strand Street, Dame Street and Abbey Steet, the Inniskilling Fusilier tradition ran deep. From here many young men went to fight in that first year of World War 1.

Frank Carney was an unlikely candidate in that he was a small, slightly built young man who had been sickly all of his life. Nonetheless, on August 19^th 1914,  three days before the first shots were fired in France, Frank signed up to join his brother James and his fellow Enniskillen men in the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers.

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References:

¹Lar Joye, Director of the Military Collection at the National Museum of Ireland in A Sovereign People RTE Documentary December 1915

² James’ war record was provided by his father in an obituary printed in the Impartial Observer, on 27^th January 1916. His army number at this time was 6054, and we can tell from this number that he joined the Inniskillings in about August of 1898.

³ Frank Carney, Dáil Debate on the Army, Thursday, 25 October, 1924, Dáil Éireann Debate Volume 26, No.8

⁴ Frank's school was confirmed in an entry in the Fermanagh Herald on Saturday, February 27, 1932; Page: 5, on Frank’s re-election to the Dáil, which read: “Mr Frank Carney who has been re-elected on of the Fianna Fail members for Donegal, is a native of Enniskillen.  He was educated in St.Michael’s Intermediate School. He is a good speaker.” 

⁵ Public Records Office of Northern Ireland,  Introduction to the Cahir Healy Papers. Cahir Healy appears later in our story, at time when Frank Carney is a major player in Fermanagh Sinn Féin.

⁶ Bureau of Military History 1913-1921, Testimony of Francis O’Duffy, Captain ‘C’ Company Enniskillen Batallion, Irish Volunteers 1913 -1915. Francis O’Duffy became involved in Sinn Fein in Fermanagh and in 1919 he moved to Monaghan  as Chairman of the Monaghan Dail Court. He was interned in Ballykinlar Jail, where Frank Carney was also interned from January to December 1921.