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

Tension in the north - and in the Council Chamber

The newspapers throughout Ireland screamed the headlines, overwhelming success for nationalist parties! This was the dramatic outcome of the Local Elections in 1920 with Sinn Fein, Labour and other nationalists taking control of 172 of Ireland's 206 borough and urban district councils.

In the north of Ireland the reaction was far from elation, for the results sent disturbing quakes throughout the radical Unionist supporters. Lloyd George’s new Home Rule Bill, the Government of Ireland Act 1920, had introduced partition for the first time, proposing separate Northern and Southern parliaments. Edward Carson and his Unionists had strongly resisted both Home Rule, and partition. When this became inevitable, Unionists had insisted that the north should be made up of only those counties with a Unionist majority, which was, they argued, six counties rather than the whole nine counties of Ulster. Now in these local elections two of those proposed 'Six Counties', Fermanagh and Tyrone, proved to have, in fact, Nationalist majorities.

Worse still for Unionists, Derry had elected its first Catholic Mayor in three hundred years. All of this helped to create a Protestant backlash later in the year, when Unionists James Craig and Edward Carson marshalled their Ulster Volunteers and set them loose on the Catholic population.¹ 

North Ward Result
Fermanagh Herald 24 Jan 1920

The tension had not yet begun in early February when Frank Carney took his seat on the Enniskillen Urban District Council as one of two new Labour Councillors. Frank, his Labour colleague, Mr W. E. Campling, and an Independent Labour Councillor, Bernard Keenan, had helped make up a nationalist majority on the Council.²  

As soon as the outgoing Chairman, Nationalist Party member Joe Gillen, called the meeting to order, Frank Carney was the first to speak.³ Frank proposed that the outgoing Chairman should continue in office for the new session. He was quickly seconded by the other Labour Councillor, Mr Campling, in what everyone present must have known was an orchestrated manoeuvre.⁴ 

Fermanagh Herald 24 Jan 1920

There had obviously been a pre-election pact between the three nationalist parties, Sinn Féin, the Nationalist Party and Labour. Sinn Féin had agreed not to put up any candidates, so that the Nationalist Party could win the Catholic vote. In return,  Sinn Féin people stood equally unopposed as Labour candidates, to win the workers vote. The completion of the agreement was that the elected Labour Councillors would support Nationalist Joe Gillen as Chairman.

The amicable ballet that had opened this first Council meeting continued with the appointment of Councillors to the various committees. This time it was agreement between the nationalist group and the opposing Unionists. Each side put forward delegates for a committee, and all were approved unopposed. Frank Carney was appointed to the 8-man Public Health Committee. It all went fairly smoothly.

At the next meeting of the Council, the gloves were off. Frank Carney threw the first punch, arriving in the meeting with a radical proposition. A letter had come to Enniskillen from Monaghan County Council explaining that they had passed a resolution protesting against partition of any kind. Frank proposed that this anti-partition resolution should also be passed by this Council, the Enniskillen Urban District Council.⁵ 

Unionist James Cooper was quick  to object and he then to proposed an amendment which clearly illustrates the Unionist mindset of the time.⁶  The amendment stated,

“That we the Urban District Council of Enniskillen do hereby declare that we neither require nor wish for Home Rule of any description whatever. At the same time we rejoice to see that in the present Home Rule proposals before Parliament the loyal and peaceable County of Fermanagh has been grouped with the other loyal and peaceable counties which are henceforth to join the Parliament of Northern Ireland. The Co.  of Fermanagh is largely owned, occupied and populated by Unionists who pay two-thirds of all rates and taxes collected in the county and who would abhor to be grouped with the anti-British element of which the proposed Parliament of Southern Ireland will consist.”

Ulster Herald 6 Mar 1920

Several Councillors joined the discussion, but Frank Carney was getting heated, and he stated that he thought that his own resolution was inadequate,

“I am in agreement with Mr Cooper about the present Home Rule Bill, and I would not pick it off a Christmas tree! What we want is self-determination. The resolution does not go far enough!”

Now was the time for the Unionist Councillor, James Cooper, to make it public that he knew exactly who these ‘Labour’ Councillors were,

“When this board was being formed, two of the members said that they came to represent a particular section of the people, that their motto was Labour first, Labour second and nothing but Labour. They were to have no politics whatever, but Labour was to make a bridge between the Unionists and the Nationalists in the Council”

James Cooper went on to include a third man, the Independent Labour Councillor who we know was Bernard Keenan.⁷  Mr Cooper declared that these three 'neutral' people, the two Labour and the Independant Labour, were all now against the Unionists.

Although no-one in the room mentioned the words 'Sinn Féin', it was all out in the open now, and the Chairman, Mr Gillen, acknowledged this subtlety,

“The Independant Labour man and the two other Labour men know who their best friends are, and there is no use in anyone trying to camouflage them one way or another. You would have to rise very early in the morning to be able to do that.”

So at this early stage of their membership of the Urban District Council, Frank Carney, Mr Campling and Bernard Keenan were all revealed to be Sinn Féin men. Shortly after that meeting in early March the Council members would learn a great deal more about at least one of their new colleagues, when arrests were made in Enniskillen.

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References and Notes:

¹  “The Northern IRA and the Early Years of Partition 1920 -1921”, Robert Lynch, Irish Academic Press, 2006

²  Fermanagh Herald 1903-current, Feb 7^th 1920, page 3, Irish Newspaper Archives

³ Joe Gillen was a business man in Enniskillen owning a pub and a furniture store. He was a famous footballer in his youth, and his playing career was spent in goal for Enniskillen Celtic. He was club secretary of Fermanagh IFA in 1903, helping them to their best ever year in 1905. In 1906 he became chair of the Fermanagh and South Tyrone league until the first world war intervened. He died in 1939 at the age of 59, a wreath from the IFA on his coffin indicated the esteem they felt for Mr Gillen.

⁴ Walter Ernest Campling was born on 8 Dec 1882 in Fort Canning, Singapore, possibly the son of a soldier. There is a lovely little story about Walter as a child. Walter was chosen to act as Queen Victoria's Drummer Boy when she did her tour of Ireland in 1900. When she was leaving at Belfast she asked to see him and gave him a rose from her bouquet. He had saved this flower in the pages of the family bible but when it was opened after his death to show one of his sons, it disintegrated into dust. He became a drummer in the 4th Battallion of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers after joining on 18 Jan 1897. Walter was badly wounded in WW1. He had his kneecap shot off and multiple shrapnel wounds. Most of the shrapnel was removed but one piece was inoperable. He used to walk with a stick. He had achieved the rank of Quarter Master Sergeant in the Army. When he was medically discharged he joined the Tax Office where he worked as a clerk until he died on 10 October 1931.

⁵  Ulster Herald 1901-current, March 6 1920, page 6, Irish Newspaper Archives

⁶  James Cooper, Solicitor and company director. Born 26th February 1882. Educated at Portora Royal School and Wesley College, Dublin. Member of Enniskillen Urban District Council. Chairman of Fermanagh County Council from 1924 to 1928. Deputy Lieutenant for County Fermanagh. Custodian of the Enniskillen Savings Bank. An Ulster Unionist member of the British Parliament who sat for Fermanagh and Tyrone from the general election of 1921 until the general election of 1929 when he retired. He died 21st July 1949.

⁷ I believe that Bernard Keenan is the same ‘B. Keenan’ that Francis O’Duffy mentions in his statement to the Bureau of Military History. If so, he was, like Frank, and ex British soldier who was drill instructor in the Irish Volunteers in Enniskillen pre-1915. Bureau of Military History 1913-1921, WS Ref #: 654 , Witness: Francis O'Duffy, Captain IV, Enniskillen, 1913; Chairman Monaghan Dail Courts, 1919 - 1921

The Connection to the Bureau of Military History

Many of the details of the story of my grandfather contained in this blog come from the wonderful online Bureau of Military History Collection.  This BMH Collection is an invaluable source for all historians, and for me, it was a gold mine.

As I was researching my grandfather Frank Carney, I found one intriguing little fact that actually connects the Bureau of Military History itself to our story. There is a very good chance that the concept for this Collection was prompted by the sudden and early death of Frank Carney in October 1932.

The material in the Bureau of Military History was collected in the 1940s and 1950s when Irish Army personnel and civil servants went all over the country to interview veterans of the struggle for Irish Independence. They collected their personal accounts and these were recorded in sworn witness statements that were signed and notarised.

The idea to document the struggle for Irish Independence in this way came from a Colonel E. V. O’Carroll, of the Army G.H.Q Intelligence Staff in Dublin, in 1933. An attempt to create a history of these times had been made earlier, in the 1920s, when a section was set up within Irish Army Intelligence with the aim of collecting all documentation or written records. This didn't work out, as there were very few surviving documents. The activities of the IRA and the IRB were secret and very little was written down at all.  The idea was shelved.

It was raised again in 1933 and this time the Army Intelligence unit came up with a better plan to record the history of Irish independence. It was Colonel E. V. O’Carroll’s idea to gather personal narratives from survivors, ‘before the sources are dead & gone’.¹ Colonel O’Carroll's plan could very well have been prompted by his own personal experience, for he had lost a close personal friend just a few months before. It turns out that Colonel O'Carroll and Frank Carney were best friends at school, and E.V. O'Carroll would have known better than most how much of the secret history of Ireland had gone to the grave with death of his friend.

The connection between Colonel E.V. O'Carroll and my grandfather Frank Carney appears in a lovely little entry in the Derry Journal of November 4th 1940. It reveals the closeness of the relationship between Frank Carney and E.V. O’Carroll:

"Major-General E.V. O'Carroll, who resigned from G.H.Q. Staff, Dublin, was a school companion of the late Frank Carney, T.D. They were inseparable. Little did they think that in years to follow they would play such a prominent part in the fight for independence." ²

The two friends would also have been totally unaware that they would be so instrumental in beginning this wonderful historical record of their struggle. 

Thank you Major-General Eamon Vincent O'Carroll and all of those in Irish Army Intelligence who worked so hard to give us this superb history.³ You have given us a tremendous insight into those times, and you have breathed life into the personal history of my grandfather, the old school friend of Eamon Vincent O'Carroll. 

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References and Notes:

¹ “Bureau of Military History witness statements as sources for the Irish Revolution” by Eve Morrison, bureauofmilitaryhistory.ie

² Derry Journal, Nov 4 1940. Only one person could have written this small, but very personal, message about E.V. O’Carroll’s retirement in the Derry Journal, and that was my grandmother herself, Nora Carney, widow of Frank Carney. Only she would have had the knowledge of the two friends' childhood relationship.

³ Eamonn Vincent O'Carroll, the former Colonel, was not from Enniskillen, he was he was a Donegal man, from Meenahinsh, Killygordan.  It took a while to find him in the school records in Enniskillen, as Eamonn Vincent O'Carroll had changed his name at some stage! Edmund Vincent O'Carroll, had done well in St Michael's Intermediate school Enniskillen, finishing the same year as his good friend Frank Carney.

St Michael's Intermediate School
Fermanagh Herald 6 Sep 1913 p.5

O'Carroll was a member of the Irish Volunteers from 1918 in Monaghan. From then until the end of the War of Independence he served as a Company Commanding Officer and Battalion Adjutant for the Irish Volunteers and IRA. During that conflict he took part in raids for arms, raids on trains, an attack on British forces at Stranooden, County Monaghan, attacks on Unionist/Loyalist/Protestant targets in reprisal for the burning of Rosslea, County Fermanagh by Unionist/Loyalist/Protestant forces (1921) and an attack on Carrickmacross RIC Barracks. During the Truce period O'Carroll served in IRA training camps and became Divisional Adjutant. 

He joined the National Army at its formation in February 1922 and served throughout the subsequent Civil War. Eamon O'Carroll continued to serve with the Defence Forces until his retirement on 18 October 1940 while serving at the rank of Major General in the role of Quartermaster General. Eamon O'Carroll passed away on January 7th 1941.

From Army Records - Ireland, Military Service Pension Index, 1916 - 1923

Meeting the Mystery Man

Frank Carney was in London in January 1920 on a mission. His aim was to meet a gunrunner, a man who would supply Frank with the arms that he so desperately needed for his IRA units in Fermanagh. Frank was meeting the gunrunner in an extraordinary venue, in a setting where Commandant Frank Carney of the IRA would be badly out of place. On the other hand, the sophisticated gunrunner was comfortable here, for these were the circles in which he moved.

The building where the meeting was to take place was very near to the Houses of Parliament, in an elegant part of London. Frank was accompanied by Robert Brennan, the friend that he had met by chance the previous day. Robert Brennan was in the inner circle of both Sinn Féin and the Irish Republican Brotherhood, and so obviously Frank believed that it was safe to entrust Brennan with the name of his contact.¹ 

John Smith Chartres

Robert Brennan recognised the name, John Smith Chartres. He had met John Chartres several times some years before, in the offices of Arthur Griffith in Dublin. So in order to point Chartres out, Brennan had offered to accompany his young friend to the meeting.

On entering the building, they found themselves in  a ‘very select and conservative club' filled with Members of Parliament from the nearby Government Buildings. Their contact, John Smith Chartres, sat comfortably amongst them, looking very much the part:

“Sporting a monocle on a black ribbon, and blessed with the enunciation of the English upper middle class, this middle-aged, lame gentleman was in appearance initially above suspicion.” ²  

John Chartres escorted them into a lounge area and offered them coffee. They sat in the leather chairs of this upper class English domain while John Chartres, ‘quietly amused’, pointed out several important members of the Conservative Party.

The Conservatives were at that time in power with the Liberals in Lloyd George’s  coalition government, so it is quite likely that some of those in that room were actually Government Ministers. John Chartres was familar with them all, for he was at that time a higher civil servant, a Principal Officer in the Secretariat of the Department of Labour.

At one point, Frank Carney remarked,

"A bomb dropped in this place would dispose of a goodly number of enemies."

The monocled Englishman was quick to reply,

"Make sure and give me warning. I spend quite a lot of my time here."

All of this jolly banter took place after they had carried out the business of the day. John Chartres had earlier taken them into a small cloakroom, and here he had opened a bag. In it was what Robert Brennan describes as, “a very serviceable looking machine gun”. Frank took one glance at it and said,

“That’ll do.”

Frank was reluctant to part with the precious machine gun, and he wanted to take it with him, but Chartres objected,

“They might take it off you. You were merely to vet it. They’re to go by the ordinary channels.”

You can be sure that Frank Carney went carefully through these ‘ordinary channels’ before he lost sight of this precious machine gun.

This fascinating little story is important for us in that it confirms that Frank Carney was definitely very close to Michael Collins, and that he was fully trusted by him. John Smith Chartres was Collins’ protegee, his spy in the heart of the British Civil Service, and his contact for co-ordinating gun supplies to Ireland. From the time that Michael Collins began to use Chartres as a spy in early 1918, Chartres' connection to Ireland was kept secret and Collins was his only contact. It had to have been Michael Collins in person who had sent Commandant Frank Carney to that bizarre meeting in London.

Michael Collins continued to keep John Smith Chartres very close to his chest until October 1921, when he launched him on to a very public stage as a Secretary to the Irish Delegation in the Treaty negotiations. No-one knew who this strange, monocled Englishman was, or why, indeed, he could be trusted in such critical negotiations. Nonetheless, Michael Collins insisted that John Smith Chartres should be at his side.³ 

As the history books were written about Michael Collins and the Treaty, little emerged about John Chartres and his activities as a spy. This mystery man who features in our Frank Carney story, John Smith Chartres, continues to be known to this day as, 'The Mystery Man of the Treaty".

At the Treaty Negotiations in 1921 Front [L-R] 

Arthur Griffith, Éamonn Duggan, Michael Collins, Robert Barton

Back [L-R]

Robert Erskine Childers, George Gavan Duffy, John Smith Chartres

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References and Notes:

¹ This story is from Robert Brennan’s book "Allegiance"  which is reprinted in the Bureau of Military History, WS Ref #: 125 , Witness: Robert Brennan, Publicity Department, Dáil Éireann, 1921

²  In "Chartres, John Smith" by Pauric J. Dempsey and Richard Hawkins, in the Treaty Records of the National Archives

³ John Smith Chartres was born in 1862 in Seacome, Cheshire, England, the son of a doctor, a staff surgeon in the British army. His mother and father were both from Ireland and John spent some of his early childhood here while his father was based in the Curragh and Dundalk.  He lived mostly in England and was educated there, though he also came to Dublin to attend the Kings Inn. Chartres was a barrister, but he did not practice. He worked at the The Times newspaper's intelligence department, doing research, indexing and reference, for ten years from 1904 to 1914.

When the war broke out there was a shortage of supplies of bullets and weapons. The Ministry of Munitions was set up in June 1915, and Chartres was appointed to its intelligence and record branch, eventually becoming a section Director. After the war, he joined the Ministry of Labour as a Principal Officer in the Secretariat.

Chartres came to Ireland when he was in the Munitions Department in 1917. He had become deeply affected by the 1916 rising and apparently in 1917 he went to Arthur Griffith and offered his help. He wrote articles for Griffith's Newspaper Nationality under the pseudonym ‘HI’ (haud immemor, ‘let them not be forgotten’). At some stage during 1918, Chartres was introduced to Michael Collins. From 1918 until mid-1921, Chartres was working for Michael Collins as a spy and gunrunner.

In mid 1920 Chartres arranged a transfer to Ireland, to work in the Irish branch of the Ministry of Labour where he was a Section Chief. However, in the following year he came under suspicion, and he retired from the British Civil Service. He was sent to Berlin by the Provisional Government in June 1921 as an envoy, but shortly after this he was recalled to take up his position as Secretary to the Treaty Delegation.

There was great consternation in Ireland about this appointment at the time as Chartres was English, had been working in 'intelligence' related roles for the British Government, and was now to be at the crucial negotiating table on the Irish side. Equally, Chartres' role was supposed to be that of a Constitutional Law expert, but everyone knew that he had no experience in Constitutional Law at all.

However, Michael Collins insisted that Chartres was to be a Secretary, and there were very good reasons why Collins would want him there. Firstly, Collins could trust him. He had worked with him for years in top secret situations. Chartres was totally reliable.

Secondly, Chartres brought with him an in-depth knowledge of the British Civil Service mindset but more importantly, he had personal intelligence on two of the key British delegates. Both David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill had been Ministers in the Ministry of Munitions when John Smith Chartres had been a Section Director there. He may or may not have interacted with them personally, but every high Civil Servant has to have thorough knowledge of his Minister in order to work effectively with them. Chartres brought this personal knowledge of Churchill and Lloyd George to the table.

John Smith Chartris died on 14th May 1927 at his home in Liseaux, Dartry Road, Rathgar, Dublin.

See "Chartres, John Smith" by Pauric J. Dempsey and Richard Hawkins, in the Treaty Records of the National Archives, and also "John Chartres, The Mystery Man of the Treaty", by Brian P. Murphy, Irish Academic Press, 1995.

In the London Music Hall

“I was walking in Tottenham Court Road one day when I ran into Frank Carney, who was over on a mission for the I.R.A.”

So writes Robert Brennan in his book "Allegiance". He then goes on to give us two precious stories about my grandfather, Frank Carney. The first is an anecdote about their evening out together in January 1920 following that casual meeting in Tottenham Court Road. The second is an account of the following day, when Robert Brennan accompanied Frank Carney on his top secret mission in London.¹

Robert Brennan 1916

The storyteller, 39 year old Robert Brennan, was a Wexford man who had been Sinn Féin’s National Director of Elections in 1918.²  Now Director of Publicity for the Provisional Government,  he had set up a daily propaganda paper, the ‘Irish Bulletin’ in November 1919. The Bulletin had a been very effective, much to the displeasure of the British and they were very anxious to shut it down. Robert Brennan had been sent over to London by Arthur Griffith in January 1920, to find an alternative method of publishing the Irish Bulletin, should the British prove successful.³

It was at this time that Brennan met Frank Carney on the Tottenham Court Road and he recognised Frank immediately. The two men shared that common bond, for Robert Brennan was high up in the Irish Republican Brotherhood. He had been sworn in by Sean T. O’Kelly in about 1908, and he was a long-time Head Centre for Wexford.¹ Brennan would certainly have met Frank Carney at monthly Brotherhood Centre meetings in Dublin.⁴

In his account of that day in 1920, Brennan gives us a brief description:

“Frank was a small, slight man from Fermanagh who had been in the British Army. He had been gassed in France and had been invalided home. On his recovery he had joined the Volunteers, subsequently becoming Brigade Officer Commanding of County Fermanagh.”⁵ 

Having met, the two friends then agreed to go out to a music hall that evening to see George Robey, a famous comedian of the day. They did not take their seats for the early part of the show but ‘adjourned to the bar’. Eventually, Brennan heard a lot of applause and he assumed that Robey must have arrived on stage. Brennan went to take his seat, but he was alone, for apparently Frank Carney was still ‘adjourning’ in the bar!

Brennan then saw a sketch on the stage which provoked him into action:

"It was not Robey but a sketch in which two men in British uniforms were reminiscing about the war. A caricature of an American swaggered on to the stage, spitting right and left. One of the British soldiers said:

"You know where that fellow comes from?"

"No, where?" said the other.

"It's a place called America.... It was discovered by Christopher Columbus."

"Why?"

This provoked loud laughter. The American said:

"Did I hear youse guys discussin' the war? You know, we won that war for you."

One of the British soldiers said to the other:

"This fellow must be very hard of hearing!"

"How come?" asked the American.

"Well that war was  going on for two years before you heard of it!"

This was too much for Robert Brennan, who believed that the British would have lost the war, but for the Americans.  He stood up and said so in a voice loud enough to get the attention of the entire music hall! Some of the audience laughed, thinking this was part of the show. When they realised that it was not, they turned on Brennen shouting;
"Shut Up!" "Sit Down!" "Throw him out" .

It was at this point that Frank came to take his seat beside him.  Frank asked what was going on. Brennan replied:

“I'm objecting to this show, because …”

Brennan got no further, for Frank jumped in and yelled loudly:

"All right, I'm objecting to it too, who's going to throw us out?"

Ushers promptly arrived, dragged them out and dumped them unceremoniously in the street. The two Irishmen went from there to a local pub. Robert Brennan finishes the story:

"After some time, Frank said,

"What was all that about?"
"They were sneering about the Americans' claim that they won the war, and I protested."
Frank laid down his glass and looked at me in astonishment.
"Do you mean to say that that's what we were thrown out for?"
"Sure," I said.
"Well, by God," he said, "you are a mug."
"And what about yourself!"
"Never mind about me. I did not know what it was all about. I've a good mind to go back and apologise to these people for interrupting their innocent pleasures."
"They would only throw you out again."
"I suppose so," Frank said sadly, "people are very unreasonable."

It is nice to see that my grandfather had such good manners, even when under the influence!

We leave the story there with the two friends drinking in that London pub. The following day they were up early, for there was more serious work to be done.

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References and Notes:

¹ Robert Brennan’s book ‘Allegiance’ is reprinted in the Bureau of Military History, WS Ref #: 125 , Witness: Robert Brennan, Publicity Department, Dail Eireann, 1921

² Robert Brennan (1881 – 1964) fought in 1916 in Wexford Town, he surrendered  and was sentenced to death. His sentence was commuted and he was sent to Dartmoor prison in England where he became a close friend of Éamon De Valera . He was released in the General Amnesty of June 1917. In 1926 he was asked by De Valera to manage the establishment of the Irish Press and he went on to be General Manager from 1931 to 1934. He was then sent to America by the Taoiseach, Éamon de Valera, as Secretary of the Free State's Irish Legation in Washington.  In August 1938 he was promoted to Minister Plenipotentiary, Ambassador, to the United States, a post he held until 1947.

³  The move to England was never needed, as the British never did manage to shut down the Irish Bulletin completely. Five issues of the Bulletin were issued each week from 1919 until the Truce in July 1921. The Irish Bulletin was circulated largely outside Ireland, bringing news of the War of Independence to overseas readers. The British were so threatened by this that Dublin Castle organised the circulation of counterfeit issues of the Bulletin for about a month following a raid on Bulletin offices in March 1921, at which all the plant was captured. The attempt to deceive public opinion failed completely and was abandoned. See "Dáil Éireann Department of Publicity: History and Progress", Royal Irish Academy, Documents on Irish Foreign Policy No. 102 NAI DE 4/4/2

⁴  The Brotherhood was organised in ‘Circles’ to guarantee secrecy. Each man was in a cell or ‘circle’ where he knew the man above, to each side and below him. He did not know any others. This ensured that if the man was captured, he had information about very few people. The Leader of each area in Ireland was the centre of that area's circle and was known as the ‘Centre’ or ‘Head Centre’. Centres met regularly in Dublin with the General Secretary, who until mid-1919 was Michael Collins. See ‘Michael Collins and the Brotherhood’, Vincent MacDowell, 1997, Ashfield Press.

⁵  Frank was not, in fact, in France at all. This was a commonly held belief at the time. See The Carney Brothers in World War 1

Commandant Frank Carney

It is difficult to know when exactly Frank Carney became totally committed to achieving an independent Ireland. It may always have been there, a cultural need acquired from his parents in that small Enniskillen home.  Alternatively, the notion that Ireland could and should be free may have come later, after he had joined the small group of Irish Volunteers in Enniskillen in December 1915.

What is certain is that in 1918 Frank Carney was devoting everything he had, his knowledge, his skills and his energy, to the cause of Irish freedom. By the end of that year he had built the Irish Volunteers in Fermanagh into a fighting force, with eight fully staffed companies, each well organised and tightly drilled.  At 22 years-old, Frank was now Commandant Frank Carney, Officer Commanding for the whole of County Fermanagh, and one of Michael Collins' trusted IRB leaders.

Frank left us very little of his own story, there was no diary and only a few pieces of writing. In one of these precious snippets he let us know when it was that he joined the Irish Volunteers. He wrote this in a letter to the Derry Journal in 1927, at a much later stage in his life when he was standing for election in Dáil Eireann for the first time. 

Frank was responding to a damaging attack in a letter published in the same newspaper in the previous week. The writer was saying that Frank's published profile was all lies:

“Mr Carney did not join the IRA in 1916. He was then in the British Army, and did he not remain in it till 1919?” ¹ 

His rejoinder appeared in the very next issue of the Derry Journal:

“Not only was I connected with the Volunteers in 1916, but I was actually a volunteer in December 1915 as my service in the British Army terminated earlier that month. In Easter Week, 1916, I was one of those Volunteers who were to march to Galway to receive the arms from Roger Casement, my commanding officer at that time being Professor Frank O’Duffy, now Secretary to the Minister of Education” (Frank Carney)² 

The commanding officer at the time, Francis O’Duffy, had re-organised a small company of Irish Volunteers in Enniskillen during 1915, and it is this that Frank had joined when he left the British Army. However, by the end of 1916 the Enniskillen Volunteer company was dwindling away, and its commander Frances O'Duffy had found his focus changing:

“When Sinn Féin began to spread as a movement, I devoted most of my time to its organisation, as it was evident that the most urgent need at that time in Fermanagh was sound national propaganda.”
(Frances O’Duffy) ³ 

It was much the same story throughout the whole of Northern Ireland during the war years, when there were few Irish Volunteer groups, very little leadership and next to no activity. The few companies that existed were commandeered to help the growing Sinn Féin political movement.⁴ 

In early 1918, with the World War still raging, it was Britain's Lloyd George who breathed new life into the Irish Volunteers. At the beginning of the year he began to talk about bringing in conscription for Ireland and he brought forward a bill that was ratified in April 1918. The reaction was immediate, with protests against conscription throughout Ireland. Irish families had suffered greatly in what was now called 'Britain's War', and men were now prepared to fight against it. There was a surge in membership in the Irish Volunteers everywhere.

In Fermanagh at this time, Frank Carney came into his own. As new recruits came into the Volunteers, Frank trained them into soldiers and built them into fighting units, a role that he had perfected in the Inniskillings:

“It was about this time also that the late Frank Carney, T.D., became connected with the Movement, firstly in the capacity as a Drill Instructor. Mr. Carney soon had the Companies throughout the county under proper discipline and doing rifle and open formation drill.” 
(James J. Smyth, Captain IRA) ⁵ 

Frank was demonstrating the soldiering skills and capabilities that were exactly what the Leadership of the Irish Volunteers was looking for in 1918, so it is not really surprising that he came to the attention of one Michael Collins. 

Michael Collins

Michael Collins was Director of Organisation of the Irish Volunteers from mid-1917, theoretically under the leadership of Chief of Staff, Richard Mulcahy.  However, from his appointment Michael Collins took control of the Volunteers, he set about re-organising and re-structuring them with the aim of turning the disparate groups of fighters into a National Army:

"He insisted on weapons and tactical training, the procurement of weapons and proper administration. He compiled lists of officers and equipment from the affiliation forms he insisted upon being returned to him and slowly and methodically drew up a detailed picture of what was available". 
(Commandant Peter Young, Military Archives, 1998)⁶

Despite having many roles in that year, Collins insisted on working hands-on with each of his commanders:

"His contacts with the local commanders were not peripheral. He knew them personally, from his work after 1916 and especially through the IRB"

(Commandant Peter Young, Military Archives, 1998)⁶

The IRB, the Irish Republican Brotherhood, was a secret, oath-bound organisation that had played a key part in recent Irish History. The leaders of the 1916 Rising were IRB members, and the Rising itself was organised under the auspices of the Head Centre of the Irish Republican Brotherhood.

In late 1917, Michael Collins was General Secretary of the Brotherhood. In this role, Collins organised the IRB conventions in Dublin where all country Centre Heads of the IRB came together, and through this he could build a personal relationship with each one in turn:

"As Sectetary of the IRB, Michael Collins organised both conventions and all country members of the Brotherhood were requested to meet him before attending the conventions."  (Vincent MacDowell 1997)⁷

Harry Boland & Michael Collins -
both IRB Leaders

It was almost certainly through these IRB channels that Collins learnt of the prowess of the young Frank Carney. Michael Collins was actively looking for soldiers who had the passion, skills and ability to take a group of men and to build them into a regular army battalion and Frank Carney fitted that profile precisely. It was even better if his Volunteer Commanders were sworn members of his secret Irish Republican Brotherhood.

Again, we don't know exactly when Frank Carney was asked to join the IRB - one didn't apply, the only way in was by invitation. However, we do know that he was a 'prominent member of the IRB' 4  and that Michael Collins appointed him Commandant of the Irish Volunteers for County Fermanagh in late 1918:

“Mr. Nulty, who is attached to the Department of Posts and Telegraphs, Dublin, left Enniskillen at the end of 1918 and was succeeded by the late Comdt. Frank Carney, T.D. Mr. Carney was Officer in Charge of the whole area.” (James J Smyth, Captain IRA)⁵

Frank Carney was at this point directly responsible to Michael Collins as his superior officer both in the Irish Volunteers, and in the Irish Republican Brotherhood.

We learn later that Michael Collins put a great deal of trust in Commandant Frank Carney, for there remains a record of one, quite amazing, incident that occurred in January 1920.

______________________________

References:

¹ Derry Journal, Friday June 3rd 1927, Page 7

² Derry Journal, Monday June 6th 1927, Page 7

³ Frances O’Duffy Captain 'C' Company, Enniskillen Battalion, Irish Volunteers, 1913, Chairman Monaghan Dail Court, 1919-1920. Bureau of Military History, WS Ref #: 665

⁴ Robert Lynch, The Northern IRA and the Early Years of Partition 1920 -1921, Irish Academic Press, 2006

⁵ James J Smyth, Captain IRA, Leitrim, 1921, Bureau of Military History, WS Ref #: 559

⁶ Peter Young, "Michael Collins a Military Leader",  in Michael Collins and the Making of the Irish State, Mercier Press, 1998. Commandant Peter Young (1950 - 1999) was Officer in Charge of the Military Archives.

⁷ Vincent MacDowell, Michael Collins and the Brotherhood, Ashfield Press, 1997

Winning His War Pension

1916 was a bad year for the Carney family. The year had begun with the tragic news that James had been killed in Gallipoli. Frank Carney had been hospitalised in the previous December, and had been invalided out of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. He had excelled in the British Army and the feeling of rejection must have weighed heavily. Another major problem was that the Carney family had now lost two incomes, for both boys had been having their money sent home.

One way that Frank could help alleviate the family's financial burden was for him to try to obtain a pension from the British Army, and he applied for this in early 1916.  He had been in the army for a very short time, for just over one year, so the chances of success were not high. Sure enough, there was a very quick rejection note sent back from the British Army in April.

Patrick Crumley M.P.

Frank's father was now in his 60s, and there was no income coming into the house, so Frank persevered. There was at the time a War Pensions Committee set up in each county to help folk appeal pensions and entitlements decisions from the army. This body had been set up by the British Government, and the Fermanagh War Pensions Committee had all the elite of the County on its board. However, the appeal to the War Pensions Committee must also have failed, for Frank Carney went on to take his case even higher.

For the next step, Frank won the support of  a very eminent gentleman, Mr Patrick Crumley, who was MP for South Fermanagh at that time.

‘Honest Pat’ Crumley was a Catholic who was heavily involved in local politics, being on both the Enniskillen Board of Guardians and the Urban District Council. He was a much respected gentleman and in 1915 he became the first Catholic for three centuries to be appointed the Deputy Lieutenant of County Fermanagh.¹ 

Pat Crumley became an MP in 1912 and on the 20^th December 1916, 'Honest Pat' took to the floor of the House of Commons in London to raise the plight of Frank Carney and his family. This from Hansard: 

Mr. CRUMLEY

asked the Financial Secretary to the War Office if he will say why No. 1122, Sergeant F. Carney, 5th and 4th Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, has been refused a pension or allowance on being discharged from the Army as no longer physically fit; is he aware that ex-Sergeant Carney is the son of a fisherman aged over sixty years who finds it impossible to support an invalid son who is unable to work, and that his only brother, No. 7830, Sergeant J. Carney, Royal Inniskillings, who contributed to the support of the home, was killed in Gallipoli, having served through the African campaign and been dangerously wounded in France when he won the Russian Cross of St. George; and will he, in the circumstances, have ex-Sergeant F. Carney's application reconsidered and a pension granted to him if possible? ² 

The question was asked of the Financial Secretary to the War Office who was Henry Forster, later to become Lord Forster, Governor General of Australia. Mr Forster gave a very logical response to Mr Crumley’s question:

Mr. FORSTER

This man's disability, bronchitis, had existed for several years before he joined the Army, and was not aggravated by his military service (which was all at home). He is therefore not eligible for a pension. I am inquiring about the other son.

In what looks very much like a pre-planned pincer movement, a Liberal MP for South Edinburgh, James Myles Hogge, then joined the discussion:

Mr. HOGGE
Was the man accepted as medically fit?
Mr. FORSTER
Presumably.
Mr. HOGGE
If he was accepted as medically fit, why did the War Office refuse a pension?
Mr. FORSTER
No one knows better than my Hon. Friend the rules under which we have to administer pensions at present.

The efforts of Frank Carney and Mr Pat Crumley eventually paid off, for Frank was granted a one-off gratuity of £48 in May of 1917. This was a large amount of money in those days, equating to roughly one year's salary for a Sergeant in the British infantry, and it was almost certainly delivered in gradual payments.

Frank Carney's Army Record

Another result of this campaign was that Frank became committed to helping other survivors and relatives obtain their entitlements from the British Army. In April 1918 he took his first public steps into political life when he was elected to the Fermanagh War Pensions Committee:

Fermanagh Herald, Friday, April 19, 1918

In later years, Frank was actively engaged in fighting against the British Army, they were his enemy. However, it seems that Frank retained a positive regard for those that he had served with and for his time in the British army.  In November 1916, six months after the Easter Rising, Frank applied for his army medal. This was the silver medal that he was entitled to for simply being in the Army during the war.

From Frank Carney's Army Record

During the Irish War of Independence and the beginning of the new Free State, the feeling towards those Irish people, both living and dead, who had become soldiers in the British Army changed dramatically. For many years there was great animosity to ex-British Soldiers, and only in the last few years here in Ireland have we openly laid wreaths on the graves of those who died in the First World War. Frank Carney, a staunch republican, was not one of those who condemned soldiers who had fought and died, and it is an indication of the true bravery of this man that he was not afraid to say it.

In a lovely little piece in the Irish Times at the time of Frank’s death, the writer of an ‘Irishman’s Diary’, who knew Frank Carney very well, says:

“Mr Carney was an ex-Serviceman having served in the Inniskilling Fusiliers during the War, and he never failed to champion the cause of the ex-soldiers at times when their champions were few.” ³ 

The same writer adds a little fact that he says he feels should be made public:

“When he joined the IRA, before the Truce, Mr Carney wrote to the British Pensions Department announcing his intention to fight against the British Forces and refusing to accept the pension any longer. The British authorities, however, ignored Mr Carney’s representations and his pension warrants piled up for several years.”

If this is true, then it is highly likely that Frank returned the hard-won pension very soon after it was awarded in May 1917. That precious stipend was probably a great help to his poor mother, Eliza Carney, and yet it is very likely that she saw precious little of the pension bonanza! 

_________________________________

References:

¹ 'Honest Pat' - Patrick Crumley DL, MP, Malachy McRoe, Clogher Record, Vol. 20, No. 3 (2011), pp. 541-550, Published by: Clogher Historical Society

² Hansard NAVAL AND MILITARY PENSIONS AND GRANTS. HC Deb 20 December 1916 vol 88 cc1446-50

³ The Irish Times, Thursday, October 20, 1932, page 4

Episode 1 - Worthy of Honour
Episode 2 - Born to be a Soldier
Episode 3 - The Carney Brothers in World War I