The Limerick Line, Rochestown & Griffith's Last Days

Welcome to the History of Ireland After the Free State took control of Dublin They very quickly set their eyes on Cork Known as the Rebel County for a reason But before the Free State could move on Cork They had to work their way across a short-lived defensive line From Limerick City to Waterford

As we discussed, when Liam Lynch realised That the Forecourts in Dublin were being taken over by the Free State He retreated with his anti-IRA forces back down the country He ordered the IRA to head to Limerick To reinforce the anti-treaty garrison there His plan was to create a defensive line across the south of the country His thinking was that if his forces could hold that line It could make life difficult for the Free State He destabilised a whole new country As the years went on, this became known as the Monster Republic But it should be said that this was never really a term used at the time

The Free State were also moving quickly And 400 Free State troops snuck into Limerick late one night Led by a Michael Brennan and a Doneca O’Hanigan These 400 weren’t quite a match for the anti-IRA 700 stationed in the city But rather than attack, Lynch tried to broker a peace deal with the two leaders On July 7th, Lynch, Brennan and O’Hanigan Signed an agreement saying that they would meet Lynch hoped that he could either turn them to his cause Or at least have them sit out any fighting But in the end, he wasn’t able to convince the two men And on July 11th, once pro-treaty reinforcements arrived Brennan announced that the agreement was cancelled

The Free State started by attacking the IRA garrison In what was now the Limerick court office This is another example where Lynch kind of lost any advantage he might have had by stalling Fascinating to look at how reluctant he was to fight at this point in the conflict Over the next week, Limerick city was overcome with firefights Similar to the Battle of Dublin, this was dangerous city fighting With both sides attacking, retreating and trying to take control of strategic streets and buildings The Free State actually really weren’t getting anywhere until about the 19th of July When more reinforcements arrived Again, the benefit of having artillery meant they could simply bombard any defensive position the IRA had

And so on the 21st of July, the IRA were forced to flee the city With one man describing how We were in a tight situation and in the end, we had no chance against them Retreat became inevitable And when it came, it resembled a stampede We fell back through a dare, finally ending up in Budavant We felt hopelessly disillusioned and disheartened The whole flaming struggle seemed to be leading nowhere

With the fall of Limerick, Lynch’s dream of a Limerick-Waterford defensive line died He wrote to Ernie O’Malley saying The agreement reached at Limerick was broken by the enemy I believe we will eventually have to destroy all our posts Have to operate as of old, in flying columns This didn’t occur straight away though And initially there was still an attempt to fight a more conventional battle Along a battleground that ran through the countryside in and around the Cork border The town of Kilmalloch became the next flashpoint And both sides were quote Maintaining a string of outposts at crossroads and on hilltops With a no-man’s land varying in width between 100 yards and a mile

But several things started going against the IRA at this point First of all, this conventional style of fighting Well, it played perfectly into the well-equipped hands of the Irish Free State It became increasingly obvious As Lynch’s quote I just mentioned points out That guerrilla tactics were going to be the only real way forward However, there was an issue with this as well One of the things that had made the original flying columns so effective against the British Was the support of locals in a given area Food, shelter and moral support had all been supplied by civilians Who were sick of the British But remember, the majority of the public were pro-treaty And they provided very, very little support to the IRA This was compounded by the fact that the Free State Backed by government money Was happy to pay any of the locals for food and supplies

The IRA were also still not a particularly cohesive army They retained their grassroots autonomy Which meant each unit kind of acted in its own interest When there was talk of the Free State attacking Tralee from the sea Well, the Kerry unit peeled away from Kilmalloch to defend their home county The Cork Brigade did the same thing Though this was a little bit more planned As it was becoming increasingly clear that holding Cork City Might be a smarter move than trying to fight this traditional style battle So in the end, on August 5th, Kilmalloch was abandoned by the IRA And the Free State simply walked into it Over the next few days, they pushed on Taking control of other villages and towns in the area Including Adair, Rathkeel and Newcastle West

Cork then became the bastion for the anti-treaty IRA They commandeered workshops to build armoured cars, bombs and mines They took over the Cork Examiner And they occupied the port of Cork Taking about £2,000 a day from this Funds they desperately needed if they were going to keep up the war effort They also began fortifying the area, in any way possible Throughout July, they destroyed bridges and blocked shipping canals with two barges The occupation dragged the city to a standstill And the public, well, generally they weren’t too pleased Admittedly, they were at least now being paid for their services Thanks to the money taken from the ports But it wasn’t enough to garner widespread support And in fact, there were even plans to develop strikes to protest the IRA occupation

Before any strikes could occur though, the Free State Army attacked As we know, they’d been slowly pushing in overland from Limerick and through Kilmalloch The plan was then to compound this advance by pincering the IRA with an attack from the sea So, at midnight of Tuesday the 8th of August Three days after taking Kilmalloch, 450 Free State Army landed at Cork’s lower harbour Weirdly, they managed to slip right by the IRA sentries Who believed their boats to be mail boats returning for repairs

But, once the IRA realised what was happening, they were quick to respond They scuttled one of the barges to block the river Though the second one was towed away by the Free State before it too could be used as a defensive line The IRA then began blocking bridges around the harbour And basically doing anything they could to hamper the progress of the Free State Meanwhile, the Free State secured a landing zone for their artillery, vehicles and more troops Tuesday was spent sniping back and forth as the two sides assembled The IRA was joined by those retreating from Kilmalloch While the Free State continued chipping its men into Cork City and the surrounding towns

All of this set the scene for a dramatic conflict on Wednesday the 9th In and around the Rochestown area Historians estimate there were 300 Free State troops and 200 IRA that day All ready to tear into the other side To this day, if you’re in the area, you can see the field boundaries used by the IRA As well as a gate in Rochestown, still known as Battlefield Gate Which has clear marks where it was pierced by bullets

Historians Joanna Brook and Damien Shields tell an amazing story about one soldier hit in the battle His name was Flood, a Free State soldier And he had been instructed to advance across a field to outflank the IRA But the IRA were waiting for Flood and his comrades As he came on their position, they let off a burst of machine gun fire And Flood was gunned down Suddenly, one of the IRA broke cover and charged across to young Flood His name was Frank O’Donoghue And he had fought with Flood in the War of Independence He grabbed the hand of his old friend and said an act of contrition in his ear It was one thing to shoot a friend down But you couldn’t let him go to heaven without his last rites As Brook and Shield put it, this moment epitomises the bitter ironies of the Civil War That have made it such a difficult episode in Ireland’s recent history I have to say, I agree wholeheartedly with them

The fighting carried on into Thursday At which point the IRA, again outgunned, were forced to fall back through the city They torched any and all military supply dumps And soon smoke billowed throughout Cork But all in all, the city did get off fairly lightly Especially when you consider the damage done to the forecourts And the hotels taken by the IRA in Dublin The IRA fled and most men, including Liam Lynch, avoided capture As the Atlas of the Irish Revolution describes it The conventional phase of the Civil War was over Replaced by a guerrilla war that would last considerably longer

Now, before I leave you, I want to change tack ever so slightly And speak to another event that occurred the week of the Battle of Cork Two days after Cork City was taken by the Free State The pro-treaty side should have been celebrating Dublin was under control, Cork was taken And the Limerick-Waterford line dreamed up by Lynch had never really materialised But something happened that would shock the Free State to its core

While battle raged in Cork, Arthur Griffith went into hospital with tonsillitis Unfortunately, from there his health drastically deteriorated And on Saturday the 12th of August Arthur Griffith suffered a cerebral haemorrhage and died, aged just 51 This was huge news And the man was mourned all over the world

In Australia, people wrote The friends of Ireland in Australia will place a wreath on his grave No matter what their politics may be His good faith has been as conspicuous as his courage South African leader General Smut wrote That Griffith was quite the strongest man of the Sinn Féin party While an Irish-American judge in New York declared him One of the greatest men of his generation The father of Sinn Féin and a scholar I believe the work in Ireland will go on His work and life will be an inspiration I know he felt that the Free State was only a step towards ultimate freedom In Dublin, huge crowds gathered to pay their respects to the man While even King George sent expressions of regret

Lord Birkenhead, who had sat across the negotiation table from Griffith during the treaty debates Wrote that Griffith perished of fear, exhaustion and overwork And it’s agreed that this was pretty much the case The last year of Griffith’s life had been an incredibly tough one And he was actually determined to get out of politics He wanted to spend more time with his wife Molly and his two children Anyone who listened to my interview with Professor Colm Kenny One of Griffith’s biographers may remember how he summed up Griffith’s last days With the story of him sitting in his office, weeping A man who had grown up in the shadow of the Parnell split Griffith had always been determined to create a unified Irish movement And maybe because of this, the Civil War had such an effect on the man It’s said to have truly crushed him

In April 1922, Griffith had written a note to his wife It suggested that maybe he knew he was in ill health Or was worried what might happen if the Civil War got out of hand It said the following In case of anything happen to me, all that I possess to go to my wife Let a sum of £50, however, be provided for my sister I hope she will be looked after Let the people stand firm for the free state It is their national need and economic salvation I just think that note is amazing And shows his priorities First to his wife, then to his wider family And then to the free state

And so with that, the founding member of Sinn Féin And one of the key figures responsible for Ireland’s independence was dead Sadly and shockingly Another key figure would follow soon after And bonus content on our Patreon page Simply follow the Patreon link in the show notes Or visit our website, thehistoryofireland.com You can also get in touch through the website Or on Facebook and Twitter It’s always great hearing from you guys And if I’ve made a mistake, please do let me know The History of Ireland was written and produced by me, Kevin Dolan With music by Liam Doyle And additional help from assistant producer Aoife Murphy The History of Ireland Since January, MyFutureFund has been helping you invest in your future While you’ve been paying in, your employer has paid in With the state topping it all up It’s already growing, with over €400m saved by 800,000 participants in just six months Continue protecting your future, it’s already looking brighter Learn more at myfuturefund.ie