Tom Barry (51 page)

Tom visited his family in Liverpool before the war. His mother died on 5 March 1940; his father died on 28 July 1943; his sister Eileen ‘who kept her illness to herself' died in September 1943. His sister Marjorie had already died. His sister Kitty (Kit) had malaria, and sister Gert was not well, nor was his brother John. Correspondence between Tom and his sister Gert shows that the family did not want to trouble Tom and Leslie in case entering Britain during these war years, would, as was likely, create problems for them. Gert wrote that ‘I will be glad when this year is over – it's been wicked'. Only thirty-six, she died a month later, on 27 December. 1943. Though he wished he could be with them at this sad period of so many deaths within a short space of time, his precarious position dictated that he postpone any visit. When conditions had stabilised, shortly after the war, he went to see the remaining members of the family.
[19]

From 1932 to 1937 Leslie was occupied with the establishment of the Cork branch of the Women's Industrial Development Association. Since she had joined the Red Cross and her election to the central council she had been intensely active and had earned a medal to add to her 1916–1922 medal. In 1945 after the war she was involved in the development of a peacetime programme. Accompanied by Maureen O'Sullivan she travelled all over Ireland setting up branches in towns and villages. As the Red Cross was founded at the start of the war, people associated it with war, ‘so we decided to initiate ideas which we felt were necessary and hoped in time they would prove their worth and perhaps be taken over by the government'. ‘We initiated the Blood Transfusion Service and the anti-Tuberculosis Scheme. In Cork we took a very big step in having every school child tested for Tuberculosis in its preliminary stages.' Leslie initiated a project of Water Safety and Life-saving and worked tirelessly for the society. New ideas were discussed between Tom and herself: he would give his opinion on views she wished to put to a meeting, perhaps even offer an alternative.

In 1949, 250 refugees came to Cork ‘from war-torn countries including Poland, Czechoslovakia and Finland. They were accommodated in Rockgrove Camp site near Little Island'. Leslie organised a rotary staff with women to work on morning, afternoon and evening shifts; this continued over a two-year period, until their passage from Cobh to America was arranged. Throughout the following decades Leslie was deeply involved in the care of the aged and deprived in the community. She became the first woman to obtain the position as chairman of the Irish Red Cross.

Accompanied by Mollie Murphy, general secretary Irish Red Cross, she represented Ireland at international conferences in Toronto, Oslo, Monaco, New Delhi, Geneva, Vienna, The Hague, Athens, Istanbul, Czechoslovakia. She was a government nominee on the national health council. Much of the work was voluntary. Her concern for citizens led her to aid in the establishment of the Voluntary Health Insurance. Her idea was taken up by T. F. O'Higgins, who worked enthusiastically with her and others on this worthwhile project.

From every country she wrote to Tom. While in Vienna at a conference she told him of the gist of the conference, then added a personal note:

Darling ... I think so much of you, my love, I love only you ...

All all my love, your own, Lottie.
[20]
[pet name]

Being extremely capable and a wonderful organiser, her talents were in demand in many spheres. In many countries she represented Ireland in the food and health field, and was chairman of the Erinville Maternity Hospital, Cork. For her organisational ability and for her dedicated contribution to society and to the Red Cross, De Valera presented her with an honorary degree from University College, Cork, in 1966. In the early 1970s she helped with the northern refugees who came to Cork.
[21]

Tom, as general superintendent and later as dredging superintendent manager with the Cork Harbour commissioners, was involved in a large project. The harbour had to be dredged so that the channel could be opened up to larger ships, and the site around Tivoli had to be reclaimed.

‘There was another side to Barry; as well as being a soldier he had shrewd business acumen and contributed in no small way to the development of the port of Cork. He could be stern when the occasion called for it. He had the military background, which meant discipline, and he was always very fair. His concern was for people, seeing that they were happy in their jobs and had obtained such items as protective clothing for the workers. His relationship with the men, the union and the management was always just and fair. And when he was off duty he could sit down and have a drink with you and tell a yarn or a story as good as any man,' Mick McCarthy recalled.
[22]

Now that the war had ended, Tom and Leslie decided to spend some days with relatives in Liverpool. They had a wonderful relaxed visit and were able to calmly go over events of the past number of years. It also gave Tom an opportunity to talk with family members, from whom he had been separated for so long. His parents had accepted Tom's decision to do what he did, and ‘they were in their own way, proud of his achievements.'
[23]
‘In certain ways we were closer than many families who were together always.'
[24]

In 1946 a vacancy occurred in Cork borough constituency. On the insistence of some colleagues Barry agreed to stand as
an independent candidate. Initially he was reluctant, but then he relented. The following is a summary of his election manifesto:

Rights of Citizens: The individual politician is ‘free to support or oppose any measure on its merits and consequences'.

Political: He was very strong on partition and wanted ‘the restoration of the lost counties' neglected by successive governments.

Economics: Among other challenges, legislation was required, he maintained, for ‘the abolition of ground rent scandal' being given to ‘foreigners'.

Social Justice: Distribution of wealth; he set out a long document on how this should be done.

He crossed swords with Seán McEntee mainly over the Partition issue and with Michael O'Riordan over social issues.
[25]
Derogatory remarks made by other candidates on the controversy with Frank Aiken and also his definite stance within the IRA were unhelpful to his candidature. He did very little campaigning for this by-election. Accept the outcome – was his motto! The election was held on 15 June with the following results:

McGrath, Patrick (Fianna Fáil) 14,230

O'Driscoll, Michael (Fine Gael) 9,707

O'Riordan, Michael (Socialist) 3,184

Barry, Tom (Independent) 2,574

The figures were those on the first preference, and after redistribution of surplus votes and the elimination of Mr O'Riordan and Mr Barry (both forfeited their deposits) Mr McGrath with strong Fianna Fáil backing was declared elected by a majority of 4,667 over Mr O'Driscoll.'
[26]

Friends say Tom was a little disappointed but not badly hurt by the results. They felt that as a politician he would have been too outspoken, too individualistic to make a success of the job. He ‘brushed it all aside very quickly', never became a member of a political party, as party politics didn't find favour with him; he always praised a member of a party who took a stand on any issue of principle. In later years he confessed his delight that he had remained ‘outside politics' because people and issues were, he felt, manoeuvred to suit individuals.
[27]

Often ‘the bitterness and hates' of the Civil War ‘were kept up between political parties, and when issues of social progress and economic progress' were being discussed ‘politicians approached each problem from the point of view of whether the man proposing was anti-Treaty or pro-Treaty,' he said. This was a stance, he disliked.
[28]
‘I'm not built for a public life', he told history students, ‘I might make a good minister, but I'd make a very bad TD. I was in jail six times altogether.'
[29]

A circular distributed by the department of local government in 1945 directed that the ‘undesirable' practice of local authority officers ‘making representations through public representatives concerning remuneration and duties' should be discontinued, as it ‘may render the officer liable to disciplinary action.' In bold capitals in the margin of the typewritten document Tom wrote:
‘WHAT ARE REPS FOR!'
[30]

Notes

In July 1948 when the Bureau of Military History was structured, its director, M. McDumphy asked Barry for any material ‘within the terms of reference'. Later he acknowledged Barry's offer of ‘documents' on loan ‘not included' in his book, and his willingness to co-operate with the bureau.
[1]
However, Barry soon changed his view of the bureau because of the scope and method and instructions of acquiring data. Concerning the secrecy of holding ‘under seal for whatever period' material given to the bureau, Barry, in a letter to the director, noted, that if statements could remain unopened until after the ‘death of an individual' and ‘would not be made amenable for libel or false assertions, calculated to injure other parties', then this would be a most harmful ‘procedure'.
[2]
He wrote:

The IRA like every other organisation had malicious members or men who developed a mental kink about other men and matters which had no foundation in fact. Past histories have been confused by the unearthing of such documents and I submit that the Bureau of Military History should have as its paramount duty the destruction of all records not authenticated or confirmed by immediate investigation. Nobody should have the right to submit any matter under seal for future examination. There should be an immediate investigation of every important statement made and the subject matter should only be filed after such an examination.

As an example Barry pointed out how he had dealt in his book with ‘two reverses suffered by the West Cork IRA' under Charlie Hurley's leadership:

You will admit that were I an enemy or even a lukewarm friend of Charlie's, I could have written quite differently and conveyed the opinion that Charlie was either inefficient or negligent on those occasions. I could have done this either by innuendo or omission and it would be very difficult to pin me down to having made a false statement about one of the greatest Irish soldiers of our time. Therefore, I contend that the collectors and recorders of the bureau will influence the history of our period far more than the actual historians who will write it.
[3]

Barry wanted the director to understand that his letter was ‘not written in a carping spirit but only with a view to helping in the work of compiling an accurate and complete history.' He suggested that ‘senior officers of divisions and brigades could best help by reading over and commenting on any important statement made by other officers.'
[4]

It became well known that the ‘compilers of this history' posed leading questions often to help backup certain stories. Genuine IRA men who had given time, effort and often their health and ‘had been cold, wet, miserable and hungry' on occasions were maligned by a jealous neighbour who sometimes took credit for events in which he was a non participant'.

Barry expressed his ‘great disappointment at the removal of Major Florrie O'Donoghue from the panel of recording officers', because ‘O'Donoghue's knowledge of the south's contribution to the War of Independence is unrivalled', he wrote to the bureau director. ‘All of us down here felt that he had the all important knowledge of the characters and records' that other bureau officers lacked. Moreover, ‘he had the merit of being neutral in our Civil War.'
[5]
Tom ‘appealed' to Dr T. O'Higgins, minister of defence ‘to reconsider the decision not to continue Major F. O'Donoghue's services': while he accepted ‘unreservedly' the minister's decision, as he had ‘a post to return to', and ‘regular army' officers were available to undertake this work. ‘O'Donoghue knows nothing of my approach to you,' he wrote. ‘I am only taking this action because of O'Donoghue's exceptional qualifications … I will go so far as to state that no one in the south of Ireland has his knowledge of the pre-Truce period.'
[6]
The decision was not reversed and the bureau accumulated their information as planned.

In 1969 as Tom finished a lecture to history students in University College, Galway, he told them he had
one thing
to say regarding the officers' accumulation of history for the Bureau of Military History:

You are historians, so it is important that you are aware of the facts. These officers went into districts, they met men singularly and everything a man told them they had to write it down in longhand. They couldn't ask a very simple question. [He banged the rostrum and repeated his remark] They had to write everything down! Years later as some of them told me after they retired from the army, they knew in many cases the man wasn't there at all!' [He emphasised wasn't there at all! Again he banged the rostrum.] They got the most extraordinary statements from fellows – and all these statements were put away. And fifty years afterwards they were to be handed over to a bunch of professional historians and so write a history from all that mix-um-gatherum. Well, if that is history!

No other man could see what he wrote. I could be here in one company and could say John Browne ran away and he stole the firearms. It had to be taken down unquestionably … and nobody was entitled to see what was to be hidden away for all those years. Those of you who know history or who know something about history would be able to walk into a barracks and believe that!

All, what these people collected should be taken out of their offices or whatever department it is in; there should be a match put to the whole lot of them, because if not, those who write these things will be able to justify what has been said so often lately – that the number of men who said they were in the GPO in 1916 Rising, wouldn't fit into Croke Park.

The problem I have with these officers is that their instructions were to write down everything. This will be written and it will be what will be called ‘the history of Ireland'. I'm very cynical always about this history … What I am saying to you as historians, that these stories that were collected are not history. [He emphasised this, and banged the rostrum again.] However, the material that was collected for the military pensions had to be verified. Most of those who verified them were honest. I got many [pension applications] for verification and if a man did not take part in an action, I could not, and would not, allow him to get a pension. [There was force, almost anger in his voice as he delivered this impromptu piece, prior to a questioning session, which ensued.]
[7]

Both in University College, Cork and in Maynooth College shortly after this occasion he repeated with similar force, this ‘distortion of history' and wanted history students to be vigilant and only to use these sources with an open mind in their compilation of history. ‘Fire would almost light in his eyes when he'd talk about this, because he knew there were those who told whoppers!'
[8]

In 1974, after the publication of the Deasy book when Barry dealt with material that was at variance with written sources, he wrote of meeting with Lieut Col Halpin, recording officer for the bureau who told him of his obligation ‘to record every single word from anyone … who claimed service with the I.R.A. It did not matter whether the deponent was obviously, mentally disturbed, intoxicated or a phoney, his statement had to be recorded.' Lack of policing the material, plus lack of redress ‘by a maligned person' annoyed him.

‘My interest now is how much of Deasy's or Fr Chisholm's alleged history came from this source, which must have included some very tall tales …

‘God help Irish history!' was his cryptic remark. ‘I would ask that a bonfire should be made of the lot in the Garden of Remembrance.' Here was ‘the Barry fire' to which historian Pádraig Ó Maidín alluded.
[9]
(As there are missing pages in Barry's letters to the director of the Bureau of Military History it is unknown what they contained, but judging by the existing parts, it must have been forceful.)

In the Mansion House, Dublin in 1948, Tom addressed a large audience for the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the 1798 Rising. He concentrated on the Wexford Rising. His portrayal of John Kelly, the boy from Killan was ‘electrifying'. Barry ‘captured the audience. He had charisma and the ability of being a descriptive speaker', Criostóir de Baróid recalled. ‘You could listen to him forever!' The audience ‘rewarded him with an emotional standing ovation.'
[10]

In early 1949, Barry, with members of the West Cork Brigade memorial committee, undertook a project to erect a suitable monument ‘to the memory of the Volunteers of the West Cork Brigade, Irish Republican Army, who died for Ireland from 1916 onwards.' Barry arranged with Seamus Murphy, sculptor, to carve on granite ‘a suitable facing'. Money collected from veterans and from friends of the brigade in America took some years of dedication and organisation. On 8 August 1953, President Seán T. O'Kelly performed the official unveiling on the outskirts of Bandon.
[11]

That evening Tom, trim, fit and full of energy sat with Tom Kelleher, Nudge Callanan, Mick McCarthy and other comrades ‘over a pint' in the Kilmichael Bar, Bandon. The discussion centred around the Crossbarry ambush. ‘Kelleher turned to Nudge Callanan. “Only for that drop of whiskey you gave me that day after the ambush, I don't think I'd survive. 'Twas the saving of me!”

‘Barry turned around and banged his fist on the table. “Jasus! Didn't I tell you 'twas only to be used for medicinal purposes!” Thirty-two years had gone by and Barry was annoyed that his command wasn't carried to the letter!'
[12]

Invitations to speak at commemoration ceremonies were extended to Barry – at unveilings such as the memorial to the memory of Willie McCarthy, Tralee, ‘an ecclesiastical student' arrested while delivering dispatches, ‘taken to RIC Barracks and later that night two Black and Tans took him to the Green … and murdered him.' There were places where they only wanted his presence. ‘We will guarantee that we will not ask him to open his lips, come stand on the platform and unveil the monument'.
[13]
In Thurles IRA veterans who had organised a benevolent fund for a man who had not been well since internment in Wormwood Scrubs in 1920, wanted Tom Barry to come to their Easter Week commemoration. ‘We are anxious to avoid a political speaker and while Barry may have taken sides, he is still regarded as an outstanding man here, and more or less aloof from politics'.
[14]

Having contributed articles to
An Cosantóir
,
Rebel Cork's Fighting Story
and the
Irish Press
in the 1930s and early 1940s, Barry decided to write a book. Since 1937 he had written extended accounts of the major ambushes of Kilmichael and Crossbarry; now he would write on other ambushes and events of the Third West Cork Brigade in the War of Independence. Ted O'Sullivan, TD, believed ‘it was a great idea to write up the history of the war, while there are so many alive to give first hand information.' O'Sullivan felt sure that brigade committees could ‘verify detailed lists of all activities'.
[15]

In questionnaires for his comrades, he allowed spaces for their responses, and went to tremendous trouble to check facts. Key people such as Jack Young and Florrie O'Donoghue collected statements from brigade members. Jack Young organised statements from authoritative sources, including his brother Ned and Paddy O'Brien (both Kilmichael ambush participants) and Liam Deasy. Barry acquired two large 1947 Browne and Nolan diaries, and wrote in alternative pages – using one side, and allowing the opposite for corrections and alterations.
[16]

Tom presented Leslie, who had learned to type, with a typewriter one evening as she had agreed to type the book. ‘He was extremely particular,' she said. ‘At first I might change a word which I would think would be more suitable; he'd recognise it and insist that I type the whole page again. And if I made a mistake I'd have to type the page again; it just had to be correct. He wrote it, and it had to appear exactly as he wrote it. But that was the kind of person Tom was – extremely thorough.'
[17]

Having worked on the manuscript throughout 1947, he had it ready for publication by March 1948. William Sweetnam, editor of the
Irish Press
contacted Tom and suggested that the paper would serialise the work. Initially Tom was reluctant to allow it be published in this manner, but decided that if there were any errors or dissenting voices the material could be corrected prior to book publication.]
[18]

‘Truth to tell, the financial aspect of it is not to me the greatest', he told his friend, Connie Neenan, in June 1948. ‘I wrote it primarily because of my pride in the men of my race and because I hope when I am dead that it will be the medium of some stabs at those British whom an Irishman should not forgive – even when he is in the grave.'
[19]
Con responded, ‘It is obvious that you are not interested in the financial angle of things but rather in the historic and national values. There is little financial compensation in writing – at least from the author's viewpoint.'
[20]

Barry had already selected the title
Guerilla Days in Ireland
for the book. The
Irish Press
wrote an introduction on 1 May 1948 of ‘the saga' of ‘the West Cork Brigade Flying Column, the most aggressive striking force of the whole Republican army, written by the man who led it' in ‘Ireland's fight for freedom'. The first instalment began in the
Irish Press
on 10 May, and the series ended on 3 July 1948.

Before this, correspondence flowed between Barry and the editor of the
Irish Press
regarding the alteration or omission of certain material. He acknowledged ‘the right of the
Irish Press
to decide what should be omitted to avoid liability, for libel actions the words it considers likely to give offence to living people … I will in a further letter make some suggestions on this, which will meet the views of the
Irish Press
.' He noted that the least he could expect was a statement accompanying each instalment that alterations had been made by agreement with the author.
[21]
Furthermore, he wanted it clarified that it was a book that was being serialised and not a series of articles, and that the
Irish Press
had obtained ‘first serial rights of a book'.
[22]
After the first two instalments, Tom had problems and wrote to the editor, William Sweetnam, who responded: ‘I accept, of course, your point that we should acknowledge that we have made deletions and propose to do so in all instalments which are not printed in full … You will understand that an extract from a book in a daily paper can appear in a very different light to the publication of the same passage in the book itself.
[23]