to Leinster House, signed the oath of allegiance, and entered Parliament. The decision haunts his place in history. Taking his seat did not prevent more repressive legislation, and purists believed he had compromised his principles. Because it was only the opposition party, Fianna Fdil continued its Republican rhetoric and kept an uneasy peace with those suspicious of de Valerds motives. As the 1932 Free State general election approached, de Valera was an untested alternative to the anti-Republicanism of Cosgrave. The IRA actively supported Fianna FG1, and the party won enough seats to form a coalition government with Labour. For the next sixteen years, Fianna Fdil was in power either in coalition or on its own.
Fianna Fdil acted like a Republican government. IRA prisoners were quickly released, the IRA was deproscribed, legislation removing the oath of allegiance was introduced, and the governor general was replaced with a de Valera loyalist. Fianna Fdil also refused to pay land annuities to the British created by the Government of Ireland Act (1920) and the Treaty. The first strain in the Fianna Fdil-IRA relationship appeared as fascism swept across Europe and landed in Ireland as the Blueshirts, a right-wing group that clashed with the IRA. The Fianna Fáil government could not tolerate this; it seized propaganda material and arrested Blueshirts and IRA members. The Blueshirts were short lived; they were harassed by the IRA, arrested by the government, and abandoned by mainstream politicians.
The IRA, still a large organization with generations of experience with conspiracy behind it, presented a more difficult problem. De Valera used his power to wean support from the IRA. In 1933, the Fianna Fáil government established an army volunteer reserve; the goal was to attract potential IRA recruits to the forces of the state. In 1934, a military service pension was introduced for old IRA men. Caught up in the Depression, some anti-Treaty Republicans were faced with living in poverty, emigrating, or recognizing the government and taking a pension. The IRA saw the pensions as an attempt to “seduce Volunteers from their allegiancen and rejected them. Able-bodied IRA veterans who accepted pensions were viewed as sellouts, but disabled veterans were allowed to accept. Matt Brady qualified for and received a pension.
National politics were played out on the local level throughout the Free State. Sedn Mac Eoin retired as chief of staff of the Irish Free State Army and became a full-time politician. In June 1934, the Blueshirts came to North Longford and Mac Eoin, a United Ireland Party TD (which was reorganized from Cumann na nGaedheal and later referred to as Fine Gael, the party’s Irish name), supported them. Sein F. Lynch organized against the rally, asking people to stay away “from the Blueshirt parade" because they were there “to create trouble and disturb the peace.”
That same June, the IRA staged a rally in Longford “in support of a demand for the release of Republican prisoners and the abolition of the Public Safety Act,” which was enacted by Cosgrave’s government and then used by de Valera’s government against the Blueshirts and the IRA. Forming up on Battery Road, 300 members of the IRA and its youth group, Na Fianna Éireann, carried banners with slogans such as “Join the IRA" and “Smash Partition" and marched to the courthouse. Mick Ferguson, the Longford Battalion commanding officer, presided, and the crowd was addressed by leading IRA figures who had come down from Dublin. As he addressed the crowd, Michael Fitzpatrick commented on the upcoming local elections: “We of the Republican Army have no interest—no definite interest—in the Local Government elections.” As far as the IRA was concerned, when the local governments functioned, they supported the governments in Dublin and Belfast, which were “functioning in the interests of the British Government.” He also attacked Fianna Fáil:
A number of you may think that we don’t give Fianna Fáil a chance and that they are doing their best. But if they are doing their best we came here to tell you that their best is not enough. The attitude they are adopting is the same as that adopted by their predecessors. They have more republicans in prison than were in it at any time during Cosgrave’s term in office.
Three local Republicans who agreed with most, but not all, of the IRA’S message were probably in the crowd that day. Sein F. Lynch, his brotherin-law Tom Brady, and Matt Brady were Independent Republican candidates in the local government elections.
Irish politics were in a state of flux. Fianna Fáil began the 1930s as the leading Republican challenger, but its success was in part the result of the compromises it made. In order to present his message to the people, de Valera had launched the Irish Press in 1931. The daily paper was financed by subscription shares. Among those who purchased shares were Matt and May Brady. They probably supported Fianna Fáil in 1932. But by 1934, distrust of Fianna Fáil kept Matt out of that party, and Sinn FCin was not fielding candidates. Running as Independent Republicans gave Matt Brady, Seán F. Lynch, and Tom Brady the opportunity to express their Republican aspirations.
At this point, Matt and May Brady were the parents of two children—Mary, born in August 1929, and Rory, born October 2, 1932. Mary was referred to as May Og by the family, Og being the Irish word for young or “junior.” Rory’s full name was Peter Roger Casement Brady. He was named Peter after his grandfather and Roger Casement after the 1916 leader who was hanged in Pentonville Prison in London. Sir Roger was knighted for his work exposing the abuses of natives in the Belgian Congo and in the Putumayo area of South America. Born into an AngloIrish family, he arranged the arms shipment from Germany for the 1916 Irish rebels. He was arrested and tried in England, where his name was smeared with the selective and controversial release of alleged diaries indicating he was a homosexual. In naming their child after him, the Bradys indicated their allegiance to Republicanism. The child was called Rory, the Hiberno-English translation of Roger; in the Irish language, it is Ruairí.
The Bradys had moved from a two-room flat over a mechanic’s garage to Silchester, on Battery Road. The IRA march in June 1934 probably formed up in front of Silchester or marched by it. Silchester was actually two sets of two semi-detached two-story homes connected to the main road by a long-perhaps one hundred yards long-avenue. The grounds were spacious, with tall hedges and apple trees and plenty of room for Matt to plant a garden for vegetables, which supplemented the family’s income, making them relatively self-sufficient.
On June 16, 1934, Matt Brady’s “election address” was published in the Longford Leader; it was titled “To the Electors of Ballinalee County Electoral Area.” He pledged “to support the present Government as long as they endeavor to obtain the complete independence of our country" and to “do all that is in my power to foster the revival of our mother tongue, the Irish language, for it is my firm belief that we can never become truly Irish and free until our own tongue is a living language in our midst.” He saw no reason why Ireland could not become bilingual, as was the case in Belgium. He also pledged to “do my best in the interests of the ratepayers" while at the same time trying to maintain an efficient local administration. He had “plenty of time at my disposal to devote to this work, and my services will always be available.” He was interested in the welfare of the “bona fide labourer" and in the state of roads and passes in the area, which were “badly in need of repair.” Not mentioned was a practical benefit to the Brady family if Matt was elected. As secretary of the Board of Health, May Brady was an employee of the County Council. Although council seats were unpaid positions, Matt’s presence on the council would guarantee her a fair hearing if there were ever difficulties.
In the election, Fianna Fáil repeated its success of 1932 and won control of a majority of the County Councils. In Longford, Fianna Fáil won thirteen of twenty-six seats. The other thirteen seats were split between the United Ireland Party (ten seats), the Independent Republicans (two seats), and the Independent Labour Party (one seat). Because ballots call on voters to rank candidates, a complex series of counts is taken to determine the winners. In Drumlish, Sein F. Lynch topped the poll (received the most votes) and was elected on the first count. In Ballinalee, on the sixth and final count, Matt Brady was elected. When the council met for the first time after the election, a Fianna Fáiler was elected the chair and Sein F. Lynch was elected vice chair. More relevant to the Brady family, Sein F. Lynch was appointed to the Board of Health and became its chairman and as such nominally oversaw the work of May Brady. Together,
