each could second the other and force the discussion of issues. Their importance was enhanced because no party had an overall majority. A high point of their collaboration was in 1937, when Lynch was an unsuccessful candidate for Leinster House and Matt Brady was his election agent. They publicly supported the IRA and the oppressed.
The Depression was especially hard on tenants, whose rents were fixed but whose incomes were declining. At the Sanderson Estate, near Edgeworthstown, Gerald More O’Ferrall was unable to collect from tenants, who demanded a 50 percent reduction in their rents. When he threatened eviction, he received threats. When he initiated eviction proceedings, the Edgeworthstown Town Tenants’ Association turned to the IRA. At a public meeting, IRA representatives, in the tradition of the Land League and the Fenians, pledged “the support of the I.R.A. to the tenants in their fight against landlordism.” One speaker bluntly stated that “if the forces of the state are called in to protect the bailiffs, then force must be met by force.” Opposition to landlords, bailiffs, and sheriffs has a lengthy and violent history in Longford. In the 1830s, tenants who supported landlords were killed, as was a bailiff. In the 1930s, landlords who insisted on their rents were courting trouble. The IRA waited through the Christmas season, then set out in February 1935 to humiliate O’Ferrall by dousing him with tar. It ended in tragedy. Dressed as police officers, IRA men barged into his house. In the scuffle that followed, Gerald More O’Ferrall was beaten and his son, Richard, was shot in the back. He lingered for eleven days and then died.
The attack was denounced all over Ireland, especially by the Catholic clergy. The Dublin County Council passed a resolution condemning the “foul murder of the late Mr. More O’Ferrall in his house,” called on the “Government to make every effort to bring the perpetrators of this foul crime to justice,” and asked that other councils endorse the resolution. At the next meeting of the Longford County Council, Mr. Dunne of the United Ireland Party brought up the resolution. Matt Brady immediately protested with, “I would like to propose that we go on with the next business as that resolution is political. If it was a poor man’s son there would be very little about it.”
Dunne replied, “No matter about that, I have a resolution to propose. It is that we condemn the shooting of any man whether he is rich or poor. There ought to be a way out of these things without going to the extreme of murder. It is a terrible thing that a man can be murdered in his own house.”
Brady persisted, “I protest against that resolution.”
The chairman, Mr. Belton of Fianna Fáil, stated, “Resolutions will not do any good anyway.”
Dunne argued that “if we are not in agreement with [the shooting] we should condemn it. I don’t know why Mr. Brady objects to it.”
Brady held his ground: “The resolution of Dublin County Council is political.” Eventually the chair ruled “the whole thing out as it has been turned into politics.” Dunne walked out of the meeting.
Police in Longford and Leitrim arrested seven people, four of whom were charged with the More O’Ferrall murder. But there was more trouble in Longford when three families were evicted from the Sanderson Estate. At a public protest, a crowd of about 200 was monitored by “a large force of Gardai [Irish police] and detectives.” The first speaker, a Fianna Fáil member of the County Council, was applauded for proposing a “resolution to stand by the men in jail who [are] fighting our fight for us.” He was followed by Sein F. Lynch, who stated that “the place for any public man is where the people are in trouble.” He encouraged the people to stand by their tenants’ association. Matt Brady followed Lynch, and his comments offer insight into his attitude on the shooting and his general approach to politics. He began by commenting on himself; he had not been on a public platform since the general election in 1918. He was there as a “representative of the people" of the area (Edgeworthstown was in the Ballinalee electoral area) and was not a “speech-maker.” But he would “always stand behind the underdog.” He encouraged the tenants to stick together and he seconded the proposition that the assembled crowd stand by the arrested men. He also voiced his concern that the accused would not get a fair trial: “It is a terrible thing that resolutions are being passed describing it as wilful murder. It is for a judge and jury to decide that; and how can a jury come to a fair decision when all this sort of thing is going on.” Matt Brady believed that the IRA had not set out to kill Richard More O’Ferrall. In their actions on behalf of the working poor of the area, an accidental tragedy had resulted. He supported the IRKS action on behalf of the underdog.
The four men accused of the murder recognized the court in Dublin and fought the charges. The result was a hung jury. In a retrial, they were found not guilty on the direction of the judge and set free. Officially, the case was never solved. It was a victory for the IRA, and the accused were welcomed at several public meetings. They were sent off from Dublin by the cream of the IRA, including Moss Twomey, the chief of staff. At Edgeworthstown, they were met by the Tenants Association and the local IRA. Irish flags (tricolors) were flying, as was a banner inscribed with “Welcome I.R.A. Prisoners.” Several of them addressed the crowd, as did Moss Twomey and Matt Brady. This meeting concluded with the singing of the Irish national anthem, and the ex-prisoners moved on to Longford town, where Matt Brady presided over another welcoming reception.
Fianna Fáil and the IRA both wanted a 32-county Republic. Those in Fianna FBil thought they could bring it about through constitutional means. Those in the IRA appreciated constitutional changes consistent with a Republic, but they also wanted direct action to end partition and reunite the country. The More O’Ferrall shooting was one of a number of incidents in which the IRA flouted the authority of the Free State. No government can long tolerate a paramilitary army undermining its authority. On June 18, 1936, Fianna Fáil proscribed the IRA once again. The annual Republican parade to Wolfe Tone’s grave at Bodenstown, scheduled for the next day, was banned. A thousand troops and 500 police officers kept Republicans out of the cemetery. In its lengthy history, dating from the 1790s, the military wing of Irish Republicanism had been legal for only four years. Proscribing the IRA and banning Republican activities made life difficult for the Republican Movement, but it was the usual situation for a group of people who had a history of adapting to such conditions.
In Longford, Matt Brady took on Fianna Fáil. At a County Council meeting he proposed a resolution protesting the use of solitary confinement and the denial of political status in Irish prisons, demanding the immediate release of all political prisoners, and protesting the ban on Bodenstown. He was seconded by Sein F. Lynch. The chairman, who was from Fianna FG1, ruled the motion out of order because he had not been notified in advance. He also noted that the year before, he had ruled another motion out of order on the grounds that it was political, as was this motion. Brady replied that it was not “political" but “national.” There were heated exchanges and he attacked Fianna Fáil and de Valera: “The Government should be ashamed of themselves, and particularly the President.” A Fianna FPil councilor defended de Valera, “as our leader, Mr. de Valera[,] says, we want to live in peace and harmony with our neighbour, England, too.” Brady responded with, “Oh, I see. Do you stand for coercion, Mr. Walsh?”
Opposition or not, Éamon de Valera continued on his quest to minimize the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty. He directed the development of a new Constitution that was ratified by the Free State electorate in 1937. Article 2 stated that “the national territory consists of the whole island of Ireland, its islands and the territorial seas,” and Article 3 claimed for the Dublin Parliament the right to exercise jurisdiction over the entire island, “pending the reintegration of the national territory.” In 1938, as Taoiseach under the Constitution, he engineered the British return of control of Irish ports that had not been released with the 1921 Treaty. This helped Ireland stay neutral in World War 11, perhaps his greatest achievement.
In the summer of 1938, Matt Brady experienced what was probably his finest moment as a public person. On September 8, Longford celebrated the 140th anniversary of the Battle of Ballinamuck. Matt Brady chaired the commemoration committee. On a sun-filled day, thousands
