of the family, infant Sein, assembled on the battlefield. The village and battlefield were decorated with side-by-side French and Irish tricolors. A collection of relics from the battle was on display in the village courthouse. It was an all-day event; the committee and bands traveled throughout North Longford, laying wreaths, reciting a decade of the rosary in Irish, and playing the national anthem and similar tunes at numerous sites marking Republican events from 1798 through the 1920s. When it arrived in Ballinamuck, the commemoration committee made its way to the platform and watched as speakers and marchers, including a procession of the IRA dressed as 1798 pikemen, arrived. Finally, Reveille was sounded and Matt Brady hoisted the Irish tricolor from half to full mast.
On the platform was a who’s who of past and present Longford Republicans. Matt Brady, Sein F. Lynch, Hubert Wilson, and Tom Brady, who had all rejected the Treaty, were joined by Seán Mac Eoin, a Fine Gael TD, and James Victory and Erskine Childers, Fianna Fáil TDs. Political differences aside, they all recognized and appreciated the significance of 1798. Each wanted a united Ireland; they differed in how they believed it was best to bring this about. Matt Brady began the formal commemoration with a quotation from John Kells Ingram’s famous poem, “The Memory of the Dead:
All, all are gone, but still lives on
—the fame of those who died,
And true men, like you men,
—remember them with pride.
The husband of a Cumann na mBan veteran and career woman, he welcomed the “exceedingly great number of ’true men’ and women, ’like you men’ and women here to-day.” He noted that “since the Norman Invasion the chequered history of our country consists of a series of attempts on the part of its people to regain their independence. These attempts were made, both with the sword and the pen, in nearly every generation.” For Brady, the struggle against England and the United Kingdom was continuous and consistent over time. These same motives and actions were present in 1938 Ireland: “We have all seen them in our own day, and they will continue till the end is achieved. The soil of our country has been wet with the blood of martyrs in this cause, its sod is dotted over with their graves.” A previous struggle was being commemorated; it was not to be forgotten, it was to be emulated:
It is to celebrate such an attempt that we are here now. So long as we continue to do so all will be well, but woe betide the day when we begin to forget, the day when we cease to remember the dead who died for Ireland.
With this he concluded his remarks and introduced the other speakers, including Seán Mac Eoin and, at age 82, James O’Neill, the grandnephew of Brian O’Neill, the survivor of the Battle of Ballinamuck. The proceedings concluded with bands playing the French and Irish national anthems; the crowd sang the Irish anthem.
The nonpartisan nature of the commemoration was an aberration. In spite of his successes, de Valera had not ended partition. Irish Republicanism was a mass movement in the years 1918–1922. Splits, defections, the pension issue, arrests, and time had reduced it to a small, isolated, clandestine group-its condition before 1916. Nevertheless, the IRA was preparing for war. During the Anglo-Irish War, the First DLil had passed a resolution such that a provisional government could be formed if repressive conditions significantly reduced its number and threatened its operation. After the Treaty, the Second Ddil TDs, with the support of the IRA, formed an emergency government. In their view, this was the de jure government of the Republic, led by an Executive Council. Over the years, the Executive Council met as a shadow government of the Republic. By 1938, a hard core of absolutist Republicans were on an Executive Council that included Count Plunkett; Mary MacSwiney, whose brother died on hunger strike in 1920; and Tom Maguire, whose brother was executed by the Free State. The IRA leadership asked the council to transfer its executive power to the IRA. They agreed, and in purist Republican terms, the IRA’S Army Council became the de jure government of the Republic. This was, and is, important; it gave the IRA the legal and moral authority to wage war in the name of the Republic. In making the transfer, the surviving Second Dáil deputies empowered men much like themselves, purists left over from the 1910s and 1920s who refused to accept the Free State and Northern Ireland. The IRA chief of staff was Sedn Russell; he had been IRA director of munitions in 1921. Also on the Army Council was George Plunkett, one of the Count’s remaining sons, and Larry Grogan, who had been imprisoned in Mountjoy in 1922 when the Free State began executing prisoners. In January 1939, the IRA demanded that the British withdraw from Ireland and asked for a response. When none was forthcoming, explosions rocked London, Manchester, and Birmingham. After nearly twenty years, the IRA was back at war.
The Dublin government quickly introduced repressive legislation, including a Treason Bill and the Offenses Against the State Act. The prescribed penalty for treason was death; the Offenses Against the State Act allowed the reintroduction of military tribunals and internment without trial. Opponents of the legislation mobilized, but with Fianna Fdil firmly in the majority, repressive legislation was destined to be enacted. At a meeting of the Longford County Council, Matt Brady proposed a resolution protesting the legislation “on the grounds that there is not occasion for it.” As far as he was concerned, it was peaceful in Longford and “anything that happened has happened at the Border or in England, and thank God we have young men sufficiently alive to the national inspirations that it is into the enemy camp they are carrying the work and are hitting at the hub of the Empire, which is the proper place to hit, and the best of luck to them.” He was supported by members of Fine Gael, who tended to oppose anything put forward by Fianna Fdil. The council passed the resolution, which was forwarded to the TDs of the area, including Sedn Mac Eoin. In the Dáil debates on the Offenses Against the State Act, Mac Eoin said it was “astonishing" that Fianna Fáil was criminalizing activities that its ministers had once pursued. Fianna FGl’s position was that they had a “duty to protect the State and its people" and the new Constitution negated any “moral justification" of the IRA. Irish Free State jails began to fill with suspected and active IRA members.
In August 1939, disaster struck in Coventry, England. Five people were killed and sixty were wounded when a bomb exploded in a crowded street. The action was contrary to IRA policy, but that did not help the victims or concern the police. Five Irish people living in Coventry were arrested, including Peter Barnes, who was originally from County Offaly, and James McCormick, who was from Mullingar in County Westmeath. Barnes was in the IRA and McCormick was present when the bomb was made, but neither was directly responsible for the premature detonation. Each pleaded innocent, was found guilty, and was sentenced to death. In spite of widespread appeals for clemency, they were hanged in a Birmingham jail on February 7, 1940.
That morning, as his 11-year-old daughter Mary and his 8-year-old son Rory were getting ready to leave for school, Matt Brady pulled out his pocket watch. When the watch hit nine o’clock, he turned to them and said, “Kneel down and say your prayers. Two Irishmen now lie into quicklime graves in Birmingham.” It was Ash Wednesday, making it that much easier for Rory to remember the event. Ireland went into mourning for Barnes and McCormick. In Longford, both cinemas closed the night of the hanging and the next day all shops drew their blinds. The courthouse flag was flown at half mast. The next Saturday there was a large protest meeting at the Longford Courthouse, where Republicans Hubert Wilson and Sein F. Lynch spoke. At the next County Council meeting, Matt Brady proposed a resolution “of protest against the English executions and sympathy with the relatives of the executed men.” After passing the resolution, the council adjourned for half an hour out of respect. McCormick had been from Mullingar, and Brady was a member of the Mullingar Mental Hospital Committee. At their next meeting he aired his feelings on the executions. In seconding a vote of sympathy, he stated that the men were “murdered.” As reported in the Westmeath Independent, he said that Barnes and McCormick would
go down in history as martyrs like Kevin Barry and Pidraig Pearse. They had gone now to their reward as he was sure they were in heaven. They had stood out for the complete freedom of their country. They were not Communists or Socialists or anything of that kind as some people would put them down to be.
