this time, May Caffrey was an 18-year-old living in County Donegal. She was the daughter of John Caffrey, a municipal inspector for Belfast Corporation, and Jeanne Ducommun. Caffrey met Ducommun in London, where he was attending classes while she was working as a governess. He was an Irish Catholic interested in learning French. She was a Swiss Calvinist who was fluent in French, English, and German. In spite of, or perhaps because of, their different backgrounds, a relationship blossomed. They married and moved into a house on Clonard Gardens in Belfast. One of her first experiences there was watching the aftermath of a July 12th march commemorating the victory of the Protestant army of William of Orange over the Catholic army of James II at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. She was amazed at the rioting. Their daughter, May Caffrey, was born in Belfast in 1899. In 1906, the family moved to Armagh City, where John Caffrey took a job as headmaster of the Technical Institute. May would later tell her children about how she always had to walk to primary school with a group of other children, for she had to pass through a Unionist area and her parents feared she would be attacked. In 1908, the family moved to Donegal Town, where John Caffrey became county engineer. He also became active in Sinn Féin. He attended the Dublin funeral of the Irish-American Fenian O’Donovan Rossa in 1915 and heard Pearse’s famous oration there. In the 1918 national election, he seconded l? J. Ward, Sinn FCin’s candidate for South Donegal, on Ward’s nomination papers. (Ward was elected). Caffrey’s children followed his politics.
Like Matt Brady, May Caffrey was a participant in the dramatic political events in Ireland. She was a member of the Gaelic League and was the captain of the first branch of Cumann na mBan, the women’s wing of the Republican Movement, in Donegal town. She also organized the hinterland, cycling to Mountcharles and Frosses and other places. At one point, a local priest complained to her father that she was drilling the servant girls. The priest indicated that not only were her politics wrong but she was consorting with people beneath her. Her father ignored him and supported her.
As Sinn Féin, the Irish Volunteers, and Cumann na mBan grew and de Valera, Arthur Griffith, Mick Collins, and others toured the country, the authorities became concerned. Collins was arrested in Dublin in March 1918, transported to Longford, and charged with having “incited certain persons to raid for arms and carry off and hold same by force" in North Longford. He was found guilty and sent by train to Sligo Jail. In the same month, John Joe O’Neill (son of James O’Neill), was charged with drilling a squad of young men at Ballinamuck. Crowds of Sinn Féiners regularly attended the court proceedings, protested the results, and welcomed the prisoners home when they were released. According to the Longford Leader, among those who met Collins when he was released from Sligo Jail was Hubert Wilson, a former Frongoch internee and Matt Brady’s battalion commander. Matt Brady was likely there, too.
In April 1918, the political situation became especially serious. The House of Commons voted to extend conscription to Ireland. Nationalist Ireland, Republican or not, was opposed. Most of the Catholic clergy were opposed. In Donegal, May Caffrey watched the local Hibernian priest share a platform with members of the Irish Parliamentary Party and Sinn FCin, united in opposition to conscription. In Longford Town, Sinn Ftiners and Irish Parliamentary Party members shared the platform in a public protest. Energized by the crisis, Matt Brady and his comrades “organised resistance to conscription" in their area. In Ballinalee, Sedn Mac Eoin, who had been appointed commander of the local unit of the Irish Volunteers by Mick Collins, was able to recruit a hundred people in one day. Mac Eoin later became a central figure in Matt Brady’s life as a guerrilla leader transformed into a leading politician.
World War I ended in November 1918, and the British government called a national election in December. Sinn Féin seized the opportunity and in a stunning victory won seventy three of the Irish seats at Westminster. The Irish Party, representing constitutional Irish nationalists, took six seats, and the Unionist Party, representing Protestant and Northeast Ireland, took twenty-six seats. In Longford, Sinn FCin polled extremely well and Joe McGuinness was easily re-elected. Among the others elected was Countess Markievicz, in Dublin. She was the first woman to be elected in a British parliamentary election.
In January 1919, the elected Sinn Féin representatives put their abstentionist principles into action. Instead of going to London as Irish representatives to a British government, they formed a revolutionary government in Dublin, called Ddil Éireann (Parliament of Ireland). Éamon de Valera, president of Sinn Féin and the Irish Volunteers could not attend; he was imprisoned in England. In his lace, Cathal Brugha, a 1916 veteran noted for his devotion to the Republican cause-he had suffered many bullet wounds-was elected president of Ddil Éireann. Members of the DG1 viewed themselves as the Parliament of the Irish Republic, “proclaimed in Dublin on Easter Monday, 1916, by the Irish Republican Army acting on behalf of the Irish people.” Ireland was sliding into a revolutionary situation. Sinn FCin courts and arbitration boards were established and their decisions were accepted by the people. On the day Dáil Eireann was formed, Irish Republican Army volunteers in Tipperary killed two members of the Royal Irish Constabulary and seized a cartload of explosives.
Under the authority of Dáil Éireann, the Irish Volunteers formally became the Irish Republican Army. The IRA in North Longford reorganized under the command of the Longford Brigade. Sein Mac Eoin became Ballinalee battalion commander. John Murphy was his vice-commandant and SeQn Duffy his adjutant. Battalion companies were located at Edgeworthstown (Mostrim), Killoe, Mullinalaughta, Drumlish, Ballinamuck, Colmcille, Granard, Dromard, and Ballinalee; Matt Brady was a lieutenant with the Colmcille Company. Similar reorganizations occurred across the country, and the IRA began to flex its muscles. Se6n Mac Eoin led a raid into County Cavan that recovered shotguns impounded by the RIC. In Limerick, the IRA tried to free a hunger-striking Republican prisoner from the hospital. The prisoner, a police officer, and a prison guard were shot dead and another guard was wounded. The authorities proclaimed Limerick a military area, and tanks and armored cars paraded the streets. By the end of April, Counties Limerick, Roscommon, and Tipperary were under British military control.
On Sunday, April 27, 1919, one week after Easter, there was an aeraiocht in Aughnacliffe, a sort of outdoor contest and sports festival with bands and dancing. Such events build community spirit and allow people to enjoy the day. Several Sinn FCin members spoke there, including Joe McGuinness. In the evening, there was a concert. Given the political climate, extra police were brought into the area. Unknown to them, Se6n Mac Eoin was using the event for an IRA Brigade Council meeting.
As the concert was starting, Matt Brady and Willie McNally, who were both in the IRA, went for an evening walk with Phil Brady, a Sinn FCin candidate in the upcoming local election. At about 9 PM, they left Phil Brady “on his way home" and were returning to the concert when they saw two RIC constables, Fleming and Clarke, cresting a hill on bicycles. The off-duty constables were returning to their barracks at Drumlish. Brady and McNally decided to seize their weapons. Each jumped a constable; the men starting wrestling, but McNally had trouble with his man. A shot rang out and McNally, hit in the head, collapsed. The RIC men then turned on Matt Brady, shooting him five times. Frightened and angry, they smashed the butts of their rifles into Brady’s and McNally’s faces. Phil Brady heard the shots and turned back to investigate, passing Fleming and Clarke running with their bicycles in the other direction. He found Matt Brady riddled with bullets. He had been hit at least twice in the chest and his left thigh was a mess. Bullets had gone through both hands. McNally was bleeding from a nasty but not dangerous wound over his left eye. Phil Brady ran to get help, shouting that there had been a murder. As more people arrived, they discovered that both men were still alive.
Seán Mac Eoin arrived quickly and took charge. He sent Seán F. Lynch, a Sinn FCiner involved in the court system, in search of a doctor and oversaw the removal of Brady from the edge of the road to the kitchen of a local house. Two local physicians arrived and began treating the wounded men, and the RIC returned. A district inspector announced that “under the authority of the Crown" he was going to arrest the two men. Mac Eoin responded, “under the authority of the Irish Republic,” that they would not be arrested. He revealed that he was armed and the RIC withdrew. The incident was indicative of the growing conflict in Ireland.
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