Already highly decorated, on 24 March 1918 Boyle was wounded and taken prisoner by the Germans while serving with 2nd Royal Irish Rifles (RIR). He died in a German Prisoner of War camp of pneumonia just three weeks before the Armistice. He was twenty-one years old. His remains lie in a war cemetery in Germany – Cologne Southern Cemetery. Dalton must, by now, have become used to comrades being killed in the war, but Boyle’s death appears to have affected him deeply. He was so moved that he wrote a very emotional seven-verse poem in memory of his dead friend – the handwritten text, in capital letters, on a single sheet of paper, is still preserved within the pages of his diary, among his papers at the National Library in Dublin.62 The poem is titled ‘Lieut. John K. Boyle M.C., My Dearest & Best Friend R.I.P’, and it is signed at the bottom, ‘J. Emmet Dalton’. The poem is undated, but the opening lines indicate that Dalton was inspired to write the verses after he found Boyle’s grave in Germany. ‘At last I have found your lowly place of rest…’ In the poem, Dalton reflects on his friend living in the ‘Hunnish Gaol’ for months and then dying with no mother or sweetheart or friend by his side. The tough-minded soldier-poet shows a compassionate, sensitive side in these lines in memory of his friend.
As Dalton was being demobilized, he received the usual letter from the British War Office to say that he was released from military duty. In his case, the release was from 4 April 1919. The letter stated that he would be permitted to wear uniform for one month only after date of release, to enable him to obtain plain clothes, but this would not entitle him to a concession voucher while travelling.63 The War Office sent the letter to Dalton at his father’s business address, 15 Wicklow Street, Dublin, where Dalton senior operated an importing concern. (The office would later move to 12 Wicklow Street.) The authorities had been informed that after leaving the army, Emmet would be working for his father on a ‘profit sharing’ basis.
Dalton’s service as an officer in the British Army, while often difficult and sometimes dangerous, had broadened his horizons. He had learned the art of soldiering, the finer points of tactics, strategy and leadership, and had developed abilities as a military instructor. He had quickly matured and acquired new skills – including horse riding. He had been to interesting places, including the Middle East. He had encountered people from outside his Irish Catholic middle-class environment. Among them were men from the ‘other’ community in Ireland, the Protestants, including members of the landed gentry, the middle class and the farming community. It had been a very interesting and challenging time in his life, interspersed with moments of great tragedy and trauma. Twenty-one year-old Emmet Dalton was now returning to a country in turmoil – the Great War had ended but his war-fighting days were far from over.
CHAPTER THREE
IRA Activities
After his service in the Great War, Emmet Dalton returned home to a very different Ireland. The movement for Irish independence was gaining momentum. Following the suppression of the Easter Rising, the Volunteers had been re-formed and Dalton’s younger brother Charlie had joined in December 1917. He became a member of F Company, 2nd Battalion in Dublin, at only fourteen years of age. He would later, with boyish pride, come to possess his own personal weapon – a German-made Mauser pistol which Emmet had brought home as a souvenir.1 Charlie grew more deeply involved in the movement as part of the IRA’s intelligence operations overseen by Michael Collins. Emmet would also be drawn into republican activities.
It was a time of political turmoil. The separatist Sinn Féin movement rejected the Westminster parliament and instead set up an independent Irish legislative assembly. The party had won a strong majority in the December 1918 general election, and on 21 January 1919 the Sinn Féin elected representatives (Teachtaí Dála – TDs) met in Dublin as the first Dáil Éireann. Later in the year, the British would seek to suppress the assembly. On the very day that the first Dáil met, what are generally seen as the first shots of the War of Independence were fired in Soloheadbeg, County Tipperary. A group of IRA men led by Dan Breen and Sean Treacy shot dead two members of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) during an operation to seize gelignite being escorted by the armed policemen. It was claimed that the constables had resisted. In a statement to the BMH, Breen said: ‘Treacy had stated to me that the only way to start a war was to kill someone, and we wanted to start a war, so we intended to kill some of the police whom we looked upon as the foremost and most important branch of the enemy forces which were holding the country in subjection.’2
On his return to Dublin, Emmet had resumed his studies. With the aid of a military education grant he studied engineering for about a year at the Royal College of Science. He also worked for a period as a temporary clerk with the Office of Public Works.3 Return from the war also gave him the opportunity to pursue his sports interests. He joined Bohemians soccer club, located in Phibsboro not far from his Dublin home, and played with the club for a season.
In early 1920 Charlie Dalton was asked to join the IRA’s GHQ Intelligence Unit, reporting to Liam Tobin, Deputy Director of Intelligence, at an office in Crow Street, Dublin. It was to be the beginning of a notable association with Tobin over the following years. His duties were outlined to him by the Assistant Director of Intelligence, Tom Cullen, who was in daily touch with the Director, Michael Collins.4 Dalton’s role included tracing the activities of enemy agents and spies, establishing contacts among individuals in government service, keeping files on intelligence targets and participating in active service operations arising out of intelligence gathering. One of the central aims of the Intelligence Department was to intercept government and crown forces’ communications.
In October 1920 Charlie Dalton and another Volunteer opened fire on British soldiers who were deployed at Binn’s Bridge in his home area of Drumcondra as part of a cordon. Dalton wanted to disrupt the cordon to allow Volunteers returning from an operation in the city centre to get through. Two soldiers were killed, while he and his colleague escaped along a railway embankment and emerged from it close to his home at Upper St. Columba’s Road. Later that evening Charlie was on his way home when he spotted a passing touring car with a number of men in plain clothes. He was astonished to see the car pull up in front of his house. When they could not find Charlie they arrested Emmet instead, although it appears his detention was only temporary. No doubt his discharge papers showing he had been a British officer in the Great War proved useful. Charlie believed a neighbour saw him coming down from the railway and tipped off the authorities.5 Because of the raid, Charlie thought it advisable to stay away from home. The attack resulted in the Dalton family, including Emmet, coming to the attention of the authorities.
Bloody Sunday
As a member of Michael Collins’s intelligence staff, Charlie Dalton was one of the Volunteers closely involved in gathering information on British intelligence officers living at boarding houses, flats and hotels around Dublin. It was a period when Collins was becoming increasingly concerned about what he saw as a major threat from the British secret service. It was decided to launch a pre-emptive strike against members of a group known as the ‘Cairo Gang’. Collins chose 9 am on 21 November 1920 as the moment to strike, targeting addresses across the city, in a day that would go down in history as Bloody Sunday. Members of Collins’s special unit, the Squad, were deployed with Volunteers from the Dublin Brigade. Charlie Dalton was only seventeen years old at the time, an impressionable youth, and he would later recall his great anxiety in advance of the operation. The night before the raids, Charlie shared a hideout with a number of other Volunteers, including future Taoiseach Sean Lemass. Lemass, who participated in the Bloody Sunday shootings, believed that these activities affected Charlie’s nerves.
Charlie was not one of the men who would actually pull the trigger on the day – he was sent to gather up any documents relating to intelligence. He accompanied the gunmen to a house at 28 Upper Pembroke Street where men were to be shot. Charlie had played a particular role in gathering advance information to help
