the Treaty was signed in the early hours of the morning on 6 December 1921. It provided for the establishment, within a year, of an Irish Free State as a self-governing dominion within the British Commonwealth, a decision that would spark turmoil in Ireland as it fell short of the independent republic for which the IRA had fought. Collins and his pro-Treaty supporters saw the Treaty as a stepping stone to the republic.
The question arises as to Dalton’s location on the night the Treaty was signed. In old age, he said in an interview he was in Dublin as he had been appointed Chief Liaison Officer.36 There is another unconfirmed account of him being among those with Griffith at Hans Place on the night of the signing. According to this account, Griffith wrote a brief press statement about the momentous event that had occurred and gave the handwritten note to Dalton so he could pass on the details to the press.37 Griffith’s statement read: ‘I have signed a Treaty of Peace between Ireland and Great Britain. I believe that Treaty will lay the foundations of peace and friendship between the two nations. What I have signed I shall stand by in the belief that the end of the conflict of centuries is at hand.’ Griffith’s handwritten note survived in the possession of the Dalton family, and was deposited by Emmet’s brother Charlie with the National Museum in December 1949.38 Griffith’s statement was carried in full in the Irish Independent, as part of the newspaper’s extensive coverage of the signing of the Treaty.39 The newspaper also noted that it was stated that Mr Michael Collins is ‘in absolute agreement with Mr Griffith’s statement’.
Following the signing of the Treaty, there appears, from Dalton’s later account, to have been a sense of relief, even of euphoria, among members of the Irish delegation when they returned to Ireland. However, difficulties soon surfaced, with de Valera and two ministers, Cathal Brugha and Austin Stack, opposing the settlement terms. Dalton later wrote that when the delegates returned to Dublin in triumph, ‘their ardour was soon dampened by the unpredictable attitude adopted by Mr de Valera – he seemed to change from day to day’. Dalton described his sympathy for Collins, faced with this situation, and then having to endure the Dáil debates on the Treaty. ‘Poor Collins! How he must have suffered during the Treaty debates in University College.’40
In old age, Dalton rejected various arguments that were advanced against the Treaty, which involved an oath of faithfulness to the King. One of the arguments against the Treaty was that it had been concluded under duress, following a threat by Lloyd George to renew the war if it was not signed. In an obvious reference to this argument, Dalton said in an RTÉ interview with Pádraigh Ó Raghallaigh that he did not accept Collins had signed the Treaty under duress. He said that nothing that Collins ever did would indicate that he signed ‘for expediency or under duress or under a threat’. ‘He signed because it was the right thing to do.’ While the Treaty arrangements fell short of the Republic, he knew that Collins himself felt they had gained a great deal more than they had a right to expect. He sincerely believed the Treaty was the ‘breaking of the ice’ that could lead to complete and absolute freedom.41 After returning to Dublin, Collins was facing into a maelstrom, with elements of the republican movement mounting vehement opposition to the Treaty – these differences would ultimately explode into Civil War. Dalton, for his part, was also facing an enormous challenge as he pressed ahead with his work as the IRA’s Chief Liaison Officer with the British.
CHAPTER FIVE
Liaising with the British
General Sir Nevil Macready, commander of the British forces in Ireland, was clearly intrigued by the IRA’s Chief Liaison Officer who was tasked with resolving the myriad complex issues arising from the Truce. No doubt it came as a surprise to Macready that the despised ‘Shinners’ would appoint an officer with a distinguished record in the British Army in the Great War, and a recipient of the Military Cross. Macready became aware that his own forces had arrested Dalton and his father back in December 1920, following the assassination of British officers on Bloody Sunday. The details were in the intelligence file on Dalton kept by the secret service people at Dublin Castle. It is unclear if Macready was aware at this stage that Dalton was also one of the imposters who bluffed their way into Mountjoy Prison a few months previously in a hi-jacked armoured car in an attempt to ‘spring’ Sean MacEoin – an operation that had caused much aggravation for the British commander. Information about Dalton’s role in this affair would emerge into the public domain later in the year.
Macready seems to have accepted the self-confident, personable, courteous young man as someone he could do business with. Macready, son of the noted actor William Charles Macready, had himself served in the Great War in France so at least he had something in common with Dalton. Macready considered Dalton’s appointment to be of such interest that he provided details of the new Liaison Officer in one of his weekly dispatches to the War Office, which were routinely circulated to Lloyd George’s Cabinet.1 It would appear that word of Dalton’s background as a Ginchy war hero spread quickly among senior officials in the close-knit British establishment in Dublin. No doubt a certain respect was accorded to Dalton as a result – but mutual reserve and wariness also persisted.
One of the first issues that Macready’s people raised with Dalton was a rather minor one, but Macready was clearly impressed by the way that Dalton dealt with it. Two officers’ chargers and two draught horses of the Sherwood Foresters had been seized by ‘armed civilians’ at Clonakilty, County Cork. The four horses were returned after the matter was referred to the Chief Liaison Officer. Macready observed approvingly that the new liaison representative ‘is making greater efforts to insist on the observation of the terms of the truce than his predecessor’.2 Macready also recorded that Dalton had promised to make inquiries into the case of a Private Coe of the Essex Regiment who had been held captive for eight days after being kidnapped in Cork. The IRA liaison office in the Gresham also, around this period, showed that it was prepared to cooperate fully in matters of prisoner parole. The Publicity Department of the Dáil announced that Volunteer Michael McElligot had given himself up to the Governor of Mountjoy Prison on the order of the Chief Liaison Officer, in order to avoid any misunderstanding after the British alleged he had escaped from jail by breaking parole.3 McElligot returned to jail on 1 December, the day that Dalton formally assumed the post of Chief Liaison Officer.
Dalton had assumed an onerous position. The job required a great variety of skills, including those more often associated with the diplomat, the senior civil servant, the lawyer, the politician and the policeman. It required an ability to see ‘the big picture’, while still being able to focus on the most minute detail. It meant dealing on sensitive matters to do with the Truce with senior officials in Dublin Castle and the British military command in Ireland, as well as senior figures in the Dáil and the IRA, and of course with the National Army as the pro-Treaty element of the IRA was soon to become. Dalton was still a very young man but he showed considerable maturity and tact in carrying out the functions of a demanding and highly challenging job.
Issues to be dealt with in Dalton’s office could range from the mundane – the expenses claimed by local liaison officers, for instance, or requests for headed notepaper – to matters of great national significance that could seriously threaten the Truce, such as the abduction and execution by republican forces in County Cork of three British Army officers in April. He also had to deal with the treatment of Irish prisoners still in British custody. He raised issues to do with prisoners still detained who, he insisted, should have been released. With his background as a member of the General Headquarters staff of the IRA, he was also conscious of various prisoners held by the British who, he feared, were in particular danger. Among the Volunteers captured at the burning of the Custom House were men involved in the Bloody Sunday assassinations. He later told how, after taking up the post, he made it a priority to get these men out on parole as fast as possible in case there was a breakdown in the Truce. He succeeded in doing so, and considered it one of his real achievements in the new job.4 Dealing with law enforcement issues on a day-to-day basis, among the bodies Dalton liaised with were the IRA’s policing
