Dan Breen and the IRA by Joe Ambrose Page A

having nothing to do with it and that he was not taking part in any more of these Dublin exploits. I told Treacy about this and actually we did get him to come with us to Ashtown when the actual attack on French took place but from this on Robinson was no longer proving amenable and, on quite a number of occasions after this, he upset the applecart rather badly by giving countermanding orders when we had something arranged in Tipperary.’
    One of the abortive attempts to catch French involved a plan to ambush his car as it crossed over Grattan Bridge from the viceregal lodge in the Phoenix Park, en route to an armistice banquet at Trinity College on 11 November 1919.
    Seán Hogan was told the exact time that French’s car was due to pass by his vantage point near Dublin Castle. At that specified time on an icy cold night Hogan pulled the pins out of the two grenades he’d been given and threw the pins away. French never showed up and Hogan ended up walking through a crowded city centre nervously bearing a live grenade in each hand, his freezing fingers anxiously clutching the grenade’s taut springs.
    The Ashtown attack had, of necessity, to be organised at short notice. Squad member Vinnie Byrne was socialising on the night of 18 December 1919, when he heard, via the son of a train guard, that Lord French was due to travel up to Dublin from Frenchpark, his Co. Roscommon home, the following morning. Byrne asked his companion what time his father – who was working on French’s train –would get back to Dublin and the son told Byrne that the father would be home around eleven or twelve o’clock.
    Being a prime target, French’s movements had been diligently noted and it was known that he would disembark from his train at Ashtown Station, near his Phoenix Park residence.
    â€˜I immediately went to Mick McDonnell’s house, which was in Richmond Crescent and reported to him what I had heard,’ said Byrne. ‘Mick said: “That’s the best bit of news I’ve had for a long time.” The next thing he said was: “You had better be here in the morning at about ten o’clock, as we might have a go at French.” As it was getting late, I said to him: “I had better be off. I will see you in the morning, please God.”
    â€˜The following morning I reported to Mick McDonnell on time. There was a group of men in the front room of his house and, as I went in, Mick said: “Byrne, you had better go up to the dump and bring down any grenades that are there”.’
    When Byrne came back with the grenades they were distributed to some of the men. Byrne was then told exactly who was present. He already knew Martin Savage (a handsome young Sligo man who’d been in the GPO in 1916), Tom Keogh (an expert marksman), Paddy Daly and Joe Leonard. McDonnell introduced him to the others in the room: Breen, Robinson, Treacy and Hogan. The would-be assasins headed off in the direction of Ashtown.
    Byrne continued: ‘We halted at Kelly’s pub. Mick McDonnell, Dan Breen, Seán Treacy and Paddy Daly stood in a group and were having a conversation together. After a few minutes we all went into the pub. Minerals, as far as I remember, were ordered. When I had finished my glass, Mick called me and told me to get my bike, cycle towards the station and see if there was any sign of the train, or if there were any military or police there … I had only gone about two hundred yards when I heard the sound of motor cars behind me. A motor horn sounded and I pulled into the side and let them pass. There were four cars in all. I wheeled round, cycled back as hard as I could and reported to Mick McDonnell about the military passing me going to the station.’
    They began, at that moment, to hear French’s train approaching. Daly, Leonard, Robinson, Treacy and Hogan went to the back yard of the pub, making their way into a field where they took up positions