Espionage and Assasination with Michael Collins' Intelligence Unit: With the Dublin Brigade by Charles Dalton
Authors: Charles Dalton
Ads: Link
came upon three policemen standing in a doorway. They did not challenge me, so I started to run. I could no longer control my overpowering need to run, to fly, to leave far behind me those threatening streets.
I was making for the quays below OâConnell Bridge. We had arranged for a party of Volunteers to commandeer the ferry boats, knowing that it would be impossible to cross by any of the bridges, which would all be held by the military.
I was out of breath when I reached the quay. There were a few other stragglers there, other Volunteers who, like myself, had had a long way to come. We saw the ferry boat landing with its party on the other side of the river.
It had just made its last journey!
We waved to them, frantically. They saw our signals, and to our infinite relief we saw a boat being rowed towards us. A few minutes more and we would have been lost.
Hurriedly we got into the boat and were rowed out into the river. I expected every moment to see the Auxiliaries dashing up to the quayside and opening fire upon us. I was greatly troubled thinking that I could not swim.
The boat seemed to go terribly slowly. I thought we would never reach the other shore, where I could get into the lanes and alleyways I knew so well.
At last we landed.
I reached the dispensary. My companions were already there. They told me that there had been a fierce fight between our men and the Auxiliaries in Mount Street, with losses on both sides. I longed to hear more news, and whether we had sustained many casualties, but I knew it would be too dangerous to be about in the streets.
Then I heard a bell ringing in a nearby church. It was the Angelus. I remembered I had not been to Mass. I slipped out and, in the silence before the altar, I thought over our morningâs work and offered up a prayer for the fallen.
Chapter XIX
The English took immediate reprisals for the shootings of the 21st November. On the same afternoon, while a football match was in progress in Croke Park between the Tipperary and Dublin teams, Auxiliaries and Black and Tans drove up and, surrounding the football field, they fired on the crowd. Fourteen people were killed, including a Tipperary forward, and over sixty wounded.
On the next day, Monday, I got instructions to call at the house of a friend in North Richmond Street. I was to collect some papers which had been seized on the previous morning, and to bring them to our intelligence office for examination.
When I presented myself, the woman of the house brought me down to the basement and showed me a large black deed-box which, she told me, contained the papers I wanted. I had hoped that the papers would not be so bulkily packed, as there was intensified activity of the crown forces in the streets; and parcels of any size were always bound to arouse suspicion.
Having wrapped the deed-box in brown paper I set out, and got on to a tram going through Parnell Street. I put the box on the conductorâs platform, and was relieved to be separated from it even for a little while, though I took care to keep it in view from where I sat.
I was just beginning to feel safe when I saw a patrol of soldiers holding up pedestrians a few paces in front of the tramcar, which now came to a standstill. I was seized with panic, my nerves not being at their best after my experiences of the morning before.
What will I do, I thought. Will I leave the box on the tram, disowning it, and try to get away, or will I stay and hope to bluff my way through? Either decision would bring serious trouble upon me. If I were held up with the papers in my possession, a horrible end was in store for me after a âstar chamberâ interrogation, with torture, in Dublin Castle. On the other hand, if I lost the papers I would be court-martialled by my own officers.
While such thoughts were passing through my mind in the space of a few seconds, I found myself stepping off the tram with the box under my arm and gripping the pistol in my
I was making for the quays below OâConnell Bridge. We had arranged for a party of Volunteers to commandeer the ferry boats, knowing that it would be impossible to cross by any of the bridges, which would all be held by the military.
I was out of breath when I reached the quay. There were a few other stragglers there, other Volunteers who, like myself, had had a long way to come. We saw the ferry boat landing with its party on the other side of the river.
It had just made its last journey!
We waved to them, frantically. They saw our signals, and to our infinite relief we saw a boat being rowed towards us. A few minutes more and we would have been lost.
Hurriedly we got into the boat and were rowed out into the river. I expected every moment to see the Auxiliaries dashing up to the quayside and opening fire upon us. I was greatly troubled thinking that I could not swim.
The boat seemed to go terribly slowly. I thought we would never reach the other shore, where I could get into the lanes and alleyways I knew so well.
At last we landed.
I reached the dispensary. My companions were already there. They told me that there had been a fierce fight between our men and the Auxiliaries in Mount Street, with losses on both sides. I longed to hear more news, and whether we had sustained many casualties, but I knew it would be too dangerous to be about in the streets.
Then I heard a bell ringing in a nearby church. It was the Angelus. I remembered I had not been to Mass. I slipped out and, in the silence before the altar, I thought over our morningâs work and offered up a prayer for the fallen.
Chapter XIX
The English took immediate reprisals for the shootings of the 21st November. On the same afternoon, while a football match was in progress in Croke Park between the Tipperary and Dublin teams, Auxiliaries and Black and Tans drove up and, surrounding the football field, they fired on the crowd. Fourteen people were killed, including a Tipperary forward, and over sixty wounded.
On the next day, Monday, I got instructions to call at the house of a friend in North Richmond Street. I was to collect some papers which had been seized on the previous morning, and to bring them to our intelligence office for examination.
When I presented myself, the woman of the house brought me down to the basement and showed me a large black deed-box which, she told me, contained the papers I wanted. I had hoped that the papers would not be so bulkily packed, as there was intensified activity of the crown forces in the streets; and parcels of any size were always bound to arouse suspicion.
Having wrapped the deed-box in brown paper I set out, and got on to a tram going through Parnell Street. I put the box on the conductorâs platform, and was relieved to be separated from it even for a little while, though I took care to keep it in view from where I sat.
I was just beginning to feel safe when I saw a patrol of soldiers holding up pedestrians a few paces in front of the tramcar, which now came to a standstill. I was seized with panic, my nerves not being at their best after my experiences of the morning before.
What will I do, I thought. Will I leave the box on the tram, disowning it, and try to get away, or will I stay and hope to bluff my way through? Either decision would bring serious trouble upon me. If I were held up with the papers in my possession, a horrible end was in store for me after a âstar chamberâ interrogation, with torture, in Dublin Castle. On the other hand, if I lost the papers I would be court-martialled by my own officers.
While such thoughts were passing through my mind in the space of a few seconds, I found myself stepping off the tram with the box under my arm and gripping the pistol in my
Similar Books
