Espionage and Assasination with Michael Collins' Intelligence Unit: With the Dublin Brigade by Charles Dalton Page A
Authors: Charles Dalton
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pocket.
Turning my back on the soldiers, I walked away in the opposite direction, stepping mechanically, without any hope at all that I could escape. I was like an automaton. I was, as it were, wound up to make those walking movements and would do so until I was stopped, but at the same time I knew that they were senseless and useless.
Then I found myself in a side street, and life and hope came back to me. Of my own will now, as if I were getting out of a nightmare in which I had been making movements over which I had had no control, I started to run. I was wearing a heavy overcoat, and I was soon covered with sweat, when, in a few moments, owing to the speed with which I travelled, I had reached my destination.
Curious to know the extent of my escape I speedily opened the box, to find my worst fears justified. It was filled with papers and documents belonging to some of the enemy agents who had been shot on the previous morning.
Chapter XX
On the night before the shootings of the 21st November, our brigadier, Dick McKee, was arrested, and I was never to see my hero again.
He and Peadar Clancy had been seen leaving Vaughanâs Hotel. They were followed by a âspotterâ to the house in Gloucester Street in which they were sleeping, and after curfew the house was raided and the two men captured and taken to Dublin Castle together with another man, Conor Clune, who had been arrested in Vaughanâs Hotel.
A day or two afterwards the three bodies, mutilated almost beyond recognition, were given to their relatives. They had been killed in the Castle in revenge for the Sunday morning shootings of the British Secret Service men.
On the following Tuesday or Wednesday, the 23rd or 24th November, I was sent by the assistant D/I to meet a detective named MacNamara. He was a friend of ours and had been working for Michael Collins for a long time.
I turned up at the appointed place â the Dolphin Hotel, which was quite convenient to the Castle. Standing outside the hotel I saw Mac, and it being dark at the time, and thinking he did not know me, I approached him and told him who I was. Immediately he recognized me, and it was evident that he had already been apprised of my name and description.
We walked together further down the badly lighted street till we came to a dark spot where any passer-by who knew the detective would not become suspicious.
Macâs first words to me were: âWhy have you got on that hat? The sooner you get rid of it the better.â
It was a black velour hat which I had only bought that evening. I had been rather pleased with it, but as soon as Mac spoke I realized my indiscretion. I never wore it again. Among the Black and Tans there was an idea that it was traditional for Volunteers to wear black hats â a sort of distinguishing mark by which they were known to each other.
We immediately got to business. Mac told me that he had not many minutes to spare. He had only slipped out of the Castle to meet me, and if he were missed the authorities might become suspicious.
âYou know where to get Liam Tobin at once?â he asked.
âI do. He will be waiting for my report at Vaughanâs Hotel.â
âWell, tell him we are raiding the Meath Hotelâ (a few doors from Vaughanâs) âin an hourâs time, and let them all keep out of Parnell Square tonight.â
Before I parted from him I asked him to tell me about the butchery that had taken place in the Castle on the night of the 21st. In that gloomy spot, standing beside him, I could see only the outline of Macâs face.
âYou mean Dick McKee, Peadar Clancy, and Clune?â he said, his voice growing sad.
âI do.â
âWell, I heard that they had been brought in prisoners on Saturday night, and I had little hope for them then, and when I heard the alarm sounded in the Castle on the Sunday morning after the shootings, I knew it was all up with them. Such scenes! I shall never
Turning my back on the soldiers, I walked away in the opposite direction, stepping mechanically, without any hope at all that I could escape. I was like an automaton. I was, as it were, wound up to make those walking movements and would do so until I was stopped, but at the same time I knew that they were senseless and useless.
Then I found myself in a side street, and life and hope came back to me. Of my own will now, as if I were getting out of a nightmare in which I had been making movements over which I had had no control, I started to run. I was wearing a heavy overcoat, and I was soon covered with sweat, when, in a few moments, owing to the speed with which I travelled, I had reached my destination.
Curious to know the extent of my escape I speedily opened the box, to find my worst fears justified. It was filled with papers and documents belonging to some of the enemy agents who had been shot on the previous morning.
Chapter XX
On the night before the shootings of the 21st November, our brigadier, Dick McKee, was arrested, and I was never to see my hero again.
He and Peadar Clancy had been seen leaving Vaughanâs Hotel. They were followed by a âspotterâ to the house in Gloucester Street in which they were sleeping, and after curfew the house was raided and the two men captured and taken to Dublin Castle together with another man, Conor Clune, who had been arrested in Vaughanâs Hotel.
A day or two afterwards the three bodies, mutilated almost beyond recognition, were given to their relatives. They had been killed in the Castle in revenge for the Sunday morning shootings of the British Secret Service men.
On the following Tuesday or Wednesday, the 23rd or 24th November, I was sent by the assistant D/I to meet a detective named MacNamara. He was a friend of ours and had been working for Michael Collins for a long time.
I turned up at the appointed place â the Dolphin Hotel, which was quite convenient to the Castle. Standing outside the hotel I saw Mac, and it being dark at the time, and thinking he did not know me, I approached him and told him who I was. Immediately he recognized me, and it was evident that he had already been apprised of my name and description.
We walked together further down the badly lighted street till we came to a dark spot where any passer-by who knew the detective would not become suspicious.
Macâs first words to me were: âWhy have you got on that hat? The sooner you get rid of it the better.â
It was a black velour hat which I had only bought that evening. I had been rather pleased with it, but as soon as Mac spoke I realized my indiscretion. I never wore it again. Among the Black and Tans there was an idea that it was traditional for Volunteers to wear black hats â a sort of distinguishing mark by which they were known to each other.
We immediately got to business. Mac told me that he had not many minutes to spare. He had only slipped out of the Castle to meet me, and if he were missed the authorities might become suspicious.
âYou know where to get Liam Tobin at once?â he asked.
âI do. He will be waiting for my report at Vaughanâs Hotel.â
âWell, tell him we are raiding the Meath Hotelâ (a few doors from Vaughanâs) âin an hourâs time, and let them all keep out of Parnell Square tonight.â
Before I parted from him I asked him to tell me about the butchery that had taken place in the Castle on the night of the 21st. In that gloomy spot, standing beside him, I could see only the outline of Macâs face.
âYou mean Dick McKee, Peadar Clancy, and Clune?â he said, his voice growing sad.
âI do.â
âWell, I heard that they had been brought in prisoners on Saturday night, and I had little hope for them then, and when I heard the alarm sounded in the Castle on the Sunday morning after the shootings, I knew it was all up with them. Such scenes! I shall never
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