Dan Breen

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Dan Breen

Daniel Breen (August 11, 1894–December 27, 1969) was an Irish republican fighter and a Fianna Fáil politician.

Dan Breen was born into a farming family in Grange, Donohill, County Tipperary. He was educated locally before becoming a plasterer, and later a linesman on the Great Southern Railway. Breen joined the Irish Volunteers in 1914. On January 21, 1919, the day the First Dáil met in Dublin, Breen took part in an ambush at Soloheadbeg. The ambush party, led by Seán Treacy, attacked a group of Royal Irish Constabulary men who were escorting explosives to a quarry and two policeman were shot dead during the engagement. The ambush is considered to be the first action taken in the Irish War of Independence.

During the war Breen had a £1,000 price on his head, however, he quickly established himself as a leader within the Irish Republican Army (IRA). Numerous stories are known about his heroism, one of which details the rescuing of his comrade Seán Hogan at gunpoint from a heavily guarded train at Knocklong station in County Limerick. Another incident occurred in Dublin when he shot his way out through a British military cordon in the northern suburb of Drumcondra (fernside) in which his comrade Volunteer Martin Savage was shot and killed and he himself was shot at least four times, one being in the lung for the second time (the first being in the knocklong rescue). Breen was elected to Dáil Éireann in 1923 as a Republican, anti-Treaty Teachta Dála (TD).

Breen published an account of his guerilla days, My Fight for Irish Freedom in 1924. He represented Tipperary and became the first anti-Treaty TD to take his seat in 1927. He was defeated in the June 1927 general election and decided to travel to the United States. He returned to Ireland shortly afterwards and regained his seat in the Dáil at the 1932 general election. He represented his Tipperary constituency without a break until his retirement at the 1965 election.

He died in Dublin four years later and was buried in Donohill, near the place of his birth. His funeral was the largest seen in West Tipperary since his comrade in arms, Seán Treacy was buried at Kilfeacle in October, 1920. An estimated attendance of 10,000 mourners assembled in the tiny hamlet, giving ample testimony to the esteem in which he was held.