Kevin Barry

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Kevin Barry

Kevin Gerard Barry (Irish: Caoimhín de Barra; 20 January 1902 - 1 November 1920) was the first Republican to be executed by the British since the leaders of the Easter Rising.^[1] Barry was sentenced to death for his part in an IRA operation which resulted in the deaths of three British soldiers.^[2]

His execution outraged public opinion in Ireland and throughout the world, particularly because of his young age. Because of his refusal to inform on his comrades while under torture, Kevin Barry was to become one of the most celebrated of Republican martyrs.^[3][4] As a result of his death by hanging, Barry’s status as a renowned nationlist figure was immediate.^[1] A song bearing his name, relating the story of his execution, is popular to this day.

Early life

Kevin Barry was born on 20 January 1902, at 8 Fleet Street Dublin. The son of Thomas and Mary (nèe Dowling) Barry, he was the fourth of seven children, two boys and five sisters. He was baptised in St. Andrews Church, Westland Row. Thomas Barry Snr. worked on the family farm at Tombeagh, Hacketstown, County Carlow, and ran a dairy business from Fleet Street. Thomas died in 1908 at the age of 56.^[5][6]

His mother came from Drumguin, also in County Carlow, and on the death of her husband, moved the family to Tombeagh. As a child Kevin liked country life, and went to the national school in Rathvilly. On returning to Dublin, he attended St. Mary’s College, Rathmines up until the school closed in the summer of 1916.^[5][6]

When he was thirteen, he attended a commemoration for the Manchester Martyrs. The three men, members of the Fenian Brotherhood, were hanged in England in 1867, and whose cry of “God Save Ireland,” had a strong effect on him. Afterwards he wished to join Countess Markievicz’s Fianna na hEireann, but was dissuaded by his family.^[3][6]

Belvedere College

Kevin Barry; early school picture

From St. Mary’s College he then transferred to Belvedere College, where he was a member of the championship Junior Rugby Cup team, and earned himself a place on the senior team. In 1918 he became secretary of the school hurling club which had just been formed, and was one of their most enthusiastic players.^[5][6]

Belevedere College, where Kevin Barry attended school. To mark the anniversary of his execution, Belvedere College Museum mounted a special exhibition of Kevin Barry memorabilia.

Father Thomas Counihan, S.J., his science and mathematics teacher, said of him: “He was a dour kind of lad. But once he got down to something he went straight ahead… There was no waving of flags with him, but he was sincere and intense.”^[5][6]

Notwithstanding his many activities, he did not neglect his studies.^[5] He won a merit-based scholarship given annually by Dublin Corporation, which allowed him to become a student of medicine at UCD.^[3][6]

Medical student

He entered University College Dublin in 1919. A fellow student described him then as “open-handed, open-hearted and generous to a fault and first in every manly exercise.”^[5] Much like other students he liked to go dancing, and to the theatre, and was popular, making friends easily. His closest friend at college was Jerry MacAleer, from Dungannon, who he had first met in Belvedere. Although other friends included Frank Flood, Tom Kissane and Mick Robinson, who unknown to many in the college, were, with Barry, IRA volunteers.^[5][6]

Volunteer activities

In October 1917, during his second year at Belvedere College, aged 15, he joined the IRA.^[5] Assigned originally to ‘C’ Company 1st Battalion, based on the north side of Dublin, he later transferred to the newly formed ‘H’ Company, under the command of Capt. Seamus Kavanagh.

Wall plaque marking the site in 1919, where the Active Service Unit of the Dublin Brigade of the Irish Republican Army was founded. The building is in Great Denmark Street, Dublin

His first job as a member of the IRA was delivering mobilisation orders around the city. Along with other volunteers he trained in a number of locations in Dublin, including the building at 44 Parnell Square, the present day headquarters of Sinn Féin, now named Kevin Barry Hall. The IRA held Field exercises during this period which were conducted in north county Dublin and in areas such as Finglas.^[5][6]

The following year, at the age of 16, he was introduced by Seán O’Neill and Bob O’Flanagan to the Clarke Luby Club of the IRB, which had been reorganised.

He took part in a number of IRA operations in the years leading up to his capture. He was part of the unit which raided the Shamrock Works for weapons destined to be handed over to the R.I.C. He also took part in the raid on Mark’s of Capel Street, looking for ammunition and explosives. On 1 June 1920, under Vice-Commandant Peadar Clancy, he played a notable part in the seizing of the King’s Inn, capturing the garrison’s arms. The haul included 25 rifles, two light machine guns and large quantities of ammunition. The 25 British soldiers captured during the attack were released as the volunteers withdrew. In recognition of his dedication to duty he was promoted to Section Commander.^[5][6]

Ambush

On the morning of 20 September 1920, Kevin Barry went to Mass, and received Holy Communion; he then joined a party of IRA volunteers on Bolton Street in Dublin. Their orders were to ambush a British army truck as it picked up a delivery of bread from the bakery, and capture their weapons. The ambush was scheduled for 11:00 A.M., which gave him enough time to take part in the operation and return to class in time for an examination he had at 2:00 P.M. The truck arrived late, and was under the command of Sergeant Banks N.C.O.

Armed with a .38 Mauser Parabellum, Barry and members of C Company were to surround the truck, disarm the soldiers, take the weapons, and escape. He covered the back of the truck, and when challenged, the five soldiers complied with the order to lay down their weapons. A shot was then fired; Terry Golway, author of For the Cause of Liberty, suggests it was possibly a warning shot from an uncovered soldier in the front. Barry and the rest of the ambush party then opened fire. His gun jammed twice, and he dived for cover under the truck. His comrades had during this time begun to withdraw, and he was left behind. He was then spotted, and arrested by the soldiers.^[3][6]

Church Street immediately after Kevin Barry's arrest, 20 September 1920

One of the soldiers, Pte. Harold Washington, had been shot dead. Two others, Pte. Marshall Whitehead and Thomas Humphries were both badly wounded. Both later died of their wounds.^[5]

The British Army released the following statement on Monday afternoon:

This morning a party of one N.C.O. and six men of the Duke of Wellington’s Regiment were fired on by a body of civilians outside a bakery in Church Street, Dublin. One soldier was killed and four were wounded. A piquet of the Lancashire Fusiliers in the vicinity, hearing the shots, hurried to their comrades’ assistance, and succeeded in arresting one of the aggressors. No arms or equipment were lost by the soldiers.^[5]

Much was made of Barry’s age by the Irish newspapers, but the British military were to point out that the three soldiers who had been killed were “much the same age as Barry.” On 20 October, Major Reginald Ingram Marians OBE, Head of the Press Section of the General Staff, informed Basil Clarke, Head of Publicity, that Washington was “only 19 and that the other soldiers were of similar ages.” General Macready,^[7] was well aware of the “propaganda value of the soldier’s ages.” General Macready informed General Sir Henry Wilson on the day that sentence was pronounced “of the three men who were killed by him (Barry) and his friends two were 19 and one 20 — official age so probably they were younger... so if you want propaganda there you are.”^[7]

On this period M.A. Doherty was to write:

from the British point of view, therefore, the Anglo-Irish propaganda war was probably unwinable. Nationalist Ireland had decided that men like Kevin Barry fought to free their country, while British soldiers—young or not—sought to withhold that freedom. In these circumstances, to label Barry a murderer was merely to add insult to injury. The contrasting failure of British propaganda is graphically demonstrated by the simple fact that even in British newspapers Privates Whitehead, Washington and Humphries remained faceless names and numbers, for whom no songs were written.”^[8]

Capture and torture

Kevin Barry was placed in the back of the lorry with the body of Pte. Harold Washington, and was subjected to some abuse by Pte. Washington's comrades. He was transported then to the North Dublin Union.

On arrival at the barracks he was taken under military police escort to the defaulters’ room where he was searched and handcuffed. A short while later, three sergeants of the Lancashire Fusiliers and two officers began the interrogation. He gave his name and his address which was 58 South Circular Road, Dublin, and his occupation as a medical student, but refused to answer any other questions. The officers continued to demand the names of all involved in the ambush.^[5][6]

At this time a propaganda campaign was mounted by Sinn Féin. Barry received orders on 28 October from his brigade commander, Richard McKee, "to make a sworn affidavit concerning his torture in the North Dublin Union." Arrangements were made to deliver this through Barry's sister, Kathy, to Desmond Fitzgerald, director of propaganda for Sinn Féin, "with the object of having it published in the World press, and particularly in the English papers, on Saturday 30th October."^[9]

The affidavit, drawn up in Mountjoy Prison days before his execution, describes his treatment when the question of names was repeated:

I refused to give them. He tried to persuade me to give the names, and I persisted in refusing. He then sent the sergeant out of the room for a bayonet. When it was brought in the sergeant was ordered by the same officer to point the bayonet at my stomach. The same questions as to the names and addresses of my companions were repeated, with the same result. The sergeant was then ordered to turn my face to the wall and point the bayonet to my back. I was so turned. The sergeant then said that he would run the bayonet into me if I did not tell. The bayonet was then removed and I was turned round again. The same officer then said to me that if I persisted in my attitude he would turn me out to the men in the barrack square, and he supposed I knew what that meant with the men in their present temper. I said nothing. He ordered the sergeants to put me face down on the floor and twist my arm. I was pushed down on the floor after my handcuffs were removed by the sergeant who went for the bayonet. When I lay on the floor, one of the sergeants knelt on my back, the other two placed one foot each on my back and left shoulder, and the man who knelt on me twisted my right arm, holding it by the wrist with one hand, while he held my hair with the other to pull back my head. The arm was twisted from the elbow joint. This continued, to the best of my judgment, for five minutes. It was very painful. The first officer was standing near my feet, and the officer who accompanied him was still present. During the twisting of my arm, the first officer continued to question me as to the names and addresses of my companions, and also asked me the name of my company commander and any other officers I knew. As I still persisted in refusing to answer these questions I was allowed to get up and I was again handcuffed. A civilian came in and repeated the questions, with the same result. He informed me that if I gave all the information I knew I could get off. I was then left in the company of the military policeman; the two officers, the three sergeants and the civilian leaving together. I could certainly identify the officer who directed the proceedings and put the questions. I am not sure of the others, except the sergeant with the bayonet. My arm was medically treated by an officer of the Royal Army Medical Corps, attached to the North Dublin Union, the following morning, and by the prison hospital orderly afterwards for four or five days. I was visited by the court martial officer last night and he read for me a confirmation of sentence of death by hanging, to be executed on Monday next, and I make this solemn declaration conscientiously believing same to be true and by virtue of the Statutory Declaration Act, 1836.^[10]

On 28 October, the Irish Bulletin, a news-sheet produced by Dáil Éireann's Department of Publicity,^[11] published Barry's statement alleging torture, which had been organised by Dick McKee, the IRA Commandant of the Dublin Brigade. The headline of the paper read: English Military Government Torture a Prisoner of War and are about to Hang him. The Irish Bulletin claimed that Barry was a prisoner of war, suggesting a conflict of principles was at the heart of the conflict. The English did not recognise a war existed and treated all killings by the IRA as murder; the Irish republicans claimed that they were at war and it was being fought between two opposing nations and therefore demanded prisoner of war status. John Ainsworth has pointed out though that Barry had been captured by the British not as a uniformed soldier but disguised as a civilian and in possession of flat-nosed^[12] ammunition in his pistol, in breach of the Hague Convention.^[13] Erskine Childers addressed this question of political status in a letter to the press on 29 October, which was published the day after Barry’s execution.^[7]

This lad Barry was doing precisely what Englishmen would be doing under the same circumstances and with the same bitter and intolerable provocation — the suppression by military force of their country’s liberty. To hang him for murder is an insulting outrage, and it is more: it is an abuse of power: an unworthy act of vengeance. contrasting ill with the forbearance and humanity invariably shown by the Irish Volunteers towards the prisoners captured by them when they have been successful in encounters similar to this one. These guerrilla combats with soldiers and constables—both classes do the same work with the same weapons; the work of military repression — are typical episodes in Ireland. Murder of individual constables, miscalled ‘police,’ have been comparatively rare. The Government figure is 38, and it will not, to my knowledge, bear examination. I charge against the British Government 80 murders by soldiers and constables: murders of unarmed people, and for the most part wholly innocent people, including old men, women and boys. To hang Barry is to push to its logical extreme the hypocritical pretense that the national movement in Ireland unflinchingly supported by the great mass of the Irish people, is the squalid conspiracy of a ‘murder gang.’ That is false; it is a natural uprising: a collision between two Governments, one resting on consent, the other on force. The Irish are struggling against overwhelming odds to defend their own elected institutions against extinction.^[5]

In a letter addressed to ‘the civilised nations of the world,’ by Arthur Griffith — then acting President of the Republic wrote:

Under similar circumstances a body of Irish Volunteers captured on June 1 of the present year a party of 25 English military who were on duty at the King’s Inns, Dublin. Having disarmed the party the Volunteers immediately released their prisoners. This was in strict accordance with the conduct of the Volunteers in all such encounters. Hundreds of members of the armed forces have been from time to time captured by the Volunteers and in no case was any prisoner maltreated even though Volunteers had been killed and wounded in the fighting, as in the case of Cloyne, Co. Cork, when, after a conflict in which one Volunteer was killed and two wounded, the whole of the opposing forces were captured disarmed, and set at liberty.^[5]

John Ainsworth alleges that "Griffith was deliberately using examples relating to IRA engagements with British military forces rather than the police, for he knew that engagements involving the police in particular were usually of an uncivilized nature, characterized by violence and brutality, albeit on both sides by this stage."^[14]

Trial

The War Office ordered that Kevin Barry be tried by court-martial under the ‘Restoration of Order in Ireland Act,’ which had received Royal Assent on 9 August 1920. General Sir Nevil Macready, Commander-in-Chief of British forces in Ireland then nominated a court of nine officers under a Brigadier-General Onslow.^[5]

Kevin Barry Commemorative Plaque close to the spot where he was captured on Church Street, Dublin.

On 20 October, at 10 o’clock, the nine officers of the court — ranging in rank from Brigadier to Lieutenant — took their places at an elevated table. At 10.25,^[15] Kevin Barry was brought into the room by a military escort. Then Sean O’hUadhaigh sought a short adjournment to consult his client. The court granted this request. After the short adjournment Barry announced “As a soldier of the Irish Republic, I refuse to recognise the court.” Brigadier Onslow explained the prisoner’s “perilous situation” and that he was being tried on a capital charge. He did not reply. Sean O’hUadhaigh then rose to tell the court that since his client did not recognise the authority of the court he himself could take no further part in the proceedings.^[5][6]

He was charged on three counts of the murder of Pte. Marshall Whitehead. One of the bullets taken from Whitehead’s body was of .45 calibre, while all witnesses stated that Barry was armed with a .38 Mauser Parabellum. The Judge Advocate General informed the court that the Crown had only to prove that the accused was one of the party that killed three British soldiers, and every member of the party was technically guilty of murder.^[5][6]

In accordance with military procedure the verdict was not announced in court. He was returned to Mountjoy, and at about 8 o’clock that night, the district court-martial officer entered his cell and read out the sentence: death by hanging. The public learned on 28 October that the date of execution had been fixed for 1 November.^[3][5][6]

Execution

Fr Albert, one of the last people to see Barry, recorded his final statement which was "The only message I have for anybody is hold on and stick to the Republic."^[5]

Kevin Barry spent the last day of his life preparing for death. His ordeal focussed world attention on Ireland. According to Sean Cronin, author of Kevin Barry, he hoped for a firing squad rather than the gallows, due to the fact that he had been condemned by a military court. A friend who visited him in Mountjoy prison after he received confirmation of the death sentence, said:

He is meeting death as he met life with courage but with nothing of the braggart. He does not believe that he is doing anything wonderfully heroic. Again and again he has begged that no fuss be made about him.

He reported Barry as saying

It is nothing, to give one’s life for Ireland. I’m not the first and maybe I won’t be the last. What’s my life compared with the cause?”^[5]

He joked about his death with his sister Kathy “Well, they are not going to let me like a soldier fall… But I must say they are going to hang me like a gentleman.” This was, according to Cronin, a reference to George Bernard Shaw’s The Devil’s Disciple, the last play Kevin and his sister had seen together.

On 31 October, he was allowed three visits of three people each, the last of which was taken by his mother, brother and sisters. In addition to the two Auxiliaries with him, there were five or six warders in the boardroom. As his family were leaving, they met Canon John Waters, on the way in, who said, “This boy does not seem to realise he is going to die in the morning.” Mrs Barry asked him what he meant. He said: “He is so gay and light-hearted all the time. If he fully realised it, he would be overwhelmed.” Mrs Barry replied, “Canon Waters, I know you are not a Republican. But it is impossible for you to understand that my son is actually proud to die for the Republic?” Canon Waters became somewhat flustered as they parted. The Barry family recorded that they were upset by this encounter because he was they considered the chief chaplain “the nearest thing to a friend that Kevin would see before his death, and he seemed so alien.”^[5][6]

Plaque placed by the Irish Government on the graves of the Volunteers

Kevin Barry was executed on 1 November, after hearing two Masses in his cell. Father Waters, who walked with him to the scaffold wrote to Barry’s mother later, “You are the mother, my dear Mrs. Barry, of one of the bravest and best boys I have ever known. His death was one of the most holy, and your dear boy is waiting for you now, beyond the reach of sorrow or trial.”^[3][6]

Dublin Corporation met on the Monday, and passed a vote of sympathy with the Barry family, and adjourned the meeting as a mark of respect. The Chief Secretary’s office in Dublin Castle, on the Monday night, released the following communiqué:

The sentence of death by hanging passed by court-martial upon Kevin Barry. or Berry, medical student, aged 18½ years, for the murder of Pte. Whitehead in Dublin on September 20, was duly executed this morning at Mountjoy Prison, Dublin. At a military court of inquiry, held subsequently in lieu of an inquest, medical evidence was given to the effect that death was instantaneous. The court found that the sentence had been carried out in accordance with law.^[5]

The body of Kevin Barry was buried at 1.30 p.m, in a plot near the women’s prison. His comrade and fellow-student Frank Flood was buried alongside him four months later. A plain cross marked their graves and those of Thomas Whelan, Patrick Moran. Thomas Bryan, Patrick Doyle, Bernard Ryan, Thomas Traynor, Edward Foley, and Patrick Maher who were also hanged in the same prison for their part in the War of Independence before the Treaty of July 1921.^[5][6] They became known in Republican circles as the "Forgotten Ten."^[16]

On 14 October 2001, the remains of Kevin Barry and the 9 other volunteers were given a state funeral and moved from Mountjoy Prison to be re-interred at Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin. Barry's is the first on the left.^[17]

Aftermath

Kevin Barry monument in Rathvilly, Co Carlow.

On 14 October 2001 the remains of Kevin Barry and 9 other volunteers from the War of Independence were given a state funeral and moved from Mountjoy Prison to be re-interred at Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin.

Barry's death is considered a watershed moment in the Irish conflict. His hanging came only days after the death on hunger strike of Terence MacSwiney - the Republican Lord Mayor of Cork - and brought public opinion to fever-pitch. His treatment and death attracted great international attention and attempts were made by U.S., British, and Vatican officials to secure a reprieve.

The only full-length biography of Kevin Barry was written by his nephew, the journalist Donal O'Donovan, and published in 1989 as Kevin Barry and his Time.

Kevin Barry is remembered in a well-known song about his imprisonment and execution, written shortly after his death and still sung today. The tune to "Kevin Barry" was taken from "Rolling Home to Dear Old Ireland".

His writings

During his time in school, he kept a journal in which he elaborated on a number of topics which interested him.^[3][6] Writing about ‘Kingship’ he expressed the following opinion:

the only surviving evil of the days when the people, the mob, were looked upon as dirt, as animals to serve the mighty king and his minions. When all believed or were forced to believe in the Divine Right of Kings…We are at present living in a time which marks the wane of this despotism,” and he continues, “In a day when the people are coming into their own. When the labourer — the backbone of every nation has the same vote and the same right to live as those noblemen who in former times had almost absolute power . . . The belief in the Divine Right of Kings is dying out and the thrones of Europe are tottering. Sentiments which would have shocked our king-worshipping forefathers are floating above in the air. Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité, the motto of the second greatest Republic in the world, will shortly become the war-cry of all and we hope our little island will not change her present views upon Kingship.”^[5]

One of his favourite books was A Tale of Two Cities, on which he wrote in his journal:

-

The chapters relating the out-break of Revolution are especially fine… They show how the patience of a long-suffering people is tested to the utmost; how they worked and plotted secretly to regain their freedom and how when the chance came they seized it. The outburst of long bottled-up fury, of pent-up hate, and long-standing grievances, is splendidly described.”^[3]

In an essay he wrote entitled ‘Prejudice’ he considered the subject of three angles: racial, religious and personal. He believed that racial prejudice was the worst of all:

-

It usually masks a much worse thing — oppression or tyranny. It is also divided into two classes, namely that of the white man against his coloured brother, for brother he is whether black, red, or yellow, and that of the white man against his fellow-white man of a different nation. The two combined form the origin of very many of the world’s greatest wars and slaughter.”^[5]

In another entitled “Uses of History,” he wrote:

-

The British have tried for 700 years to abolish Irish tradition and write false histories, but owing to the effects of the poets . . . they have failed.”^[3]

References

External links

• Article about Kevin Barry's life
• The Incident at Monk’s Bakery