Letter from Richard Mulcahy to Terence MacSwiney
Typescript letter from Risteárd Ó Maolchatha (Richard Mulcahy), Chief of Staff of the IRA, to Terence MacSwiney, expressing his alarm on hearing that he ‘had been going about Cork during the day and even staying at home and elsewhere at night without any protection’. Mulcahy added ‘I want you to try and realise what a blow it would be to our prestige, if, after, what has happened in Cork, you should be attacked without having a scrap of protection … . A simple general instruction is being issued
Details
- Level of description
- Item
- Date
- 8 Apr. 1920
- Reference
- 2
- Extent and medium
- 1 p.; Autograph typescript
- Scope and content
- Typescript letter from Risteárd Ó Maolchatha (Richard Mulcahy), Chief of Staff of the IRA, to Terence MacSwiney, expressing his alarm on hearing that he ‘had been going about Cork during the day and even staying at home and elsewhere at night without any protection’. Mulcahy added ‘I want you to try and realise what a blow it would be to our prestige, if, after, what has happened in Cork, you should be attacked without having a scrap of protection … . A simple general instruction is being issued on this matter, but you must understand that your position is unique …’. Manuscript annotation on the reverse: ‘Toirdhealbhach Mac Suibhne’.
- Repository
- Irish Capuchin Archives
- Context
- Irish Capuchin Archives > Capuchin Papers relating to the Irish Revolution > The Papers of Fr. Dominic O’Connor OFM Cap. > Papers relating to Terence MacSwiney
Annotations
Rights
- Rights
- Copyright held by the respective institution. Contact the archive for reproduction permissions.
Related Items
Extracted Mentions
People, places, and terms identified via handwriting recognition and named entity recognition.
Sample passages
- I was alarmed to hear that you had been going about Cork during the day and even staying at home and elsewhere at night without any protection. I want you to try and realise what a…
- Dear Terry,
Full Transcript (OCR, 1 pages)
Machine-generated OCR transcript. Handwritten material may contain recognition errors.
Page 1
Dublin, 8th. April, 1920. Dear Terry, I was alarmed to hear that you had been going about Cork during the day and even staying at home and elsewhere at night without any protection. I want you to try and realise what a blow it would be to our prestige, if, after what has happened in Cork, you should be attacked without having a scrap of protection. We could never live it down. We have adopted a system here of giving protection to all Volunteers who have received notices, and to any prominent public people so circumstanced, who will accept our protection. Usually in the case of Volunteers, they are required to stay away from their own homes, they have a man or two with them in whatever place they are sleeping, and a small number of men living in their immediate neighbourhood are warned to be on the alert for such attacks, and to lend a hand on the flank or in the rear in any such case. The matter of discrimination between military raiding and murder parties might be a difficult one for people who are not cool headed, but with cool headed and intelligent protection that difficulty should not be very great. In your own particular case it is absolutely essential in view of the circumstances, that you should have protection not only at night, but that you should have at least a couple of men whose business it will be to follow your movements and keep you under cover every day. You will understand no doubt that there is a possibility of your being attacked during the day, and will realise how necessary it would be in such a case to have a quiet eye or two, seeing exactly what happened, and ready to take action if feasible. My messenger spoke to you about this. A simple general instruction is being issued on this matter, but you must understand that your position is unique, and that we must be able to show in case of emergency that a simple "brainy" protection has been arranged, and something that will leave us some specimens of the attackers. Beir Beannacht, by me the one a cleared to part the man from beir the forgerman. Ryceston