The day that Mick Leahy, Seamus Fitzgerald and Liam O’Brien were shipped out from Cork to face internment, was the same day that Thomas Kent of Castlelyons was executed at the place they were now vacating, the Detention (Collins) Barracks Cork. A special train was laid on to take the Cork Rebels including MacCurtain, McSwiney and many others to Richmond Barracks in Dublin to be processed and face either internment or execution.
As the scores of defiant and proud prisoners were marched into the railway station to be taken off to face their fates, their high spirits were temporarily interrupted while they tried to spare a thought and a prayer for their comrade Tom Kent. Little did they know it on that ominous morning as they began to board the train, that one day in the future, the people of Cork would honour the memory of Thomas Kent by renaming that very railway station after him.
Arrest of Thomas Kent
As the train pulled away from the station, Seamus Fitzgerald decided to break the silence by recalling a conversation he had with Tom Kent a number of weeks earlier. The men had been discussing the poor state of affairs around the arms situation and how badly armed some companies were at the time. That was about five weeks before Easter and when neither man knew about plans for the pending rising or of a planned shipment of arms coming in from Germany. Kent suggested at the time that they should start manufacturing their own pikes. The Cobhman now thought about poor Tom Kent and how if he and his family had tried to defend their home against a superiorly armed RIC with mere steel pikes, how he wouldn’t have lived to face trial or execution now. Fitzgerald must also have wondered in the aftermath of the rising, that were they ever to defeat their foe, they would have to match them with fire power.
When they arrived, Richmond Barracks was already full of prisoners. The Cobh men were placed in a room with 90 others. Mick Leahy got lucky and managed to slip a friendly sentry a note to send back home to his mother. This was the first bit of news to reach Cobh of their whereabouts. This enabled the Cobh Urban Council to send its Chairman Grogan and its Town Clerk Campbell to visit the Cobh prisoners. While there, they also managed to get special permission to see Count Plunkett. A couple of days later, Mary and Annie MacSwiney and Miss Murphy got to visit Terrance. The men were soon separated, with Leahy, MacSwiney and MacCurtain being kept on at Richmond Barracks pending Court-martial. This never happened however, and they were eventually moved to Wakefield Detention Barracks in Yorkshire. Later they were moved to Frongoch in Wales where MacCurtain was Commandant of the South Camp for a while, then onto Wandsworth where they were released by the end of the year.
Sketches of Frongoch internment camp
In the meantime, while Leahy, MacCurtain and MacSwiney and others who participated in the Dublin rising were enjoying political status at Frongoch Camp, Seamus Fitzgerald was communicating to the outside world with reports of a far contrasting regime that was operating in Wakefield Camp. It would appear from messages he was having smuggled out, that the camp policy was at times harsh and brutal, much different to the Frongoch camp.
On 30 May he wrote to his mother claiming the prison authorities were releasing men daily in lots of twenty. He also said he had a visit from a nurse who was informed of his whereabouts from the Mother Superior in Cobh. By 1 June, he received his first letter from home. The brief letter from M. Cotter of 7 Albert Terrace Cobh, basically asked how he was and passed on best wishes from Lily Twomey and Dan Collins. The next day, he received a letter from his brother Paddy with a message from his mother saying a deputation from Dublin was to meet (British Prime Minister) Asquith for their release. She also expressed hope that his friends would be sent to the same camp to keep him company. He wrote again to his mother on 5 June, thanking her for the food parcel but noted that the Bovril was confiscated. He was anxious about Patrick after being saved from the wreck of the Black Prince and relieved that father, a seaman was not involved. By 6 June, his cousin William Fitzgerald in Durham wrote informing him that his letter had earlier escaped the censor and was passed on by the Mother Superior at Wakefield. “It’s impossible for me to try and console you after reading your letter. What wrong did you ever do that you should be made suffer so much, and to think that I was compelled to join the British army and my countrymen being victimised like they are”. The letter finished with William wishing he could trade places with his cousin the martyr.
On June 10, Fitzgerald wrote to his mother again and told her that 100 men had been transferred to Frongoch and didn’t know if he’d follow. He complained that there no word to his appeal and feared the Police at Cobh were blocking it. By June 13th, a jolly and humorous letter arrived from Ann Hannon, “to show some of the Cailini had not forgotten ye”. Tell Mick Leahy we were asking about him and don’t you boys get too fat in there. The Gaelic League branch has closed following ye’re arrest. PS, don’t tell anyone that I wrote to you as I wouldn’t like it to go around. That same day, Fitzgerald wrote to his mother, stating that if it weren’t for the food parcels that he was receiving from the outside, he would probably be dead bynow. Two prisoners had already died in here, he wrote, “Thank god for the Superior of the local convent who gives me a sandwich daily, how I long for bacon or ham.” He continued by stating he couldn’t understand why he has not been released and said he received word from Mick Leahy who told him the condition in Richmond were excellent. He also said he a received a letter from Leo Ring who was still in Frongoch.
The next day a letter arrived from a Volunteer back home Michael Hennessy, enquiring how he was and who could visit him. Hennessy, who would later share office with Fitzgerald on the Urban Council, pressed his comrade to report all ill treatment happening in the camp, “Your Countrymen at home will not have it.”
While there is no written record of the third Cobhman Liam O’Brien or where he was held during this period, we know that he must have been captive under an equally harsh regime and undergone a similar experiences to that suffered by Fitzgerald, as records would later reveal that O’Brien, the Cobh based chemist and Limerick born IRB man, died soon after his release at the end of 1916. By 1920, the local Sinn Fein Cumann would honour O’Brien by bearing his name.
By the time Leahy and Fitzgerald were released at the end of the year however, things were changed dramatically with public opinion over the rising and towards the Volunteers having turned in their favour. The Cork Examiner gave the following report at the time. “A very large crowd gathered at the railway station for the arrival of the two naval dockyard workers Jim Fitzgerald and Michael Leahy who were interned following the outbreak of the Rising. Among those welcoming the men home were the Chairman and Town Clerk of the UDC. On alighting from the train, the crowd broke over the barriers and lifted the two men shoulder high and carried them through the town singing nationalist songs and cheering vociferously. At the request of the homecomers, no band played.”
While Leahy and Fitzgerald arrived back home amid hero status, it is interesting to note how the political and security establishment were viewing them before and after the rising. What is known from Colonial Office records is that District Inspector Armstrong of the Cobh RIC, had made a written recommendation to the Admiralty on 13th April, a full week and a half before the rising, that five Haulbowline employees should discharged from employment there for being Volunteers and that such dismissals would have a good effect on the remaining employees. The memo referred to Leahy, Fitzgerald and an Arthur Hurley of Friars Walk Cork by name. It went onto to say the two Cobh men had been observed proceeding to Cork on 17t March (St Patricks Day) for a parade.
By 8th August, an irate District Inspector Armstrong reported to his Special Brach superiors at Dublin Castle, informing them that Leahy and Fitzgerald had been reinstated in their former positions as apprentices in the Haulbowline Dockyard. The Admiral had informed him that the men had not been found guilty of any offence and after being interviewed by him they had been given directions that they were to be watched carefully. On August 24th, the Vice-Admiral commanding, wrote to the local RIC asking if Leahy and Fitzgerald were arrested and if they had cleared themselves of all complicity in rebellious activities?
D.I Armstrong of Westview Barracks, wrote back stating that Fitzgerald was secretary of the local branch of the Volunteers while Leahy was its Captain, and they were in close touch with its Headquarters at Dawson Street, Dublin. It continued… the Rebellion would have taken place in Cork only for; (a) The capture of the Aud and its subsequent sinking. (b) The arrest of Casement and (c) The cancellation of parades by McNeill who is head of the Irish Volunteers.
Westview RIC barracks in ruins at the end of the Civil War
D.I. Armstrong went on, “In the event of the Rising having taken place in Cork, these men would have been involved. I do not know the reason why these men were released on the 4th. Leahy is still dangerous and shouldn’t be re-employed in His Majesty’s Dockyard. I do not consider Fitzgerald so dangerous now.” wrote the Inspector.
While Fitzgerald’s experience at Wakefield was undoubtedly a rough one and left him somewhat traumatised and not the best for wear, the intelligence of the local RIC and what D.I. Armstrong was relying upon in relation to Fitzgerald was definitely unreliable to say the least. In a follow-up progress report sent to the Crime Special Branch, Dublin Castle on 9th September, D.I Armstrong reiterated the opinion that James Fitzgerald was not considered dangerous and that his term of internment had had a salutary effect on him. The report went to state Fitzgerald’s older brother Paddy had severed all links to the Irish Volunteers and Sinn Fein.
It was perhaps this last comment by the D.I Inspector that showed the weakness in the RIC’s intelligence, since there is no record of mention of Paddy Fitzgerald having ever being a Volunteer or Sinn Fein member. Seamus’s younger brother Thomas was a member of na Fianna Eireann and another brother Michael, would soon follow and become a member. The latter would fight in the Civil War and would personally become known to this author in later years. These were the only other Fitzgerald family members directly involved in the republican struggle.
By 11 December, D.I. Armstrong found himself back-tracking a little on Seamus Fitzgerald when reporting to Dublin Castle. He stated that as far he was aware, there were no Sinn Fein activities in the district and that Queenstown hadn’t any Sinn Fein clubs. There was however, a GAA club, ‘The McDonagh Football Club’ and it was possible that Sinn Feiner’s met in the rooms. He added that the club had been established by Michael Leahy, James Fitzgerald and John Stack. The three were responsible for the payment of the rent of 15d a week. Two months later, Armstrong was back onto his superiors at the Castle, informing them that he was now satisfied the GAA club was a front for Sinn Feiner’s who now numbered sixty five, and that Leahy, Fitzgerald and Stack were pulling its strings.
Next Week – The Formation of the Irish Volunteers Cobh In 1913
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