Dan Breen

Dan Breen (seated) with Seán Hogan and Ned O'Brien in Chicago

Daniel "Dan" Breen ( Irish Dónall Ó Braoin ; born August 11, 1894 in Grange , Donohill , County Tipperary ; † December 27, 1969 ) was a volunteer in the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War . In later years he was a politician for the Fianna Fáil Republican Party .

Dan Breen was a member of the Third Tipperary Brigade of the IRA, which first consisted of him and the three other officers Seán Treacy , Seán Hogan and Séamus Robinson . Another five volunteers then joined with Tadhg Crowe, Mick McCormack, Paddy O'Dwyer, Michael Ryan and Sean O'Meara.

Life

Dan Breen was born in Grange, Donohill Ward, County Tipperary. His father died when Breen was six years old, raising him in extremely poor conditions.

Breen received local training before working as a plasterer and later as a route maintenance officer for Great Southern Railways .

revolutionary

Dan Breen joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood in 1912 and the Irish Republican Independence Movement in 1914 . The first meeting of the unicameral parliament of the revolutionary Irish Republic took place on January 21, 1919 in Dublin . Breen considered himself a "first line soldier". He was involved with seven other men in the Soloheadbeg raid on January 21, 1919 , led by Seán Treacy. They ambushed two officers, James McDonnell and Patrick O'Connell of the Royal Irish Constabulary , who were escorting explosives to a quarry. Both were fatally wounded. This ambush is believed to be the first incident in the Irish War of Independence . Breen later recalls:

"... we took this action on purpose. We discussed and considered everything together. Treacy told me that someone had to be killed before war could break out; and we wanted to start a war. So we planned to kill the first police officers we would see who would belong to an important division of the enemy forces ... However, we regret that only two instead of six police officers were present during the action as originally expected. "

- Dan Breen, History Ireland, May 2007, p. 56.

A few weeks later, known as the "Big Four," Treacy, Breen and Hogan met with Robinson and went into hiding for the months to come. They moved from house to house, stayed with sympathizers or slept in the open air.

During the conflict, the British offered a reward of £ 1,000 for the capture of Berne, which was later increased to £ 10,000. Breen quickly established himself as the leader of the Irish Republican Army (IRA). He was known for his courage.

Hogan was captured by the Royal Irish Constabulary in May 1919. His capture sparked a dramatic conflict of war. Treacy, Breen and Robinson, followed by men from the East Limerick Brigade , freed the handcuffed Seán Hogan on May 13, 1919 at gunpoint from a heavily guarded train led by four Royal Irish Constabulary officers at Knocklong Station in the county Limerick . Hogan would certainly have been executed had he not been freed. Two Royal Irish Constabulary | were killed during the liberation of Hogan. Breen and Treacy were seriously wounded. Breen recalls that the Catholic Church immediately condemned his battalion as cold-blooded assassins. After the fight, Treacy, Séamus Robinson and Breen traveled to Dublin to meet Michael Collins . He suggested Breen and Hogan go into hiding and go to the USA . Both turned down the offer, however, telling Collins that they would stay in Ireland to continue the fight. They agreed that they would "fight their way naturally".

The British reaction to this was to declare Tipperary a military zone with a curfew, which could only be reached with a travel permit. Headquarters authorized volunteers to launch attacks on barracks. Richard Mulcahy said that British politics “should have pushed the tumultuous spirits like Breen and Treacy into the Dublin area”. The experience of the principles of guerrilla war carried out became an essential part of general war exercises. When Tipperary finally became "too hot" for them and Dublin became the center of the war, they joined the counterintelligence commando "The Twelve Apostles" founded by Michael Collins, later also known as the Dublin Guard .

In December 1919 there was another attack in Ashtown next to Phoenix Park in Dublin, in which Breen was also present. Martin Savage planned to assassinate John French, 1st Earl of Ypres , and died in the process. The IRA was hiding behind hedges when a convoy of vehicles passed by. They were told to ignore the first vehicle, but it was John French. The road blockade failed because a police officer removed a wagon from the blockade, which was supposed to be used to stop the approaching vehicle.

After escaping the Dublin Metropolitan Police , Breen and Sean Treacy spent the night of October 20, 1920 at the Fernside House on Home Farm Road . After the house was raided by the army and police, Breen and Traecy had to shoot their way through the British military zone in the northern suburb of Drumcondra . They escaped, but Treacy was killed the next day. Breen was hit at least four times, two of them in the lungs.

Breen strictly opposed the Anglo-Irish treaty , which made him and many others angry and bitter:

“I would never have picked up a gun, fired another shot to get this contract… Letter on the second anniversary of Martin Savage's death. Do you think he would have sacrificed his life trying to kill a British Governor General to make way for another British Governor General? "

- Dan Breen, in a letter to Comdt McKeon dated December 19, 1921

In the election on June 16, 1922 , Breen was nominated as a candidate by supporters and opponents of the treaty, but not elected.

Irish Civil War

During the general election at the Assembly of Ireland on August 27, 1923, Breen was elected as an opposing Republican candidate to Teachta Dála (Member of the Parliamentary House of Commons) for the constituency of Tipperary.

According to the Anglo-Irish Treaty, Breen joined the Irish-Republican Organization Anti-Treaty in the Civil War and fought against his former comrades in arms who supported the treaty.

He was placed under arrest by the National Army and detained in Limerick Detention Center. He spent two months there before going on a hunger strike for six days and then a thirst strike for six days. After that, Breen was released.

marriage

Marriage of Dan Breen and Brigid Malone (seated) to Seán Hogan and Aine Malone (standing)

On June 12, 1921, during the War of Independence, Breen married Brigid Malone, who belonged to the paramilitary organization Cumann na mBan , which was founded on April 2, 1914 in Dublin. They had met in Dublin when Brigid was treating him for a gunshot wound.

Seán Hogan was bridesmaid and Brigid's sister Aine Malone was the bridesmaid. Photos of the wedding celebrations were published by Séan Sharkey in The Tipperary Third Brigade a photographic record . At the time, Breen was the most wanted man in Ireland. Although South Tipperary was under martial law, a grand wedding ceremony was held. The wedding took place in Purcell's "Glenagat House" in New Inn . Many members of the Third Tipperary Brigade attended the celebrations. Including the leaders of the Flying Column , a small military and independent land unit, Dinny Lacey and Hogan.

The Breens had two children, Donal and Granya.

politics

In 1924 Breen wrote a book about his guerrilla days, Mein Kampf For Irish Freedom . As a Republican, he represented Tipperary in 1923 together with Éamon de Valera and Frank Aiken as members of the Fourth Dáil Parliament . He was the first opponent to receive a seat in 1927. In June 1927 he was defeated in the elections and traveled to the USA , where he opened a speakeasy . In 1932 he returned to Ireland and won a seat as a member of the Republican Party in the annual election . During the Second World War , Breen was tasked with keeping watch over the Axis powers . Until his retirement he represented his constituency in Tipperary without interruption until the 1965 election.

death

In 1969 Dan Breen was buried near his birthplace, Donohill . His funeral was the largest in West Tipperary since the funeral of his best friend and comrade Seán Treacy in Kilfeacle in October 1920. An estimated 100,000 mourners gathered in the small village to pay their final respects.

Breen was the subject of a 2007 biography Dan Breen and the IRA by Joseph F. Ambrose .

Works

• Dan Breen: My fight for Irish freedom . Dublin: Anvil 1921
• Dan Breen: On The Run ( On The Run )

literature

• Joe Ambrose: Dan Breen and the IRA . Mercier Press 2007, ISBN 978-1-85635-506-3
• Joost Augusteijn: From Public Defiance to Guerilla Warfare: The Experience of Ordinary Volunteers in the War of Independence 1916–1921. Dublin 1996
• Charles Dalton: With the Dublin Brigade (1917–1921) . London 1929
• Gloria Maguire: The Political and Military Causes of the Division in the Irish Nationalist Movement, January 1921 to August 1921 , DPhil thesis, Oxford University 1985.
• Desmond Ryan: Sean Treacy and the Third Tipperary Brigade . Tralee 1945
• Charles Townshend: Easter Rising 1916: The Irish Rebellion . London 2005
• Charles Townshend: The Republic: The Fight for Irish Independence . London 2014

Web links

• Music and lyrics for Ballad of Dan Breen on irish-folk-songs.com
• Music and lyrics for Galtee Mountain Boy on irish-folk-songs.com
• Breen the Gunman: A Blurred Line on prenhall.com
• Dan Breen on ricorso.net

Individual evidence

1. ^ Dan Breen: My fight for Irish freedom . Anvil, Dublin 1981, ISBN 978-0-900068-58-4 , p. 19.
2. ^ Charles Townshend: The Republic: The Fight for Irish Independence . London 2014, p. 73.
3. ↑ Sean Mcconville: Irish Political Prisoners 1848-1922: Theaters of War . Routledge, 2005, ISBN 978-0-203-98716-2 , p. 663.
4. ↑ Remembering the Past: Gearing up for war: Soloheadbeg 1919 . Retrieved January 23, 2016.
5. ↑ RootsWeb: CoTipperary-L Dan Breen . Archived from the original on January 29, 2016. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved January 23, 2016. 
6. ^ Charles Townshend: The Republic: The Fight for Irish Independence . London 2014, p. 80 f.
7. ^ Seamus Robinson, National Library of Ireland (NLI) MS 21265 .; In: Irish Independent , May 21, 1919.
8. ^ Maryann Valiulis: Portrait of a Revolutionary: General Richard Mulcahy and the founding of the Irish Free State. Dublin 1992, p. 39.
9. ^ Richard Mulcahy: Commentary upon Piaras Beaslai's Michael Collins , UCDA (University College Dublin Archive) P7 / D / I / 67, quoted from Townshend, p. 106.
10. ↑ “Lord French was not destined to die by an Irish bullet.” Cf. Dan Breen: With the IRA in the fight for freedom. Tralee 1955, p. 45 f.
11. ^ General election 1922: Waterford-Tipperary East . In: ElectionsIreland.org . Retrieved February 26, 2009.
12. ^ Neil Sharkey: The Tipperary Third Brigade - a photographic record. In: Tipperary Historical Journal , 1994 (PDF)
13. ^ Booth Family Center for Special Collections - Georgetown University Library . Archived from the original on June 13, 2010. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved January 23, 2016. 
14. ↑ Dan Breen . In: ElectionsIreland.org . Retrieved April 29, 2012.
15. ^ Ian S. Wood: Britain, Ireland and the Second World War. Edinburgh University Press, 2010