There we stowed away for two days, with poor Tadg violently sea-sick all the way. One truly feels sorry for one [52] who is so miserably ill but, under the circumstances, nothing could be done about it. Then, we finally arrived and, getting off at the Steam Packet side in Cork, we went home. Barely five weeks later, poor Tadg was killed in Douglas Street by a mixed group of Back and Tans and members of the R.I.C. from Union Quay Barracks. Due to the great danger of being caught in Douglas Street, I had issued strict order, in my capacity as O.C. that no member of the IRA was to either go, meet, or congregate there under any circumstances. It was unfortunately on Monday when Tadg came in to collect some materials and, racing through Sean Hennessy’s home in Douglas Street, he was shot dead on the spot by Hicks and other Black and Tans. His death was a great loss to us as Tadg had always been an excellent and most courageous soldier. Prior to joining the IRA, Tadg has been in charge of the local chapter of Fianna na hEireann. It was during my time in London that Sam McGuire and Frank Thornton had told me about the Wilson affair. Sir Henry Wilson was one of the most bitterly anti-Irish members in the British Government, always ready and able to force the most severe excesses on the Irish people. When fighting an inferior force, he could only be described as a criminally-minded, ruthless bully. It was he, too, who was later responsible for the [advocating] of the Belfast pogroms during which many Catholics were brutally and mercilessly murdered by the Orange henchmen. In London, at that time, our people had a constant watch on Lloyd George, Henry Wilson, and Bonar Law - a network that went all the way to Oxford - while Churchill's movements were also known to our people. All four of these men were responsible for organising and sending over to Ireland the infamous Black and Tans, (the majority of them had been inmates of English prisons and many serving long terms for serious crimes) there to invoke all forms of torture and terrorism against the civilian population. No matter how fiendish their deeds, how cruel their savagery, they were promised protection and complete immunity from arrest. While in Holborn, I also met Reggie Dunne and Joe Sullivan, resuming the contact that same year, 1921, in December. For my first trip to London, I had been given two main assignments: 1) To assist dealing with the man from Cork Barracks, connected with British Intelligence. 2) The planned escape from Pentonville of Tom Hares. [53] Furthermore, there was also some work to be carried out regarding the acquisition of ammunition, as well as being sent to Liverpool to work with Frank Thornton and Sam both to deliver certain messages, making and maintaining contacts, etc. It was late in the year 1921, that Sean Hegarty, the Brigade O.C. asked Mick Murphy and me to go to London giving us several assignments, including the order to try and catch up with "Monkey" McDonnell, a noted British spy from Cork City. Monkey's activities wreaked havoc with the lives and security of all those he disliked, and that concerned particularly people on our side who lived on the South Side of Cork City, where Monkey lived in the Evergreen section. Apart from his spying activities, he had become very adept at stealing and burglarising, hence his hostility towards those whom he victimised. One morning, I believe it was in May 1921, and while I was walking along the Ban Road, I suddenly saw a Crossly tender approaching; immediately I ducked and fled through a bakery. I did not know that Frank Buckler was right behind me who had a very difficult time to get away. Just one week later, and from an armoured car, Frank was arrested by Monkey outside the Assembly Rooms on the South Mall. Monkey told Frank then that he had spotted him, and also myself, that morning in Bandon Road during the previous week. Monkey was a strange character, he was as unpredictable as we was unreliable. For example, and strangely enough, when Mick Murphy was caught and identified himself by the alias of "Jack O'Brien", Monkey was brought into the interrogation room and asked whether he knew the arrested man. Without blinking an eye and quite calmly, Monkey stated that he did not know and had never seen the prisoner! The fact was that Monkey not alone knew Mick but had previously gone to Mick Murphy's home there to protest that he was not a spy. Monkey's father, who was a barber, took his family to live in London. This we learned through Tessie Bourke, who had formerly lived on Bandon Road, was then working in London and saw Monkey's father in Knightsbridge, London. She passed this information on
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