to her brother George, a member of G. Company, 2nd. Battalion (also an active service unit), he then told me and I, in turn, passed the word on to Sean Hegarty, Brigade O.C. It was then that Mick Murphy and I set out for London. On arrival I contacted Sam Maguire, who used to frequent the "safe" house of Mooney's in Holborn, and he put the "boy" (our scout) right away to tail Monkey's father. With the help of Tessie Bourke, I had identified [54] and described Monkey's Dad, so the scout was all prepared and knew exactly whom to look for. The "tailing" went on for a whole week - it was from Knightsbridge right on to Hammersmith where the McDonnell's lived, night after night - but no sign of Monkey! Then a tip came to us that we were to study the newspapers. This we did and soon found out that "our" Monkey was doing a stretch of seven years in prison for robbery!! The papers had even reported what the Judge said to him on sentencing .... "Apparently, you were not satisfied with falling into easy money when you were in Ireland!" Thinking back over this whole enigma, called "Monkey", there is no doubt but that he had a compulsion going out of his way to hurt innocent people whom he happened to dislike for some reason, or with whom he had had some personal row previously. That is the probable reason and explanation why he arrested some, raided the homes of others, yet, left still others completely untouched and even shielded them as in Mick Murphy’s case. One man Monkey was extremely bitter against, was the late George Sisk This got so bad and as we coulf not protect George, that – at the request of George’s brother-in-law, the late Billy Dennehy we had to send George to Cardiff or Swansea where he had to stay for several months and until the truce came. In addition to catching up with Monkey McDonnell, we had been given several other assignments, among them: A. Contacting J. McDermott of Islington. This was in connection with a car which was taken from the British Auxiliaries and sent there. It brought a cheque for £350 which I collected and handed to Mick Murphy, Christmas, 1921. B. Guns and ammunition which were purchased for us by our rep in London from a man living in the East End of London, whom I knew, and who worked in Woolwich Arsenal. These purchases we crated, labelled, and invoiced, all disguised as "machinery" and, within the span of ten days they all got safely to Cork via ship. C. Similar weapons purchase in South London, in this operation we were aided by a man nicknamed "Peggy", as also by Officer Sugrue of Castlegregory (now in the London Police), who was extremely sympathetic to us and to our cause, and all of whose family were active Republicans. Our meeting place [35] for that operation was the pub of the Mullaly brothers in Walworth Road, all of them very active in the Irish cause and ever ready to help. At first, Sean Cleary too had given us invaluable help but then, unfortunately, he was caught with ammunition and was sentenced to a term in prison. But all those latter purchases were also successfully completed and, safely, found their way to Cork. During that time Tom Hales was finally released from Parkhurst prison. It seems that Michael Collins had made a special plea for his release after signing the Treaty. Tom stayed at Mrs. Egan's home in Dalston where Mick Murphy and I also found shelter. When Tom learned of the divisions that the Treaty had caused at home, he went back to Dublin together with Mick Murphy while I remained in London to complete the assignments I had been given. This took me about another week and then I, too, returned first to Dublin and then on to Cork. Returning to Cork after my release from jail in March 1921, I found the City very restless and an extremely dangerous place to live in. Yet, underground activities were resumed right away, including regular visits to Brigade Headquarters whose location was known to only a very few of us and also to a youth Michael O'Leary, our messenger who, daily, delivered orders and took back reports. He visited the “safe" houses every morning. A boy scout from Blackpool, Michael had served first under Florrie O'Donoghue. On Florrie's promotion to Divisional Headquarters as Divisional Adjutant, Michael later served under George Buckley who took over the position of Adjutant of Cork No. 1. Brigade. Toward the end of April 1921, Tommy Herlihy of G. Company', 2nd Battalion told me that a civilian who worked in Cork Barracks in the Intelligence Department had approached him and offered his services. Tommy's family had a newspaper shop in Barracks St which was an excellent cover. So, and after Tommy had talked to me, I met the civilian from Cork Barracks, who lived off Bandon Road, and suggested to him that he bring us some classified
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