showed the plan he had given me to Joe McGarrity and other members of the Executive Council but also stated that, in my opinion, the whole idea seemed rather haphazard and that I suspected the man had not told us all of his plan. The member became aggressively abusive and, in order not to show him our suspicions, I offered to resign as Secretary of the Clan na Gael but Joe McGarrity was incensed by the idea and would not accept it. I knew the Constitution and Rules quite well so, I sent for Major Enright and in Joe's presence, I explained that the Chairman (Joe) had power to elect an R.D. whose identity need only be known to himself while the other two need not be members of the Executive Council. "Therefore", I said to Joe. "you elect the Major and myself to it but I will resign from the Council so as not to create any suspicions in the mind of our man from North Cork." [142] Major Enright saw the logic right away and Joe was compelled to agree to my plan. The first thing we now had to do was to test the scheme of the man. After some delays and pressing, he finally had it all arranged. Plans were made for a Saturday morning a few weeks later. The new Secretary, Sean Hayes, and Tom McGuire were enlisted and all went well until the last moment when, suddenly, our man from North Cork called off the entire engagement. By then we were in a very precarious situation and only sheer luck and quick thinking saved all three of us from arrest and prevented the total loss of all our equipment. A report was sent to the Army Council who immediately expulsed the man from the Clan na Gael. It was known for some time that this member felt if his scheme proved successful, he would take advantage of it and ask the Army Council to secure him a job in Ireland. As a matter of fact he had made earlier arrangements to return to Ireland, there get this job and then remain there. Sure enough he did return to Ireland and actually secured a job with one of the new Government departments. We were only glad to see him go since our appraisal of him, right from the start, had proved to be very correct, indeed. Meanwhile, I was developing my own scheme regarding that equipment storage problem and I had the greatly valued assistance of Felix 01Byrne and McGuire. The entire plan turned out to be one hundred per cent successful. Credits for the execution of the plan were later assumed by one of our G.H.Q. officers while, in fact, the work had been carried out exclusively by well known soldiers formerly attached to Cork IRA Brigades. It was really a pity that this G.H.Q. men, resented the success achieved; and he made this very clear about four years later. Yet, it was probably just another proof of human vanity and the desire for personal self-glorification domineering over the furthering of national ideals. [143] At the next Convention of the Clan na Gael, the Chairman, John P. Sullivan of Boston, produced a receipt from the Army Council IRA for the equipment received. This immediately brought questions from two members one of whom insisted that all details be made known as to how the transfer was effected. The Chairman of the Executive Council, Joe McGarrity, as also Major Enright and Tadg Brosnan took the questioner sharply to task. I asked him why he wanted to know the details, instead of being just satisfied that the operation had been carried out successfully. I took that opportunity to remind him of the damage that had been done by Brennan Whitmore's book - on Frongoch when we, unfortunately, had disclosed too much to the British as he put every bit of that confidential information into his book. I then added that the same mistake should and would never be made again. We then explained to the man that the same plan and method might possibly have to be used again and for that reason alone it could not be disclosed to anyone. It is quite significant that the very man who demanded the detailed information returned to Ireland and was working for the De Valera Government within a matter of six months! His companion whom we did not know much of, at the time, nor indeed, did we know of his conduct in 1922, soon left the Clan na Gael. ("Good riddance" was my only commentary then - and now.) 15 It came as a severe shock to all of us when Joe McGarrity, through the error of one of his clerks, lost his seat on the Curb Exchange, a most cruel blow since Joe had borrowed practically all of the initial $230,000 that were required for the purchase of the seat. Joe was truly on the edge of total despair and the entire situation was, indeed, a hopeless one. One night in 1933, he telephoned and asked me if I could come and see him in Philadelphia. I told him that, of course, I would come and would try and catch the next train. Before going to
15 A note from the editor here asks that Connie “insert here appropriate years i.e. 1934 and 1935. You mention only 1936 on p.150”
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