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declaration…and because it refused to allow the Volunteer Organisation to become a recruiting ground for the British Army.’ 4pp
(2) Accounts of Active Service, 1916 – 1923 (1 item, 19pp)
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April 1916 – March 1923 Typescript accounts by Riobárd Langford of his active service in the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Republican Army. Ten periods are described. Period One (23 April 1916) includes; ‘officially gazetted’ as a Lieutenant of Company C, 1 st Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade in the ‘Irish Volunteer’. Describes aborted Volunteer action in Cork at Easter 1916, including trip to Macroom, a plan to derail an armoured train, armed duty at the Sheares Street Hall, the surrender of arms to the government following representations of Bishop Colohan and the Lord Mayor, and his loss of employment at the Cork Examiner due to his Volunteer activity. Notes that the men were ‘hourly expecting to fight…and were bitterly opposed to enforced inaction’. Period Two (1 April 1916 – 22 April 1916) includes; activities in the build up to Easter week including transfer of guns to the custody of Sean Moylan of Kiskeam, armed duty at the Volunteer Hall protecting Commandant Tomás Mac Curtain and Vice Commandant Terence MacSweeney who were sleeping on the premises, ‘hourly expecting news from Dublin Headquarters’. Says he attended an officers’ training camp, and ‘personally mobilised every available man…for parade…on Friday night for the purpose of making final arrangements for duty on Easter Sunday’. Period Three (1 April 1917 – 31 March 1918) includes; Continuous Active Service; Member of F Company, Dublin Brigade, in possession of a rifle which was received from Liam Archer, attended meetings of the Irish Republican Brotherhood at 42 Parnell Square, returned to Cork where he intensively trained ‘C’Company including Dan Donovan, Tom Crofts and Florence O’Donoghue. Personally oversaw the Grammar School Raid which captured 47 rifles from an officers’ training corps building. Also carried out organising work in West Cork representing Cork Headquarters.
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