FROM THE ARCHIVES:
A Dáil debate on IRA pensions in 1932 lifted the lid on some Civil War activities as Fianna Fáil's Frank Aiken and Cumann na nGaedheal's Richard Mulcahy revealed what each other's forces did.
THE HIGH light of last night’s debate on the Committee stage of the I.R.A. Pensions Bill was the dramatic disclosure by the Minister for Defence that in 1923 the late Mr. Kevin O’Higgins wrote to Mr. Cosgrave refusing to sit in his Government unless drastic action were taken to deal with members of the Free State Army who had committed outrages.
One purpose of the discussion of this Pensions Bill is certainly serving. It is bringing to light the secret history of the Civil War days of 1922 and 1923. Last week the process was begun by Mr. Mulcahy. Yesterday it was continued by Mr. Aiken.
In June 1923, Mr. Aiken informed the House, seizing the first opportunity to reply to revelations which Mr. Mulcahy made of the terrorist activities of the Republican forces, three members of the pro-Treaty Army went to a doctor’s house at Kenmare, dragged out the doctor’s daughters in their night attire, beat them with a Sam Browne belt and rubbed grease in their hair. Mr. Aiken read a letter which Mr. O’Higgins wrote to Mr. Cosgrave, who was President of the Executive Council.
Mr. Aiken has not an effective diction, which is a pity; for it spoiled the reading of a most dramatic document. He read a letter in which Mr. O’Higgins drew attention to the effect which the actions of undisciplined members of the Army was likely to have on the other members, and demanded drastic action in a “decent” way. “If the case referred to is not dealt with, I cannot join any future Government,” Mr. O’Higgins said. “I cannot accept the position that any political exigency can condone an outrage of that kind.”
This was the first of Mr. Aiken’s two disclosures. It occurred while the House was dealing with a series of amendments, in the name of Mr. Mulcahy, to withhold pensions from rebels who had become casualties while attempting to kill or destroy the property of members of the Oireachtas, the Judiciary, the Civic Guards, or the Press, or of civilians.
Mr. Aiken’s other contribution to the unwritten history of Ireland’s troubled times went back a little further, to the pre-Treaty days. It concerned the burning of trains, a subject which Mr. Mulcahy happened to be discussing when he moved his next amendment, which aimed at withholding pensions from rebels who became casualties when destroying public property.
“I, myself,” the Minister proclaimed, when he replied to Mr. Mulcahy, “have burned sixteen trains, at Deputy Mulcahy’s orders. And I was patted on the back for doing it.”
What happened when Mr. Mulcahy was Mr. Aiken’s superior officer had, the House felt, nothing to do with the case.
“What is more,” he added, “I burned them, not with petrol, but with whiskey.”
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