The Pearsons of Coolacrease
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TRIBUNE, 7th November, 2007 Exclusive Tribune Feature PAGE FIFTEEN The following exclusive Tribune feature on the Pearsons is partly based on two illustrated lectures Philip McConway gave this year. The first lecture on 15 January at the Offaly Historical and Archaeological Society (OHAS) in Tullamore was entitled ‘Spies, Informers, and Militant Loyalists: The Intelligence War in Offaly 1920-21.’ The article also contains material taken from a lecture he delivered to Birr Historical Society ‘The South Offaly No. 2 Brigade Irish Republican Army, 1920-21’ on 15 October. The recent RTÉ Hidden History documentary The Killings at Coolacrease referred to him as the author of the ‘The IRA in Offaly, 1920-21.’ This is inaccurate. This was the subject of an M.Phil thesis which will be published at a later date. In his contribution, which was heavily edited, he was also quoted as saying the Pearson women were present at the execution. This is not his position having reassessed all the available evidence some months ago. On 25 September he notified this position in writing to the director stating it was dubious the Pearson women witnessed the execution. J.J. Horan arrested and Peter Lyons, Intelligence imprisoned in Tullamore Jail. John Dillon, a victim of the Officer, ‘D’ Drumcullen Michael McCormack, O/C. Michael Cordial wearing a He was later interned in the Pearson’s informing activities. Company. Peripheral involve- 3rd Southern Division (Offaly, Free State Army uniform Rath Camp, Curragh. The He was imprisoned in ment in the Pearson execu- Laois and North Tipperary). where he served with the rank Pearsons were widely believed Thomas Burke, GHQ organis- Tullamore Jail and later trans- tions supplying a rifle to the He was critical of the No. 2 of Lieutenant. He was the IRA to be responsible for his er and later O/C Offaly No. 2 ferred to the Rath Internment Active Service Unit (ASU) who Brigade’s poor sniping abili- 3rd Battalion’s (Kilcormac) William Pearson William Stanley arrest. Brigade IRA. Camp. acted as the firing squad. ties. quartermaster. disgusting hypocrisy and profani- ThePART 1 Pearsonsty, and a moral nuisance in the Of Coolacrease neighbourhood.’ In an article in BACKGROUND the Impartial Reporter (13 July, THE Pearson family owned an 1917), the sect was described as ‘a extensive 341 acre farm at movement which most sane peo- Coolacrease, over a mile from ple would regard as mischievous.’ Cadamstown and four miles from Michael Cordial and Peter Lyons, members of the Offaly Hurling COONEYITES PROVOKE Junior team which won the Leinster Junior Title in 1915. The Kinnity. Originally a native of the HOSTILE REACTION Ballygeehan townland in Co. Such was the intense anger the Cordial brothers were renowned for their hurling skill in Offaly Laois, William Pearson bought the sect incited, whole communities land in 1911 for £2,000. He avoid- and New York. There was a crossover of membership between the often turned against them. On GAA and IRA. To what extent this applied to Offaly requires fur- ed employing local labourers to occasion Edward Cooney received work the sizable farm. He police protection because of the ther research. explained how he saved the fury he fermented amongst the a number of Volunteers surround- of his wounds in the County expense of hiring workmen as general public. In Newtownards ‘one man interested in the work ed the Pearson’s house. Other Infirmary eight days later leaving the townspeople threatened to Volunteers went to where Richard a widow and six children. Liam would be worth six who were not.’ expel Cooneyites as they were A man of delicate health, he left and Abraham were working in a Dignam, 23, O/C 1st Battalion similarly ‘hunted out’ of hay field about thirty yards away. (Clara), No. 2 Brigade was most of the farm work to his sons. Ballynahinch. At Strangford He had four sons and three daugh- The IRA ordered the two brothers wounded by the Black and Tans in Lough the Cooneyites were to put up their hands and go up to Clara on 25 October 1920. ters. Richard, the eldest son, man- ‘almost driven into the sea.’ In aged the farm. The Pearsons were the house. They were taken to a Dignam, who was unarmed, was Swords windows were smashed at yard at the back of the house, told shot in the back, above the right a tight-knit and insular family. a house where the sect met requir- This self-exclusion and reluctance of the execution order, and then kidney, leaving a large wound ing police intervention. In shot by the firing squad. while trying to escape with his to hire local labour may lie in the England the sect stirred up a hos- family’s Cooneyite roots. The ASU botched the execution companions into a house. He fell tile reaction. A crowd of 3,000 and did not carry out a coup de at a door step writhing in agony. THE PEARSON’S AS men and women drove Cooneyite The ruins of the Pearson family farm at Coolacrease, over a mile from Cadamstown and four miles from Kinnity. COONEYITES grâce by finishing the two broth- Removed to the County Infirmary ‘Go Preachers’ out of the quaint 10,000 people. At an anti-con- headed by the Cork IRA, was ous stomach injury. In June 1921 Burke complained ers off with head shots. The Offaly he succumbed to his wounds on 21 The family were recorded as market town at Sudbury in West members of the Church of Ireland scription meeting in Tullamore standard IRA policy. However, no Constantly pushing the boundaries to GHQ over the executions of IRA had limited experience in March 1921. Suffolk. Overseers of the neigh- bricks and other missile were person was regarded as an ‘Enemy with the local IRA, the Pearsons two informers, one in Cloghan and shootings and their training was Peter Lyons, IRA Intelligence in the 1911 census. They may bouring parishes issued a signed have joined the sect after the cen- thrown injuring a number of of Ireland, whether they may be finally crossed the Rubicon. The another near Belmont, that minimal. They were not battle Officer: ‘They [IRA] did what statement warning the country Volunteers. The RIC complained described locally as Unionist, local IRA’s unwillingness to con- ‘Warnings in such cases is [sic] hardened veterans. Almost two they should do.’ sus was taken or concealed their people against the ‘Tramp Cooneyite membership. The how the IRA’s war in Offaly Orangeman, etc. except that they front the threat posed by the useless.’ In relation to several weeks previously, the 2nd The day before the execution Preachers,’ while a number of ‘would have waned before this are actively anti-Irish in their out- Pearsons almost led to the killing other people strongly suspected of Battalion (Cloghan) IRA bungled Sidney, the third target, left with Cooneyites were an aggressively ministers of various denomina- minded, secretive, and millenarian [May 1921], if the influence of the look and in their actions.’ The of two of their comrades. The dan- informing in the area Burke the shooting of an informer. Three his father to attend a wedding fes- tions also signed a similar caution. women had not kept it alive.’ Pearsons were aggressive in their ger was left to the senior IRA lead- declared it was ‘practically impos- Volunteers armed with two rifles tival in Tipperary from where they sect. In the death certificate of At Debenham the quiet country- Susan Pearson her religious affili- Ernie O’Malley, a leading IRA outlook and, above all, in their ership of the No. 2 Brigade to sible to get proof of their guilt.’An and a shotgun were lying in wait proceeded to Mountmellick. The side was reported to be in ‘uproar’ Commander, observed: ‘The girls actions. Republicans pointed out defuse. The IRA’s kid gloves were informer ordered out of an area to kill the chief clerk at Perry’s IRA, using hay sprinkled with ation was described as ‘Christian,’ over the activities of the sect. a euphemism for Cooneyites. In and women glorified the fight- how, until a very late stage in the now off. With the attempted later joined the Black and Tans mills in Belmont. The Volunteer petrol, set fire to the Pearson home THE PEARSON’S ing…The women were more bitter war, there was no retaliation by killing of Volunteers the eldest and subsequently ‘convicted sev- armed with the shotgun was over- and out houses which were com- photographs of the family all the RELIGIOUS BIGOTRY hair of the females was cropped than the men.’ the IRA when the houses and Pearson brothers collectively eral men arrested in the district on ly uptight and fired prematurely pletely destroyed. Ricks of hay Although the young Pearson boys Arrest of Local Republicans property of Republicans were signed their death warrant. various charges.’ Tipperary IRA when the target was over sixty and straw were also burned. A short, a tell-tale sign of the strict once hurled for the local national adherence to Cooneyism. The Pearson’s bitterness towards destroyed by the Crown forces. Retaliation was now of imperative leader Dan Breen stressed: ‘Our yards away. This lapse in military group of Volunteers transferring school team the family later devel- their community heightened fol- This strategy of restraint was military necessity to safeguard only mistake may have been that discipline enabled the fortunate the arms used in the execution The origins of the radical sect can oped a disdain for their be traced to William Irvine, a lowing a heated argument between counter productive as the Crown local Republicans.