Criginal Bureauof Militaryhistory1913-21
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BUREAUOF MILITARYHISTORY1913-21 MILEATA CRIGINAL BUROSTAIRE 1913-21 NO. W.S. 1.121 ROINN COSANTA. BUREAU OF MILITARY HISTORY, 1913-21. BY STATEMENT WITNESS. DOCUMENT NO. W.S. 1,121 Witness Commandant Norton Fallon, Tomona, Tulsk, Co. Roscommon Identity. Q.M. No. 3 Battalion, North Roscommon Brigade. Subject. Third Battalion, North Roscommon Brigade, 1917-1921. Conditions, it any, Stipulated by Witness. Nil File No S. 2421 Form BSM2 BUREAUOFMILITARYHISTORY1913-21 BUROSTAIREMILEATA1913-21 ORIGINAL NO. W.S. 1.121 STATEMENT BY COMMANDANT MARTIN FALLON (Retired) Tomona. Tulsk. Co. Roscommon. to I was born in Curraghroe, Co. Roscommon, and went school there. Our teacher at school was very keen on Irish History and I would say this had a decided bearing on my actions in the fight for independence later on. Bill Doherty of Elphin was organising the Volunteers in the Strokestown area and he took me into the organisation. This was in the early part of 1917 and was around the time of the Plunkett election. A company was now formed in Curraghroe and consisted originally of five men Brian Nangle, Jim Kelly, Pat Greene, Willie Shiels and me. Nangle acted as instructor and we had drill parades once weekly and paid a small subscription of a few pence per week towards an a rmament fund and other expenses. We had no arms of any description at this time. During the Plunkett election we were all busily engaged working for the return of the Count. Father O'Flanagan was in the area then and was untiring in his efforts in this respect. We were engaged in canvassing, checking registers of voters, attending meetings, arranging transport for the voters and suchlike work. Snow fell heavily in the area during the election period and this added considerably to our difficulties. By the end of 1917 our Volunteer strength had only increased slightly. We were very particular then about the type of young man we would take into the Volunteers and had to be satisfied beyond any shadow of doubt as to their reliability be able TC and that could he trusted not to a they talk and keep secret. There was no such thing as a battalion organisation existing at this time, just small units of men in different areas which were really the nucleus of companies. Things went on quietly enough into 1918 until the 2. the conscription crisis came upon us. Now our strength in the increased rapidly, but we still kept on being selective men we took on and, as a result, our strength did not pass 50 all told. We still had no arms and nothing particular was done to combat the threat of conscription. We did, of course, make a census of all arms which were only shotguns that were available in the area and the supply of cartridges for them. The guns were tabulated so that they could easily be collected if an emergency was declared. A collection was made for the anti-conscription fund and a goodly sum of money was received. This was held by the local priest. The Volunteers were also instrumental in having the anti-conscription pledge signed by all the people. Brian Nangle was now 0/C. of the Curraghroe Company, Willie Shiels was 1st Lieutenant, and I was 2nd Lieutenant. When the conscription crisis was over all our men that had been taken on during the period continued to be active members. This could be put down to our discretion in being selective of the men we took on and was in contrast to other areas where men had been taken on wholesale and where defections were wholesale after the crisis. In the end of 1918 a General Election was held and we were all busily engaged in work for this canvassing, arranging transport, protecting speakers at meetings, etc. On polling day men were placed on duty at each polling station. All such men were armed with home made batons. I was at Curraghroe and there was no trouble there; the people of that area were mostly on our side. At Aughnaderry, however, the National or Redmondite elements removed a was tricolour (which the of Sinn from was flag Fein) where it flying over the local school and ran our men out of the place. We were informed of this and we got a few cars and proceeded there and re-hoisted the flag and dispersed the Redmond element. Some of our 3. from their supporters in this area had been stopped casting vote arid we now saw to it that they were allowed to do so. That night the Volunteers escorted the ballot boxes to Roscommon where a Volunteer guard was on duty on them all were night. The R.I.C. also had a guard on them. The R.I.C. favourable to the Redmond supporters and generally looked with a blind eye on their actions. Early in 1919 the First Dail met and soon assumed responsibility for the Volunteers and, having affirmed the thethe declaration of the we now army of Republic, became recognised that State. Every officer and Volunteer was now required to take an oath of allegiance to the Dail as the Government of the Republic. All our men subscribed to this oath and we now became the I.R.A. although the organisation continued to be referred to more often as the Irish Volunteers. The Dail now floated a loan and we collected moneys for this and were well the The subscribed to well supportedsupported by the people.people. The moneys subscribed to fightfight were still held the and he announced conscriptionconscription were still held by the priest and he announced thatthat itit would be returned to the subscribers one Sunday after Mass outside the chapel gate. On that Sunday the priest and his helpers had a table on one side of the gate where the moneys returned to were being the people and we had another table on we were the other side where taking subscriptions for the not loan. The people did expect to have this money returned to them and the vast majority of them walked over to us on receiving it and put it into the loan. I don't suppose they ever expected to get it back from there either, but they eventually did. Pat Green and Jim Kelly acted as agents for the loan. We still had no arms in our unit except a few shotguns which were the private property of some of our members. I had one .22 rifle with which we did some firing practice. I also had a .38 revolver and ten rounds of ammunition for it. 4. Lanesboro' named I purchased this revolver from a man in Fallon and paid him £2 for it. a By this time, North Roscommon had become brigade area. Seamus Ryan of Strokestown was the Brigade 0/C., Michael Dockery was Vice 0/C. Brigade, Martin Killilea of the Doon, Boyle, was Brigade Q.M. The brigade comprised following battalion areas: No. 1 Boyle; No. 2 Elphin; No. 3 Strokestown; No. 4 Ballinameen. Jim Feely was 0/C. No. 1; John Owens No. 2; Bill Doherty No. 3 and John Kelly Ho. 4. Ernie O'Malley had come down to the area from G.H.Q. and he visited each company area in turn and carried out the quite a jot of training with them. He was organising I.R.B. at this time also and it was around this time that I joined that organisation. O'Mafley held training classes for officers at Green's of Kilglass where his H.Q. was. Classes were held nightly and nearly all the officers in the brigade area underwent this course. He covered such subjects as drill, musketry and the use of arms generally. Early in 1920, the R.I.C., as a result of attacks and capture of some of their barracks throughout the country, started evacuating their smaller posts and concentrating their forces in larger centres principally in the towns. In our district Scramoue, Tulsk and Kilglass were evacuated and all those three were destroyed by us on Easter Saturday night 1920 by burning. Soon after, we learned from the daily Press that this was a nation-wide operation and it was very gratifying to see how the I.R.A. had acted as one unit throughout the country and also how secretly kept the instructions were despite the large numbers that were aware of it. The R.IC. were now concentrated in Strokestown, Roscommon, Boyle and Elphin principally, but they also strengthened considerably their garrisons at Tarmonbarry, Lanesboro and Rooskey which were the crossing places on the Shannon and were of vital 5. at Athlone importance to them. There were also crossings and Carrick-on-Shannon which held large garrisons of military. of Later in the year 1920, a general raid or collection had arms was ordered by G.H.Q. Apparently, information to reached G.H.Q. that the British authorities were going forestall take up all arms in the country and we were ordered to forestall them in this. We had carried out some raiding prior to this and collected some shotguns and ammunition. In the general raid now we collected one sporting type of rifle with a magazine, either a .32 or .38, and a box of ammunition containing about 25 rounds and about 15 shotguns, double and single barrel type. I now got a Lee Enfield service rifle from Dockery for training purposes. This rifle was the property of brigade headquarters. One night, while raiding for arms two of us Volunteer Noone and I got slightly wounded by shotgun pellets.