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Irish Independent I 21 November 2020 22 20|20 CENTENARY BI00DY SUNDAY ‘Most Irish families have a connection to the Civil War’ Barry Andrews’ grandfather Todd was proud of his republicanism, writes Kathy Donaghy hen Barry Andrews looks at the pho- tograph of his grandfather Todd Andrews, he finds it W difficult to imagine that the man in the picture is only 20, five years older than his eldest son is today. The picture was taken inside the Four Courts in 1922, the headquarters of the anti-Treaty forces, and Andrews is con- versing with fellow anti-Treaty IRA men Ernie O’Malley, Seán MacBride and Andy Cooney. All are young men. MacBride, who was assistant to O’Malley, the director of Todd Andrews organisation at the Four Courts, was still (extreme right) a teenager. conversing with While Barry Andrews, a scion of the fellow anti-Treaty Andrews political dynasty in Dublin, is IRA men Seán immensely proud of his grandfather, he MacBride, Andy wears the historical weight of his heritage Cooney and Ernie lightly. It has, however, been hugely influ- O’Malley inside the ential in his own life: he studied history Four Courts in 1922 and politics at University College Dublin and worked as a history teacher before Andrews revealed that he joined the Ranelagh Road to execute Lieutenant Wil- account of an ordinary childhood trans- following his father David Andrews, the Irish Volunteers while at university. His liam Noble, a British intelligence officer, formed by war and revolution. Together former foreign minister, into politics. first task was making bombs. In 1919, he but he was not there. The house was with its sequel, Man of No Property, it pro- Now a Fianna Fáil MEP for Dublin, he claimed to have been a full-time organiser burned down instead. vides an unmatched first-person chronicle believes that it is only in recent years raiding for guns. In May 1921, he was interned but escaped of the making of 20th-century Ireland. that we have become more aware of In March 1920 he was arrested while through an underground tunnel from Rath Married to Mary Coyle, the couple had some of the areas of social history that attempting to raid income tax receipts. camp at the Curragh in August 1921. He five children. Two of his sons, David and had long remained hidden. What he He went on hunger strike in jail and was rejoined the IRA and was placed in charge Niall, would become Fianna Fáil TDs. calls the “greyer” areas are coming into released after 10 days. He quickly returned of the divisional camp in Dungloe, Co Don- Before her marriage, Mary had been a focus today. to the Volunteers. “I had no other inter- egal. He joined the anti-Treaty side and was member of the executive of Cumann While many people will be familiar with ests,” he said. injured during fighting in O’Connell Street na mBan. Her life is being thoroughly the prominent roles that his paternal On Bloody Sunday 1920, he went to 7 in June 1922. researched by Barry’s younger sister grandfather Todd held in public life in his At the age of about 12 or 13, Barry read Sinead. later years — he was the first managing the first volume of his grandfather’s mem- Todd was a loving grandfather to Barry director of Bord na Móna and chairman of Growing up, Barry was always oirs, which he says made the things he and to his brothers and sisters and cousins, CIÉ and RTÉ — he was revolutionary first. had heard about seem more real. Dublin including the broadcaster Ryan Tubridy Growing up, Barry was always aware his aware his grandfather had been Made Me, the first of Todd Andrews’ two and Sinn Féin TD Chris Andrews. grandfather had been in the IRA. When he in the IRA. When he and his celebrated volumes of autobiography, Barry recalls how on visits to the home and his cousins would arrive at his house, cousins would arrive at his house, describes in loving detail the pre-inde- his grandfather shared with his second they would plead to see a shrapnel wound they would plead to see a shrapnel pendence Dublin in which he grew up and wife Joyce, he would put the grandchildren in his wrist, evidence of his front-seat view provides a vivid participant’s account of to work trying to find where she had hid- of a bloody history. As a youngster, Barry wound in his wrist, evidence of his the War of Independence and Civil War. den his cigars. and his cousins were fascinated with this front-seat view of a bloody history The book is described as a unique In the last years of his life, the cousins aspect of their grandfather’s life, without operated something of a rota, coming in to attaching any political significance to help in their grandfather’s care for a few those wounds. hours every morning, which brought them What Barry does recall, however, is his very close to him. grandfather’s distinctly anti-British atti- He died in October 1985, when Barry was tude, something he was conscious of not in first year at UCD at the time. That day passing on to his children or grandchil- he was in the university’s debating society dren. “He wanted each of us and his own — or the L&H as it is known — when the children to make up their own minds. But society’s chairman Eamon Delaney asked you could tell from what he wrote that he him to go to the back of the theatre for an didn’t let all of the bitterness go,” he says. Holding urgent message. Todd had died. He was 83. Todd Andrews could be an intimidating history: Barry Teaching history came easily to Barry figure but, even so, on a trip to London, Andrews with in part, he says, because of his family his- Barry once sent a postcard of the queen to his cousin tory. Yet he is quick to point out that many him as a joke. Ryan Tubridy people in Irish life have ties to this trans- It was as he came into his teenage years in 2015 with formative and turbulent period. “Most Irish that Barry’s own political awareness began photographs families have a connection to the Civil to sharpen and he better understood the of their War,” he says. important contribution Todd had made to grandfather As for his own children Hugh (15), Conn the formation of the state and the extraor- Todd (13) and Kate (8), he’ll tell them about the dinary things he had done. PHOTO: STEVE family history if they ask. If it sparks some- In his military pension file, Todd HUMPHREYS thing in them, that’s a good thing, he says. 21 November 2020 I Irish Independent 23 Descendants of revolutionaries: Barry and Sinead Andrews, grandchildren of Todd Andrews and Mary Coyle PHOTO: GERRY MOONEY Sinead Andrews: ‘My grandmother Mary Coyle was a soldier, hiding guns and dispatching messages’ inead Andrews never met her fierceness is there with the women as Mary’s father John Coyle came from goes cold here but Andrews suspects grandmother Mary Coyle, but she well — it certainly was in Mary Coyle”. Stranorlar in Co Donegal. He and that she was still active in the republican says they are defined by the same The pandemic has forced Andrews his wife moved to Dublin in 1914 but struggle, albeit in a different way. S intolerance for injustice. to stay closer to home than she has her father died in 1918, leaving eight “There seems to be some sort of shame The second youngest child of former been in many years and she has children, of whom Mary was the eldest. about women who were on the anti- foreign minister David Andrews, used the opportunity to research her After school she was meant to study at Treaty side — they went silent almost,” Andrews was always aware of the grandmother’s life and the role of UCD but ended up going to London. she says. “Was it because of the kind of giant figure of her grandfather; his women in the revolutionary period. On return to Dublin in 1920 she got work they were doing, and they wouldn’t wife less so. “Women were very much the a job as a ‘lady clerk’ at the Guinness be speaking about espionage?” Todd Andrews had been a prominent espionage part of the Civil War. From brewery. It was a good job, although Coyle was active in the Irish anti-Treaty IRA man who played an my reading and talking to people, the Sinead found a letter warning her Housewives Association, a pressure important role in the foundation of war was as much about intelligence grandmother that she would have to group formed to speak out about the the state. He met Mary Coyle while and espionage as it was about the resign if she were to marry. injustices and the needs of Irish women, the two were studying for a BComm at military side of things. Mary Coyle was It was during these years of outside and inside the home. It attracted University College Dublin in 1925. a soldier, hiding guns and dispatching employment at Guinness that Mary the ire of Archbishop of Dublin John Before that, she had been an active messages. She taught first-aid classes Coyle was to have some of her most Charles McQuaid. member of Cumann na mBan. A student too,” says Andrews.