Roinn Cosanta
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ROINN COSANTA. BUREAU OF MILITARY HISTORY, 1913-21. STATEMENT BY WITNESS. DOCUMENT NO. W.S. 1451. Witness Edmund Tobin, Ballinalackin, Garryspillane, Kilmallock, Co. Limerick. Identity. Battalion Quartermaster. Brigade Quartermaster. Subject. Activities of Galtee Battalion, Irish Limerick 1913-1921, Volunteers. East Brigade, and Brigade Flying Column, 1920-1921. Conditions, if any, Stipulated by Witness. Nil. File No S.241. From B.S.M.2 STATEMENTBY EDMUNDTOBIN, Ballinalackin, Carryspillane, Kilmallock, COUNTYLIMERICK. I was born in Ballinalackin in the year 1S94 and was educated in Glenbrohane National School. In about the year 1910 I went to learn the blacksmith trade at my uncle's place hi Ballylanders. About the year 1913 a Company of Volunteers was formed in Ballylanders. Amongthose who joined at the start were Tadhg Crowley and Thomas Murphy. I was also one of the first to join and the three of us became great pals. Tadhg Crowley became Captain. A short time later I was accepted into the I.R.B. local circle. Soon after the formation of the Volunteer Company a Company of the Cumann na mBan was formed in the area. Our Company was one of several Companies in Count Limerick, County Cork and County Tipperary which from their formation became known as the Galtee Regiment. As well as I can remember Liam Manahan was then the O/C. of the Regiment. We met one night every week for drill with wooden rifles. Our Drill Instructor was a man named Davy Walsh of Mitchelstown. He was a very good training officer. The Cumannna mBan also met once a a week for First Aid lessons. After a while we rented big store from a Mr. O'Grady on the Kilfinand road. We constructed a good floor in the building and used it for training and the running of dances, concerts and lectures to raise funds for the Company. The Cumannna mBan always assisted at these functions. Officers from G.H.Q. including Ernest Blythe visited the ball many times before 1916 and addressed the Company. Sometime in 1914 or 1915, at a Volunteer parade in Elton, our Company won a Cup for being the best drilled Company in the Regiment. It happened that I was left hand man of the 2. parade and an old British ex-soldier was right hand man. Tadhg Crowley was in charge on the occasion. We were very proud marching home to Ballylanders that evening. In the early days before 1916, our Company as well as Companies from Mitchelstown, Galbally, Dungoud, Kilfinane, Ardpatrick, Anglesboro, Cush and other places met on Sundays at some point for drill and general field exercises. One such place was Ballybrien halfway between Ballylanders and Mitchelstown. This particular Sunday was a lovely sunny day. We an met in a big field. Davy Walsh, our drill instructor, was in great form and put us through extended order drill and field exercises generally. We had a field kitchen there and had tea when our exercises were over. We bad taken our food with us in haversacks of all types, shapes and sizes, some of them old British ones. My mother had made mine out of a good strong bit of material, the strap being made of the same material. It would hold enough food for any one man for a whole day. On another Sunday also before Easter Week 1916, our Company and Galbally Company travelled to tough Cur where we were addressed by Or. Eoin McNeil of G.H.Q. on the aims and objects of the Volunteer,; Movement. The Cumann na mBan were present on the same occasion. We returned home after the address feeling that Ireland was worth fighting for. I remember fled O'Brien of Galbally saying to milethat day, "We can say we were there when it was not popular". We were certainly very few that day On Easter Sunday, 1916, Liam Manahan, who was a Creamery Manager in Ardpatrick, ordered all Companies in the Regiment to mobilise and proceed to Galbally. He resigned his job the same day. Our Company mobilised and marched to Galbally under Thomas Murphy who was Company Captain. Tadhg Crowley could not take part in public parades at this time due to the fact that the Post Office was situated in his father's 3. house in Ballylanders. To the best of my knowledge the strength of the Ballylanders Company was thirty men that day. when we arrived in Galbally we were divided into sections and placed in different positions around the village. I was in charge of a section at an old lime kiln on the west side. Before being divided up in sections we were told that we may be fighting the enemy before the day was over. We were all armed, mostly with shot-guns, some old and some new. We loaded our shot-guns with buckshot cartridges and waited for further instructions We had been making the buckshot ammunition at night time for several weeks prior to Easter Week. We melted the lead in the bottom of an old pot after which we poured it into moulds. Some of this ammunition was made at my forge in Ballinalackin. Late that night after standing-to all day awaiting orders from Headquarters, which never came, we were ordered back to our areas with instructions to be ready to be called out again at very short notice. By Monday morning Liam Manahan had got Dr. McNeill's order countermanding the Rising. We could do nothing. Liam sent two men one from Ballylanders and one from Mitchelstown Company into Limerick City to find out the position there. In Ballylanders we were hearing all, kinds of rumours to the effect that our men were out fighting in Dublin, that the Castle had been taken and that there was fierce fighting in the streets of Dublin. On Tuesday night Sean Tracey arrived from Tipperary with the news that he had received word from Pierce McCann that the Volunteers were, in fact, out fighting in Dublin. When Liam Manahan heard this he ordered an Companies in the Regiment to mobilise in their own areas and stand-to for further orders. During that night or early on Wednesday morning Liam asked me to go to Calbally and report back as soon as possible on the position there. 4. In Galbally I met Ned O'Brien, a member of the I.R.B. and talked with him on the position there. I returned to Liam and told him of the position in Galbally. He then sent me to Kilfinane for a report on the situation there. He told me as I left that I would find Jack McCarthy and his men in a wood situated about two miles from the town. When I arrived at the wood I found that they had left only a short time before. I then went to Jack's house in Kilfinane town. To reach the house I had to pass the R.I.C. barracks: as I did so one of the R.I.C. men saw me. I had forgotten that I was wearing a Volunteer pants and puttees. I was not long in Jack's house when a Head Constable and Sergeant of the R.I.C. arrived. I left the house by the back immediately and got out of town. When I got back to our Headquarters in Ballylanders I heard nothing new except the rumours which still persisted, some of them casting doubt on the news we had already heard. Sean Tracey had left. Thomas Murphy, our Company Captain, told me that Tracey before he left asked for three or four Volunteers to accompany him to blow up a main line railway in the neighbourhood, but nobody would lean without orders from their own officers. When the week drew to a close the news of the surrender in Dublin reached us. We all felt that we had let the boys in Dublin down and thought we would never get a chance to wipe out this stain. After the su4ender ham Manahan went to Ardpatrick where he was arrested. Mike Callaghan of Tipperary went on the run. A short while after two R.I.C. men approached him in the Glen of Aherlow to effect his arrest. As they did so he shot both of them dead. After this Mike stayed for some time in our Parish of Glenbrohane in the house of Mike Manahan a fine quiet place near the hill. About this time, on my recommendation, four new members were accepted into the local I.R.B. circle. They were David Tobin, Torn Howard (R.I.P.), James Fogarty and his brother John Fogarty. Their duty at the tine consisted of keeping a watch on the R.I.C. and reporting their movements. From then to the end of 1916, we met almost every evening in my forge. We discussed the arrests and executions from day to day and kept in touch with the local members of the I.R.B. at all times. A short time after the surrender photos of the executed leaders were on sale in some of the shops in Ballylanders village. One Sunday morning we purchased some of the larger photos and hung them up on walls and hoardings around the village. People returning from Mass that day stood In groups examining the photos. Later that day the local Sergeant of the R.I.C. called on me and asked me to take them down. I told him that I was very "I we all but proud of them. After a pause he replied, suppose are, they may be only torn down by the children".