ROINN COSANTA. BUREAU of MILITARY HISTORY, 1913-21 STATEMENT by WITNESS. DOCUMENT No. W.S. 877 Witness Lieut. Col. P.J. Paul, 4
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ROINN COSANTA. BUREAU OF MILITARY HISTORY, 1913-21 STATEMENT BY WITNESS. DOCUMENT No. W.S. 877 Witness Lieut. Col. P.J. Paul, 4 Martello Terrace, Bray, Co. Wicklow. Identity. Officer East Commanding Waterford Brigade, 1919-1921. Subject. East Waterford Brigade, 1919-1921. Conditions, if any, Stipulated by Witness. Nil File No. S.2177 Form BSM2 STATEMENT of Lieut. Col. P.J. Paul, 4, Martello Terrace, Bray, Co. Wicklow. CONTENTS. Pages 1. Personal background and family details. 1-2 2. British Army Service during World War I. 2-4 3. Becoming a member of the Irish Volunteers on my discharge from the British Army in 1919 I am later promoted to rank of Bn. Comdr. 4-7 4. Some minor raids for arms, burning of Tax Offices and Coastguard Sta. at Bunmahon. 8-9 5. Attack on Kill Police Bks. (Waterford). 10-11 6. Following arrest of Brigade Comdr. in Nov. 1920 I am elected Brig. Comdr. 11 7. Ambush of British Forces at Ballyduff Lower. 12-15 8. G.H.Q. organiser Seamus Hughes makes a call in Waterford on his way to Wexford. Meeting with South Tipp. column in Nire Valley. 16 9. Tramore Ambush. 17-25 10. Decision to organise a flying column in East Waterford when units had been pulled together. 25. 11. Declaration of martial law in Waterford area follows Tramore Ambush. 26 12. Arrangements to ambush a military party on a train prove abortive at two points. 27-28 13. Orders for the attack on a military patrol in Waterford City are not acted upon, leading to the dismissal of the Brig. Vice-Comdt. 28-29 14. On my way to visit George Lennon with the West Waterford Flying Column at Cutteen House I am arrested by a British raiding party but released again. 30-31 15. Arrangements for the rescue of P. J. Power from Waterford Prison. 32 16. Vol. raid on Co. Club in connection with G.H.Q. intelligence mission. 33-34 17. Operation under Brig. Vice-Comdt. leads to death of Vol. O'Rourke. 34-35 18. Formation of the East Waterford flying column with a nucleus of 14 men. 35 2. CONTENTS. Pages. 19. Link-up of East and West Waterford Columns for combined training. 36 20. Attempt to ambush a train. 37-38 21. The Combined Columns evade a round-up by large forces of military and police. 39-40 22. We learn of the Truce and break camp. 40 23. Various visits paid to G.H.Q. as Officer Commanding East Waterford Brig. 41-44 24. Amalgamation of East & West Waterford areas to form a single Brigade. 45-46 25. Reference to Tom Barry's book, and to a conference with Dick Mulcahy at University College, Dublin. 47-49 26. An "Auxiliary" raid on Wyse Power's shop in Henry St., Dublin, and meeting with Mick Collins at Barry's Hotel. 49-50 27. Recent communication from florrie O'Donoghue regarding his mention in his book of the personnel present at the meeting of the Southern Brigade representatives at TUBBEREENMIRE (GLENVILLE) 50-51 28. My recollections of the same meeting (See also item 32.) 52-54 29. The arrangements for the proposed landing of the Italian arms cargo at Helvick. 54-55 30. The landing of arms at Cheekpoint from the s.s. "Freida" and sale of the vessel afterwards. 55-56 31. Disarming the escort and capture of a convoy of R.I.C. arms and ammunition during tile Truce on orders of Div. Commander. 57-59 32. Further details of the Glenville meeting. 59-60 33. Tributes to those who helped. 61-63. Statement of Lieutenant-Colonel Patrick Joseph Paul, Martello 4, Terrace. Bray, Co. Wicklow. I was born in the City of Waterford early in March, 1896. My father was a mechanical engineer and my mother was the daughter of a farmer in the locality. My father was engineer in the Bacon Factory of Barnes". He was also concerned in the building of the Barrow Bridge and employed as engineer in other local firms. I was educated at the Christian Brothers' Schools, Mount Sion, Waterford. I spent most of my earlier years with my grandparents (Mr. and Mrs. David Whittle) who were dairy farmers on the outskirts of Waterford City. An uncle, Thomas Whittle, who lived there kept hunters and so I became familiar in my early life with farming and learned to be fond of horses. Both my parents and my grandparents were national minded and I often heard my grandparents conversing in the Irish language. They were native Irish speakers. I picked up2 some phrases in this way at home from my grandparents. Also, of course, I got a good grounding in both the Irish language and Irish history from the Christian Brothers at school. I was brought up in an entirely Irish atmosphere because my forbears on both sides had suffered the loss of their property in previous generations and, therefore, the feelings of my parents arid grandparents, which I absorbed as I grew up, were against the English rule that had been 2. responsible for the loss of the family fortunes, Of course, in later years they bad begun by bard work to regain something of the property that had been lost earlier but, as a young fellow, I often listened to the stories told of confiscations and evictions in which our family had suffered like many another. In 1915, being then nineteen years of age, I knew little or nothing about the Volunteer movement. A 1t of what had taken place before this had rather passed over my head and at this time, when I first became conscious of the Volunteers as a national movement, the Irish Party leaders were appealing to the Volunteers and to Irishmen generally to join the British Army to fight in the war then raging in France, on the side of the Allies against Germany. Waterford was the constituency of Mr. John Redmond, the leader of the Irish Party, and he was very popular there, so that what he said about such matters, that is, public statements of policy, were accepted without question by practically everyone in the constituency. The catch-cries raised at the time by the Irish Party in support of this recruiting campaign - "the fight for small nations" and "by fighting in France we were fighting for Ireland" - I accepted unquestioningly, and so I conceived it to be my duty to join the British Army In obedience to the appeals of the Irish Party leaders. I joined the British Army in Waterford - the Royal Irish Regiment - and was sent to Dublin to undergo training. I was a member of a Cadet Company in Beggars' Bush Barracks at first and then I went to Richmond Barracks 3. (later called Keogh Barracks). After approximately three months' training, I was sent on active service. My Regiment joined an expedition intended originally for Gallipoli but which, in fact, landed in Salonica in Greece.. The Austrians had overrun Servia at this stage and our Division, with some French troops, were sent up to stem the tide. I was still serving in the British Army in Greece - we were in Macedonia - when news reached us of the insurrection of Easter Week, 1916, in Dublin. We knew very little of what had happened. The information reached us through the military signals agency in camp. As most of us in camp were Irish, we were very interested and we organised a system of runners to bring us the latest tidings from Dublin as they reached camp. Notices were posted up on the notice-board as bulletins, which everyone crowded around to read as they were posted up. I might point out that some of these messages were of the briefest kind and gave no details. One such message, I remember, was to the effect, "Rebels still holding out", and the receipt of this brought about a spontaneous cheer throughout the camp. One need never have gone to the notice-board to see what the news was when one heard such a cheer; it followed from this that the latest news was favourable to the rebels. Most of the men were men who, like myself, had joined up for the duration of the war and in the belief that they we-re serving Ireland by doing so, and so their sympathies were entirely Irish and swung towards the Insurrection in Dublin, or the Rebels as they were called, as soon as we learned of the Insurrection. 4. Then when we learned of the surrender, there was a certain amount of sadness to be noticed amongst the troops and their thoughts went out to the people at home. Our sympathy with our countrymen tended to increase by reason of the fact that they themselves were in exile for the moment. The letters I received from home, from my parents, indicated their sympathy with the Sins Féin movement which they supported to the end. Later they instructed me how to register my vote in the 1918 election for the Sinn Féin candidate, Dr. White. I did not see Ireland again until 1918, and then only for a short leave spell. My regiment had gone from Salonica to Egypt and Palestine, and from that to France and Belgium, and it was from France that I obtained toy first leave home. I was demobilised in the early part of 1919 and returned to my home at Waterford, where I joined the Gaelic League, having had some previous association with this organisation. While I was with the Gaelic League, I concerned myself in studying the political situation in Ireland, particularly the growth of the Volunteer movement and details.