Tom Barry Read Free Page B

personnel in the northern part of our country is something I abhor. The IRA have every right to attack the occupying forces, but nobody, and I emphasise the word nobody has the right to bomb civilian targets. The lives of the ordinary citizens must be protected, and I have always made that quite clear.’
    It was a warm mid-April day in 1979. We sat on a bench in the Mardyke, Cork. Tom looked out over the mown lawn, past the shrubs towards the blue sky beyond. His words were measured, as always. He admitted he had gone to the north of Ireland during the early 1970s on the invitation of the IRA but said he found too many opposing forces of opinion on policy, and too many splinter groups, thus making difficult a united effort of tactics against British domination. Therefore he felt he couldn’t be of much help.
    He also admitted that many IRA leaders called on him from time to time, but he said he ‘told them to their face’ he disagreed with any ‘ruthless bombing which sapped the lives of innocent people.’
    When the column occupied Lord Tom Kingston’s house before the Burgatia engagement he felt sorry, mainly for the man’s wife and family. ‘My family were gone to Liverpool; it was their decision. And when Lord Tom pleaded with me to let him go to England I consented. Mind you if it was proved that he had been responsible for getting even one of my men killed, I’d have shot him. He went off and didn’t trouble us again. I always believed in abiding by the code of war except when those Essex savages committed barbaric deeds, then I ordered that they be shot at sight.’
    He laughed when he thought of the soldiers in Skibbereen to whom he gave a good time, but anger rose when mention was made of the deaths of Galvin, Begley and O’Donoghue. ‘The marks on their bodies showed treatment conducted by savages who called themselves soldiers of the British king.’ Torture or ill-treatment was not war but savagery to him, and he referred again to incidents in the north. Torturing anybody, no matter whom, or killing civilians, was wrong. ‘I fell out with the IRA because of the bombing campaign of Birmingham, and I do not agree with using places like restaurants, bars or any other public buildings as a target, or such incidents as a means of gaining a United Ireland.’
    He went back over the pains taken in his guerrilla days to protect innocent civilians. Before the Toureen ambush he had ordered the Roberts family to be taken, under guard, to a neighbour’s house and kept there until after the ambush. At Crossbarry, before occupying Beasleys’ and Harolds’ farmhouses on the roadside near the area, he had ordered the occupants to be removed and held under guard at neighbours’ houses. The guard was necessary in case of informants. Drimoleague Barracks’ attack was a risky venture, as it meant removing several families who lived across the road from the quarters; this had to be done piece-meal for fear of detection.
    â€˜It had to be done. I would never, if I could help it, put the ordinary people at risk. The men of the column who volunteered were taking a chance, but they knew they were gambling with their lives. This was always made quite clear to them. They had volunteered – though I was aware of this, my heart bled at the loss of one of them.
    â€˜Yes, I put them at risk. We were all at risk, but that’s what war is about – the necessary war for a nation’s freedom ... I agree there is perhaps a conflict here. You push them forward to do a job, to kill and perhaps be killed. You can’t think too deeply about them then. Afterwards, when they get killed, one cannot but feel the loss.’
    Did he see a link between the fight in the north today and the fight in his day?
    â€˜Well! They are fighting for the same objectives as the men of 1916 did and as we did. They want the British out. It’s an ongoing fight, but