ANZACs and Ireland

When Jeff Kildea wrote his "Anzacs and Ireland" he wasn't looking at Anzac involvement in Ireland's War of Independence. His work on the Diggers during Easter 1916 is groundbreaking. Jeff has generously agreed to be a supervisor on my thesis on the IRA Diggers. It started out trying to track my grandfather Cornelius Patrick "Con" Casey who inverted his first name when he enlisted in Australia to Patrick Cornelius - I suspect because to join the AIF there was an Oath of Loyalty to the King. His parents had both come from the Ballyhoura Mountains in East Limerick father Michael from Glenanaar East and mother Minnie Nagle from Glenosheen. Con was AWL in Ireland from August 1917 till October 1919. The uncle who ran the family farm in Glenanaar where Con spent much of his time was a Sergeant Patrick Casey and the aunties still there were also active. By 1926, like Jim Gorman, all had left Ireland.

There were over 6000 Irish born men and women enlisted in the AIF. I have been through the service records of every one of them. Huge numbers of Diggers were AWL in Ireland. (Only the Australian Army did not have capital punishment.) They were assisted and supported by the Irish and Sinn Fein. What did they give in return? That's what I am trying to find out. Some, like my grandfather, faced the Court Martial and returned to Oz, some didn't.

This story did has never been told. Some Irish people and some Irish Australians are digging up info and stories to help fill in the gaps. Any help from descendants would be most welcome.

Jim Gorman was not from Kilmallock but from Kilcommon in Tipperary. Enlisted as No 2417 in the 55th Battalion.

Any help to tell this story would be most welcome.

...

Jim Gorman was born in Garrycummer in Kilcommon, Co Tipperary, in May 1888 and arrived in Australia, "The land of gold and sunshine" as he described it in one of his poems "Five Miles from Capperwhite", in 1910. He applied to enlist in the Australian Imperial Force at Tumberumba in NSW on 25 April 1916, Easter Sunday and the 1st anniversary of Anzac Day. His Next of Kin was his father, David, still in Kilcommon.

He embarked from Sydney on 30 September with the 5th Reinforcements of the 55th Battalion. Jim's attitude to military discipline was pretty characteristic of the AIF (I wonder how much its larrakin image was a somewhat liberated Australian/Irish response to a (largely) Anglo officer class?) and there are numerous minor offences. He spent most of 1917 on the continent until wounded in the hand on 28/9/17, Battle of Polygon Wood (Passchendaele where 5th Division memorial is today).

Discharged to furlough from Camberwell Hospital on 30 October, he went to Ireland and never returned to the AIF and, therefore, Australia. In Ireland he became Lieutenant in the Hollyford Company of the South Tipperary Bde. of the IRA and was very active up until the Truce training Volunteers, assisting in the Knocklong Rescue and taking a leading part in the barracks attacks at Hollyford, Cappawhite and Rearcross and in the Thomastown Ambush. He did not participate in the Civil War but emigrated to Canada and then the USA in 1924 (or 5).

Settling in Chicago, he had 4 children - 3 boys, all served with the stars and stripes in WW2 with Jim jnr. KIA in January 1945 at only 19. Jim died on 24 March 1967. Poet, adventurer, dancer and musician Jim was described by both Ernie O'Malley and Dan Breen as iconic Digger - sunbrowned, leathery skin, a laconic sense of humour, cool under pressure, full of initiative and a crack shot.

Presented the story of the Diggers and the IRA at the Australian Defence Force Academy on Tuesday. They had never heard a thing about it. Got a very interested response. Come on Irish some of you must have some of the story. I want to honour those men and appease their ghosts. They were discharged by the Australian Army in 1920 as DESERTERS when they were nothing of the sort. They were fighting for something they believed in: a free Ireland.

attached is a photo of some of the Knocklong protagonists.

Breen stayed with Ned O'Brien for a short while after Soloheadbeg.

another brother William (Willie Pa) O'Brien died in 1916 shortly after release from prison having been rounded up in Cork following the Easter Rising.

John Joe O'Brien's house in Galbally was taken over by the BA; he was later to snipe at his own house.

There were 64 Irish born Australian soldiers still AWL when the AIF cleared the books on 1 April 1920 (is the date significant) who were consequentially charged with desertion. - 57 RC and 7 other. A further 168 were discharged when demobilised in London - 74, of whom, were RC and 94 were other.

digger20 wrote: »

. Huge numbers of Diggers were AWL in Ireland. (Only the Australian Army did not have capital punishment.)

Slightly OT

I was told, anecdotally although it might be verifiable from written records, that one British General who was most frustrated by the lack of capital punishment in the Australian Army was the Commander-in-Chief of British forces in Egypt in 1915.

He was involved in the planning for the Gallipoli campaign as Egypt was the initial staging post for many of the Allied troops who landed there, especially the Australians.

This general apparently was outraged that he was not able to tie the odd Digger to a post and shoot him "pour encourager les autres" or to put some deferential, class-based manners on these slovenly, laid-back, colonials with their reluctance to salute and their apparent tendency, in some cases, to call officers by their first names.

The general's name was John Maxwell. He was eventually relieved of his command in Egypt, sent over to Dublin the following Easter to deal with the rebels there and took the ample opportunity afforded to put his theories of executing recalcitrants to the test.

See how that worked out for him.

digger20 wrote: »

Australia was the only country in WW1 without capitol punishment.

Was that solely as a consequence of the Breaker Morant case in South Africa a decade or so previously?

Anyone know anything about a small British Military Barracks at Glenosheen in the Ballyhoura Mountains of East Limerick in years 1917-1920?

Hi Digger 20. Could I ask please where you found Dick Hurley listed as a participant in Kilmichael? Patrick Flanagan

Hi Kerry. Many thanks for your prompt reply. I am based in Ireland, and am doing some research for the author Kathleen Hegarty Thorne, [author of They Put The Flag a-Flyin']. That book dealt with the Roscommon Volunteers, 1916-1922.
She has just had published Volume 1 of a 3 volume set, dealing with the IRA and Irish history 1913 to the mid 1960s. This book is called Echoes of their Footsteps, Volume One.
She has written a piece on the Diggers involved with the IRA, drawing largely on your work, which will be duly credited to you when it is published in Volume 2.
Do you have any idea of a date of death for Dick Hurley? I have searched newspaper archives without success.
My email address is pjaflanagan@gmail.com, and if you would contact me offline I could email you what she has written re the Diggers. Aside from the six you chronicle, are you aware of any other Diggers who threw in their lot with the IRA.
Your assistance is much appreciated, Patrick Flanagan