The lucky four
By Aengus O Snodaigh
The four were completing another leg of their arduous journey when it
looked as if it was all at an end. The policeman's hand on Frank
Shouldice's shoulder spelt disaster.
After alighting from the Newport train the four weary men mingled
with the crowds thronging Liverpool's Lime Street station, trying to
be as inconspicuous as possible.
The sound of a man's voice explaining to the policeman, ``nunno, nunno
not that man'' defused the situation. The man had been robbed on the
train and Shouldice was mistaken for the culprit. With apologies
accepted, Frank went on his way, his three comrades close behind
breathing a collective sigh of relief. By 7am on the morning of 22
January 1919 the men were secreted in Murphy's Pub, Clover Street in
the city. They still had to reach their final destination - home.
That afternoon everybody in England knew who the four were. The
newspapers carried ads announcing:
``Wanted: Sinn Féin prison breakers. George Geraghty (40), dark
complexion, heavy dark moustache, weight 11 1/2 stone, 6 ft; Joseph
McGrath (28), clean shaven, pale complexion, loose lipped and drawls,
6 ft, 12 stone; Herbert Mellows (28), clean shaven, hair long and
light brown, pale complexion, wears glasses, his overcoat is rather
too long for him, 10 stone; Frank Shouldice (25), round boyish face,
fresh complexion, appears shy, has little Irish accent, 6 ft, 12
stone. The others have much accent.''
The plan was for a mass breakout from Usk Jail, near Monmoth in south
Wales, but because of the flu epidemic which ravaged England and
Ireland since late 1918 most of the 20 POWs were too weak to attempt
this daring enterprise. Only Joe McGrath, Barney Mellows, George
Geraghty and Frank Shouldice felt fit enough to undertake the task.
The four were among those arrested in the German Plot round-up on
17-18 May 1918. The German Plot - ``certain subjects...had entered
into treasonable communication with the German enemy'' - was the
device used by the British to justify arresting and transporting to
jails in Wales and England virtually the entire republican
leadership.
Frank was arrested in Ballaghaderreen, County Roscommon, where he was
re-organising the Volunteers; Barney and Joe were picked up in
Dublin; while George was taken from the spire of Roscommon Cathedral
which he was repairing.
On arrival at Usk Jail further attempts were made to criminalise them
with the order to wear prison uniforms. They resisted and at the
direction of the Home Office the prison governor, Mr Young,
capitulated. On their first night in Usk, the internees had won the
right to free association, the right to receive and send letters, to
smoke and to wear their own clothes. This victory was to be important
in their future escape plans.
As time went on security precautions at the jail became lax and in
autumn the kitchen duties among the POWs fell to Geraghty, McGrath,
Shouldice and Mellows. They found and set making keys with nail
files. Their first key snapped in the lock, their next key got them
nowhere.
A coded request for help was sent out via an obliging soldier. An
advertisement in the lost and found section of the Irish Independent,
``Found outside the Tivoli, a bunch of keys'', shortly afterwards
confirmed that their message was understood. Among parcels to arrive
a few days later were several pan loaves with a blank key and three
files in them. The new key they fashioned from the blank worked.
From roller towels and firewood they built a rope ladder and a
grappling hook was made from iron curtain bars.
Following the death of Dick Coleman in the jail from the effects of
the virus the authorities became alarmed and decided to transfer the
POWs on 21 January to Gloucester Jail. The men decided to make their
bid for freedom that night. The prisoners received permission to have
the cells left unlocked all night, so that packing could be finished.
After all their work on the key it was no longer required.
With no roll-call at 8pm when the men went to their cells the
escapers would not be missed till morning. Hiding in the yard before
lock-up the men emerged and set off over the top and away. Keeping to
the shadows they set of for Pontypool Railway Station passing by a
group of warders unrecognised. At Pontypool and the next station,
Pilemile, they discovered that the train they required, the Fishguard
express, did not stop there.
They engaged a hackney driven by a Mr Evans who, thinking they were
American tourists, drove them to Newport Station to catch the train
to Shrewsbury. The Liverpool train was at the platform when they got
there, and so to was a Dublin draper, and colleague, Tom O'Loughlin
who was doing preparatory work for another escape plan. (Eamonn
DeValera and two others escaped from Lincoln Jail on 3 February
1919.) O'Loughlin gave them the money they required to complete their
escape.
The men continued on their journey, boarding the train in pairs,
travelling on to Liverpool from Shrewsbury. They did not remain in
the safety of Murphy's for too long. An IRB man who worked in
Liverpool's Custom House, Steve Lanigan, arranged safe pasage to
Dublin as soon as possible.
George Geraghty, Frank Shouldice, Barney Mellows and Joe McGrath
returned home safely after their classic escape from Usk Jail in
England, 80 years ago this week.
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