Remembering Seán Treacy

The Irish Republican Martyrs Commemorative Committee recently published this account on the legendary rebel and IRA Volunteer, Óglach Seán Ó Treasaigh (Seán Treacy), who died on the 14th October 1920.

Known as one of the big four, Seán Treacy’s legacy is one of gallantry and fate, a devoted irish Revolutionary, republican soldier, nationalist hero and Volunteer of the 3rd Tipperary Brigade IRA, who was killed by the occupation Crown Forces in Dublin on the 14th October 1920.

Seán Treacy was born in Soloheadbeg in west Tipperary on February 14th 1895 into a farming background, he was the son of farmer Denis Treacy and Bridget Allis. He left school at the age of 14 and worked as a farmer and developed deep patriotic convictions. Locally, he was seen as a promising farmer, as he was calm, direct, intelligent, and ready to experiment with new methods. Around 1911 he took the valiant step in joining the Gaelic League and the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), and in 1913 upon it’s founding joined the Irish Volunteers.

He fought gallantly in Easter 1916, in the aftermath of the great rising he was captured in the mass arrests and spent much of the following two years in Cork Prison, Dundalk Gaol and Mountjoy Prison, where he engaged in A hunger strike on the 22nd September 1917. Seán was released from Mountjoy in June 1918.

From Dundalk jail in 1918, he wrote to his comrades in Tipperary: “Deport all in favour of the enemy out of the country. Deal sternly with those who try to resist. Maintain the strictest discipline, there must be no running to kiss mothers goodbye.”

In late 1918, he was appointed Vice Commandant of the 3rd Tipperary Brigade of the Irish Volunteers (which became the Irish Republican Army in 1919).

On the 21st January 1919 volunteers Seán Treacy and Dan Breen, together with Seán Hogan, Séumas Robinson (known as the ‘big four’) and five other volunteers, helped to ignite the flame that was to become the Irish War of Independence. They ambushed and shot dead two members of the British enemy forces during the Soloheadbeg ambush near Treacy’s home. Treacy led the planning for the ambush and briefed the brigade’s O/C Robinson on his return from prison in late 1918. Robinson supported the plans and agreed they wouldn’t go to GHQ for permission to undertake the attack. The operation saw two RIC crown forces shot a transport of gelignite explosives seized.

As a result of the action, South Tipperary was placed under martial law and declared a Special Military Area under the Defence of the Realm Act. After another member of the Soloheadbeg ambush party, Seán Hogan, who was just 17, was arrested on the 12th May 1919, the three others (Treacy, Breen and Robinson) were joined by five men from the IRA’s East Limerick Brigade to organise Hogan’s rescue.

Hogan was brought to the train which was intended to bring him from Thurles to Cork city on the 13th May 1919. His military escort grinning at him as he told the ticketmaster: “Give me three tickets to Cork and two returns.” As the train steamed across the Tipperary border and into Co Limerick the IRA party, led by Treacy, boarded it at Knocklong. A close-range struggle ensued on the train. Treacy and Breen were seriously wounded in the gunfight. Two RIC members were shot, but the operation was A success on the purpose for which the men set out for with Vol. Hogan successfully rescued. His comrades rushed him into the village of Knocklong, where a butcher’s wife slammed down the shutters to hide them and her husband cut off Hogan’s handcuffs using a cleaver.

After the rescue operation the brigade were placed on the Brits most wanted list. A search for Treacy and others was mounted across Ireland. Treacy and his comrades were encouraged by some to flee to America, but they refused and vowed to fight on in Ireland. Treacy left Tipperary for Dublin to avoid capture. After consultation with GHQ he found himself in the ranks of “the Squad”. He was involved in the attempted assassination of A member of the British cabinet John French, in December 1919. In the summer of 1920, Treacy returned to Tipperary and organised many successful attacks on RIC barracks, notably at Hollyford, Kilmallock and Drangan, before again moving his base of operations to Dublin.

By spring 1920 the British Special Branch based in the Dublin Metropolitan Police (DMP) had been effectively neutralised by IRA counterintelligence operatives. The British reorganised and planned to rebuild British Military Intelligence in Ireland, and brought over A team of agents to track down IRA volunteers. Upon learning of this GHQ called upon Seán Treacy and Dan Breen to relocate to Dublin, and join the “Squad” to route out and assassinate the enemy agents.

On the 11th October 1920, Volunteers Treacy and Breen were holed up in a safe house in Drumcondra on the north side of Dublin city when it was raided by crown forces, who were led there by a tout, Robert Pike. In the ensuing shootout, two brits were fatally wounded, while Breen was seriously wounded. Treacy and Breen managed to escape through a window and shot their way through the ambush. The injured Breen was spirited away to Dublin’s Mater Hospital where he was admitted using a false name. Treacy had been wounded but not seriously.

The British began to search for the two and GHQ ordered the Squad to guard them while plans were laid for Treacy to be exfiltrated from the Dublin area. Treacy hoped to return to Tipperary. Realising that the major thoroughfares would be under surveillance, he bought a bicycle with the intention of cycling home by back roads. When GHQ learned that a public funeral for the two officers killed at Fernside was to take place on 14 October, he ordered the Squad to set up along the procession route and to take out two powerful men, the Chief Secretary for Ireland Hamar Greenwood and Lieutenant-General Henry Hugh Tudor, who had established the Black and Tans.

Several members of the Squad assembled at a Dublin safe house, the Republican Outfitters shop at 94 Talbot Street early on October 14th in preparation for this operation. Treacy was to join them for his own protection, but arrived late, to discover that GHQ had cancelled the attack. Treacy was extremely distressed as he and his closest friend, Dan Breen, each thought that the other had been killed. Breen had managed to get away, his feet cut to ribbons by the glass of Professor Carolan’s greenhouse, and was now being hidden by the medical staff in a nearby hospital.

While the others quietly dispersed, Treacy lingered behind in the shop. But he had been followed by an informer, and a British Secret Service surveillance team was stalking him in the hope that he would lead them to the GHQ. Treacy realised that he was being followed, and ran for his bicycle but fell. The brits drew there pistols and closed in. Treacy drew his parabellum automatic pistol and shot the two British agents before he was fatally hit in the head, dying instantly from his wounds. Commandant Treacy’s death was A great loss for the IRA and his friends and comrades. He was buried at Kilfeacle graveyard, where, despite a large presence of British military personnel, he was given full military honours fitting to the memory of this true Irish patriot and republican hero, his coffin was adorned in the Irish nations flag and the IRA commenced a volley of shots over the grave.

Many ballads and books have been made in reference to this great Irishman, we remember Óglach Seán Treacy with pride.

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