Tough man who helped earn independence

AS we approach a number of very important historical centenaries, it is difficult to imagine the bitterness of those times, particularly during the Civil War.

 

One man who suffered much from this was General Richard Mulcahy. It is said that after the funeral of Michael Collins, a sign was placed on his grave saying “Shove over Mick, Make room for Dick”.

All those leaders were, without doubt, tough hard men, otherwise there would have been no War of Independence. It is inevitable that they would have carried that toughness through into the Civil War when we can only surmise that they were fighting for deeply held and believed convictions.

Those convictions divided families and friends, as shown in Mulcahy’s own relations.His brother-in-law, Jim Ryan was a founder of Fianna Fáil, Sean T Ó Ceallaigh was married to his wife’s sister and his own brother was married to a sister of Frank Barrett.

Mulcahy was born in Waterford in 1886 and the family later lived in Thurles and Ennis. He worked in the Post Office, joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) and subsequently the Volunteers. The IRB were a remnant of the Fenians and were unequivocal in their support for armed struggle. He was second in command to Tomás Ashe at the attack on the RIC in Ashbourne, County Meath in 1916 and was interned in Frongoch.

Commandant of the Dublin Brigade of the IRA, he worked closely with Collins. In the First Dáil, he became Minister for Defence and in March 1919, chief of staff of the IRA. He supported the Treaty and following the death of Collins became commander in chief of the Free State Army. In those positions, the Anti-Treaty side held him responsible by for the execution of 77 prisoners either on minimal charges or in retaliation for other killings.

The army had reached 55,000 and it had to be reduced. Mulcahy’s old comrades in the IRB felt that those who fought through the War of Independence should be retained but when the reductions were being made, they received no special treatment. A threatened mutiny brought no solution only Mulcahy’s departure from the Cabinet in effect removing the last active IRB man from the government. He reentered Government in 1927.

He followed WT Cosgrave as leader of Fine Gael and he set about energising the party. Fine Gael, under Cosgrave, largely shunned constituency work. Mulcahy travelled the country, often on a motorbike, to bring in new life and members. His hard work paid off in 1948 when Fianna Fáil were removed from office after 16 years.

Mulcahy should have been Taoiseach but it became obvious, harping back to the 77 executions, that he would not be acceptable to Clann na Poblachta and without their 17 seats, there would be no government. In order to allow a government to be formed, Mulcahy stepped aside and encouraged the election of John A Costello as Taoiseach. He served in Cabinet as Minister for Education from 1948 until 1951 and again from 1954 to 1957.

He remained as leader of Fine Gael until his resignation in 1959 and he retired from the Dáil in 1961.
Richard Mulcahy, soldier and politician was born in Waterford on May 10, 1886 – 127 years ago this week.