Charlie Kerins
Charlie Kerins | |
---|---|
Cathal Ó Céirín | |
Chief of Staff of the IRA | |
In office October 1942 – 16 June 1944 | |
Preceded by | Hugh McAteer |
Succeeded by | Harry White |
Personal details | |
Born | Caherina, Executed | 23 January 1918
Conviction(s) | Murder |
Criminal penalty | Death |
Military service | |
Branch/service | Irish Republican Army (1922–1969) |
Charlie Kerins (
.Early life
Kerins was born in Caherina,
Kerins was also active in the
IRA career
In 1940, Kerins was sworn into the IRA and was appointed to the General Headquarters staff in May 1942. At the time, the Fianna Fáil Government of Éamon de Valera was determined to preserve Irish neutrality during World War II. Therefore, the IRA's bombing campaign in England (the S-Plan), its attacks against targets in Northern Ireland and its ties to the intelligence services of Nazi Germany were regarded as severe threats to Ireland's national security.
According to historian Tim Pat Coogan, "An iron gloved approach to the I.R.A. was the order of the day with vigorous raids and interrogations. As a result, relations between individual I.R.A. men and the [Irish] Special Branch became understandably strained, and the I.R.A., in its shattered and disorganised condition, came to regard the Special Branch as a greater enemy than the British Crown."[2]
IRA men who were captured by the Gardaí were interned for the duration of the war by the Irish Army in the Curragh Camp, County Kildare.
Shooting of Detective Sergeant O'Brien
On the morning of 9 September 1942, Garda
According to historian Tim Pat Coogan, "The shooting greatly increased public feeling against the I.R.A., particularly as the murder was carried out in full view of his wife. As she held her dying husband, she watched his assailants cycling past."[4]
Arrest
Following the arrest of
On 1 July 1943, Charlie Kerins, alongside fellow militants Archie Doyle and Jackie Griffith arrived on bikes at the gates of Player Wills factory on the South Circular Road, Dublin. With scarves around their faces, they stopped the van carrying £5,000 for wages and gunpoint, and drove away with both the van and the money, which was used to finance the IRA's operations.[5]
Travel author Dervla Murphy recounts in her book on Northern Ireland, A Place Apart that Kerins stayed at her family's County Waterford home for two weeks while he was on the run, having given his name as Pat Carney.[6] He had been sent to the Murphy's by Dervla's aunt, Dr. Kathleen Farrell, who was a staunch IRA supporter,[7] and Dervla (aged 12 at the time) and Kerins struck up a friendship.[8] Several months after Kerins left the Murphy's, he was captured.
Kerins had previously left papers and guns hidden at Kathleen Farrell's house in the
Trial
At a trial before the
Execution
Despite legal moves initiated by Seán MacBride, public protests, and parliamentary intervention by TDs from Clann na Talmhan, Labour, and Independent Oliver J. Flanagan[10][11][12] in Leinster House, the Fianna Fáil government of Éamon de Valera refused to issue a reprieve. On 1 December 1944 in Mountjoy Prison, Kerins was hanged by British chief executioner Albert Pierrepoint, who was employed by the Irish Government for such occasions.[13] The Governor of Mountjoy paid Kerins the following grim tribute: "He was the bravest man I ever saw die by hanging...I admired Charlie Kerins for his courage and his idealism and never more than during the moments before his death when he stood at attention on the scaffold and submitted himself to the hands of his executioners."[14]
Kerins was the last IRA member to be executed in Éire.[15] He was buried in the prison yard. In September 1948, his remains were exhumed and released to his family. As he made his final journey home large crowds gathered in towns and villages all along the road from Dublin. Charlie Kerins, the boy from Tralee and Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army was finally laid to rest in his native Tralee. He is buried in the Republican Plot at Rath Cemetery, Tralee, County Kerry.[16]
The rebel song 'The Boy from Tralee' by Brian O'Higgins is about Kerins and his execution.[17]
Notes
- ^ Wallace, Colm (8 May 2017). "garda-assassinations-and-ira-executions-during-the-emergency". The Irish Times. Retrieved 7 March 2022.
- ^ The IRA: A History, page 144.
- ^ Tim Pat Coogan, "The IRA: A History," pages 143-144.
- ^ The IRA: A History, page 144.
- ^ Charlie Kerins Archived 10 March 2007 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Murphy, Devla (1978). A Place Apart. UK: Penguin Books, Ltd. pp.27–34
- ^ Murphy, p.27
- ^ Murphy, pp.30–31
- ^ Tim Pat Coogan, "The IRA: A History," page 144.
- ^ Dáil Éireann - Volume 95 - 30 November 1944 - Notice to Raise Matter Under Standing Order 29. Archived 6 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine at historical-debates.oireachtas.ie
- ^ Dáil Éireann - Volume 95 - 30 November 1944 - Suspension of Deputies. Archived 6 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine at historical-debates.oireachtas.ie
- ^ Dáil Éireann - Volume 95 - 1 December 1944 - Committee on Finance. - Suspension of a Deputy. Archived 6 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine at historical-debates.oireachtas.ie
- ^ You shall hang by the neck . . ., Damien Corless, Irish Independent, 21 November 2009, retrieved 15 December 2009
- ^ Doyle, David Matthew (2015). "Republicans, Martyrology, and the Death Penalty in Britain and Ireland, 1939–1990". Journal of British Studies. 54 (3): 716. Retrieved 7 March 2022.
- ISBN 978-0-7165-3142-5.
- ^ "Charlie Kerins commemorated in Tralee". Republican SINN FÉIN Poblachtach. Irish Republican Information Service (no. 321). 20 December 2013. Retrieved 27 March 2022.
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: CS1 maint: location (link) - ^ McLaughlin, John A. (2003). One Green Hill: Journeys Through Irish Songs. Beyond the Pale. p. 231.
Sources
- Charlie Kerins. The 50th anniversary commemoration of the execution of Charlie Kerins, Charlie Kerins Memorial Committee (Tralee), 1994.
- Tim Pat Coogan, The IRA: A History, Roberts Rhinehart Publishers, 1994.