Joe McKelvey

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Joe McKelvey
Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army (Four Courts)
In office
18 June 1922 – 27 June 1922[1]
Personal details
Born
Joseph McKelvey

(1898-06-17)17 June 1898
Anglo-Irish War
Irish Civil War

Joseph McKelvey (17 June 1898 – 8 December 1922) was an

Dáil Éireann, the civil government of the Irish Republic declared in 1919 in March 1922, and was elected to the IRA Army Executive. In April 1922, he helped command the occupation of the Four Courts in defiance of the new Irish Free State. This action helped to spark the civil war, between pro- and anti-treaty factions. McKelvey was among the most hardline of the republican side and, briefly in June 1922, became IRA Chief of Staff (Four Courts).[4]

Background

McKelvey was born in

Northumberland Fusiliers. He died in 1919 in Belfast, due to a perforation of his stomach, at the age of 57.[7][8][9]

Joe McKelvey had a keen interest in the

Springfield road. He joined the Irish Republican Brotherhood and the Irish Volunteers, which during 1919 became known as the Irish Republican Army
(IRA). He was a founder member of the
O'Donovan Rossa Club, Belfast – established in 1916 on the Falls Road.[citation needed
] Each year the club honour him with a juvenile hurling blitz, an invitational competition which is participated in by clubs throughout Ireland.

War of Independence

McKelvey participated in the

The Troubles (1920–1922)).[15] McKelvey was forced to lie low in Dublin
for some time after these events.

In March 1921, the IRA was re-organised by GHQ into

sectarian conflict as opposed to what he saw as the "real" struggle for Irish independence. In May 1921, McKelvey's command suffered a severe setback when fifty of his best men were sent to County Cavan
to train and link up with the IRA units there, only to be surrounded and captured by the British Army on Lappanduff hill on 9 May.

In most of Ireland, hostilities were ended with a truce declared on 11 July 1921. However, in the north and particularly in Belfast, violence intensified over the following year. McKelvey wrote to GHQ at this time that his command was very short of both arms and money. In March 1922, many of his papers, detailing the names and units of the roughly 1,000 IRA members in Belfast, were captured by the

B-Specials
in a raid on St Mary's Hall in Belfast.

Civil War

McKelvey was alone among the leadership of the Belfast IRA in going against the acceptance of the Anglo-Irish Treaty.[citation needed] Most of his comrades supported Michael Collins' assurances that, although the Treaty accepted the partition of Northern Ireland from the rest of the country, this was only a temporary concession which would be dealt with later. McKelvey did not accept this. As a result, he left his command as head of the IRA Third Northern Division and joined the republican side in Dublin. McKelvey was replaced by Seamus Woods as O/C of the Third Northern Division. Seamus Woods would go on to senior positions within the Free State Army.[18]

McKelvey participated in the

Dáil (civil government of the Irish Republic declared in 1919) in March 1922 and was elected to the IRA Executive.[19] In April 1922, he helped command the occupation of the Four Courts in defiance of the new Irish Free State during the Irish Civil War, between pro- and anti-Treaty factions. For a period, McKelvey was IRA Chief of Staff (Four Courts).[20][21]

On 28 June 1922, the new Irish Free State government shelled the Four Courts. The Republicans in the Four Courts surrendered after two days of fighting and McKelvey was captured. He was held for the following five months in Mountjoy Prison in Dublin, McKelvey was never tried or convicted of any offence.[22]

Execution

On 8 December 1922, Joe McKelvey was executed by firing squad along with three other imprisoned Anti-Treaty leaders,

Richard Barrett. The executions had been explicitly ordered at a government cabinet meeting in reprisal for the Anti-Treaty IRA's murder of Seán Hales, a Pro-Treaty member of the Third Dáil.[23][24] In 2011, the Irish government acknowledged that the executions that took place without trial were murder: "People who were murdered or executed without trial by the Cumann na nGaedheal Government were murdered. It was an atrocity and those people killed without a trial by the first government were murdered."[25]

On the morning of his execution, he wrote this letter to Mrs Isabella Sullivan (née Letson) of Walmer, Andersonstown, Belfast: Letter written by McKelvey to Mrs Sullivan, 8 December 1922. To his mother, he wrote, "My dearest, dearest mother, How can I tell you the news I have to let you know…" The four were killed at 9am in a badly botched execution commanded by Hugo MacNeill, nephew of Eoin MacNeill.[26] The women prisoners in the wing overlooking the yard counted a volley followed by nine revolver shots.[27] McKelvey was a well respected Irish Republican leader and many Pro-Treaty Officers and men took his execution very badly.[28]

See also

References

  1. ^ On 27 June, Liam Lynch and Liam Deasy met with McKelvey and Liam Mellows in the Four Courts. The result was a reunification of the two IRA groupings with Lynch as chief of staff (Liam Deasy (1998). Brother against Brother (Cork, Mercier Press), pp. 45‐46). This date is slightly at variance with the 29 June recorded by O'Malley (Ernie O'Malley et al. (2007), "No Surrender Here!" The Civil War Papers of Ernie O'Malley 1922–1924 (Dublin, Lilliput Press), p. 32, 45 and 585). However, as Deasy's account refers to the Four Courts bombardment starting the next morning (28 June), it may be more reliable
  2. ^ There is no evidence that McKelvey was elevated to full general on becoming chief of staff of the Four Courts faction. He became assistant chief of staff when Liam Lynch resumed the chief of staff role on 27 June and is listed thereafter as a commandant general (O'Malley et al., "No Surrender Here!", p. 336)
  3. ^ Enright, Sean (26 September 1922). "Sentenced to death: the Civil War executions". RTE. Retrieved 23 June 2023.
  4. ^ Coleman, Marie (October 2009). "McKelvey, Joseph". DICTIONARY OF IRISH BIOGRAPHY. Royal Irish Academy. Retrieved 29 November 2023.
  5. ^ "General Registrar's Office". IrishGenealogy.ie. Archived from the original on 4 October 2021. Retrieved 8 December 2016.
  6. ^ "National Archives: Census of Ireland 1911". www.census.nationalarchives.ie. Archived from the original on 4 October 2021. Retrieved 8 December 2016.
  7. ^ Simpson, Mark (30 July 2014). "Milltown: Connection between British soldier and IRA man discovered". BBC News. Archived from the original on 23 January 2017. Retrieved 8 December 2016.
  8. ^ "Milltown brought to life". The Irish News. Archived from the original on 20 December 2016. Retrieved 8 December 2016.
  9. ^ Manchester, Reading Room. "Casualty Details". www.cwgc.org. Archived from the original on 20 December 2016. Retrieved 8 December 2016.
  10. ISBN 978-1-85635-612-1
  11. ISBN 978-0-692-245-13-2
  12. ^ Robert Lynch, The Northern IRA and the Early Years of Partition, pp. 28 and 62
  13. doi:10.3318/dib.005719.v1
    . Retrieved 19 August 2022.
  14. ^ Lawlor, pg 105-107
  15. ^ Lynch, p. 34
  16. ^ Thorne, pg 211
  17. ISBN 1-85182-792-7
  18. ^ Phoenix, Eamon, Northern Nationalism Ulster Historical Foundation, Belfast, 1994 p. 218
  19. ISBN 1-900960-11-7
  20. ^ Michael Hopkinson (1988). Green against Green: The Irish Civil War (Dublin, Gill and Macmillan), p. 191
  21. ^ Thorne, p. 350, states that he replaced Liam Lynch as IRA chief of staff but this is disputed: see Note 1
  22. ^ O'Farrell, Padraic (1997), Who's Who in the Irish War of Independence and Civil War 1916-1923, The Lilliput Press, Dublin, p. 223, ISBN 1 874675 85 6
  23. ISBN 0-312-02448-7
    .
  24. ISBN 978-1-84682-410-4
    , pg. 115
  25. ^ Senan, Molony (7 December 2022). "Taoiseach describes execution by Irish State of four IRA leaders in 1922 as murder, as Civil War documentary to air". The Irish Independent. Retrieved 23 June 2023.
  26. ^ https://www.irishecho.com/2022/12/i-am-to-be-executed-at-8-a-m
  27. ^ The Gates Flew Open, An Irish Civil War Diary by Peadar O'Donnell
  28. ^ McDermott, pg 278

External links

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