Seamus Woods

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Seamus Woods commanded a division of the Irish Republican Army during a period of intense conflict and was a senior leader of the newly formed Irish Free State army.

Northern IRA leadership

Seamus Woods was born in

Free State Army. In 1920 Seamus Woods was already in a leadership role as a Captain in the "radical" B Company of the Belfast Brigade.[2] On 5 April 1920 Woods led the IRA units that successfully burned the Customs House and two Income Tax offices in Belfast.[3]

Seamus Woods claimed to have taken part in a number of attacks against British forces that resulted in the deaths of seven policemen in 1921.

Active Service Unit in Belfast (consisted of 32 men) which targeted the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) - Auxiliaries and Black and Tans.[5] On 26 January 1921, Woods and McCorley, were involved in the fatal shooting of three Auxiliary Division officers in their beds at the Railway View hotel in central Belfast.[6] On 23 April 1921 Woods and McCorley attacked and killed two Auxiliaries near Donegal Place in central Belfast.[7] Woods served as a liaison officer to British forces during the truce which ended the Irish War of Independence.[8]
In March 1922 Seamus Woods was appointed Officer Commanding (O/C) of the Third Northern Division of the IRA, which saw much action in Belfast and east Ulster.[9] Woods had replaced Joe McKelvey who had been removed from his leadership position by the IRAs General Headquarters (GHQ) due to his opposition to the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 (McKelvey was executed by Free State forces on 8 December 1922). In March 1922 the O/C of the IRAs Second Northern Division Charlie Daly (who was also anti Treaty) was also dismissed by the GHQ.[10][11] Daly was also executed by Free State forces (14 March 1923).[12]

Officer Commanding IRA Third Northern Division

Seamus Woods commanded the IRAs Third Northern Division (which had up to 1,000 members)

Irish Republicans occurred. Within hours of Twaddell's assassination, approximately 350 prisoners were taken and internment was introduced with only 12 of the internees being Protestants.[20][21]

By July 1922 O/C Woods acknowledged that the Third Northern Division of the IRA was suffering from exhaustion: "The men are in a state of practical starvation and are continually making application for transfer to Dublin to join the 'Regular Army'. Under the present circumstances it would be impossible to keep our Military Organization alive and intact, as the morale of the men is going down day by day and the spirit of the people is practically dead."[22]

Collapse of Northern IRA and transition to the Free State Army

The death of Michael Collins on 22 August 1922 dealt a severe blow to the northern IRA. Collins had taken an active interest in reversing the Partition of Ireland and with his death, many northern IRA men felt that their cause was unwinnable. Roger McCorley stated, "When Collins was killed the northern element [of the IRA] gave up all hope."[23] In August 1922, Woods gave a bleak assessment of the situation in the North of Ireland: "The National Spirit among the people is practically dead at the moment...Without the civil population, our position is hopeless."[24] Woods admitted the IRA had the active support of barely 10% of the Catholic population at that time.[25] On 29 September 1922 Woods wrote a letter to the Commander-in-Chief of the Provisional Government's forces (Richard Mulcahy) in which he asked for clarification on some of the issues faced by his forces in the new state of Northern Ireland. Woods warned that the recognition of the Northern Government by the Irish government would mean that his Officers would not be able to remain in the area and that "The breaking up of this Organisation is the first step to making Partition permanent."[26]

In November 1923, Woods was arrested and charged with the murder of W.J. Twaddell. While awaiting trial he was held under brutal conditions on the Prison Ship

1923 Irish Hunger Strikes.[27]

Although Woods was found innocent of the Twaddell murder charge, he continued to be held on the Argenta until 17 April 1924, the last prisoner to be released. Woods was then served with a prohibition order which excluded him from Northern Ireland.[28] Upon his release, he joined McCorley in the newly formed Free State Army, where Woods served as a Colonel on GHQ Staff and as the Assistant Chief of Staff. Both Woods and McCorley were severe critics of the newly formed Provisional Government's policy towards Northern Ireland.[29] As a result of partition being made permanent and the violence of the Irish Civil War, Woods resigned from the Free State Army in 1926 and made a successful career for himself as a businessman in Dublin.[30]

References

  1. ^ McDermott, Jim, (2001), Northern Divisions The Old IRA and the Belfast Pogroms 1920-22, BTP Publications, Belfast, pg 45, ISBN 1-900960-11-7
  2. ^ Lynch, Robert, (2006), The Northern IRA and the Early Years of Partition, Irish Academic Press, Portland, pg 70, ISBN 0-7165-3378-2
  3. ^ McDermott, pg 28-29
  4. ^ "The British soldier who joined 1916 Easter Rising on leave". The Irish News. Belfast. 12 December 2015. Retrieved 29 August 2021.
  5. ^ Lynch pg 74.
  6. ^ Eunan O'Halpin & Daithí Ó Corráin. The Dead of the Irish Revolution. Yale University Press, 2020. p. 281
  7. ^ O'Halpin, pg 393
  8. ISBN 9781874675853
    .
  9. ^ Lynch, pg 21.
  10. ISBN 0-901905-64X
  11. ^ Glennon, Kieran, (2013), From Pogrom to Civil War, Mercer Press, Cork, pg. 286, ISBN 9781781171462
  12. ^ Thorne Kathleen, (2014) Echoes of Their Footsteps, The Irish Civil War 1922-1924, Generation Organization, Newberg, OR, pg 187, ISBN 978-0-692-245-13-2
  13. ^ "An Irishmans Diary". The Irish Times. Dublin. 3 September 2001. Retrieved 29 August 2021.
  14. ^ Lynch pg 71.
  15. ^ Phoenix pg 229.
  16. ISBN 0-312-02448-7
    .
  17. ^ Parkinson, Alan F. (2004), Belfast's Unholy War, Four Courts Press, pg 270, ISBN 1-85182-792-7
  18. ^ Glennon, pg 121.
  19. ^ Concannon, Patrick (12 August 2019). "Michael Collins, Northern Ireland and the Northern Offensive, May 1922". The Irish Story. Retrieved 25 March 2024.
  20. ^ Lynch pg 181.
  21. ISBN 978-1846032707
  22. ^ McDermott, pg 254.
  23. ^ McDermott, pg. 266.
  24. ^ Glennon, pg 187.
  25. ^ Parkinson, pg 215
  26. ^ Woods, Seamus (29 September 1922). Seamus Woods to Richard Mulcahy (Dublin) (Speech). Documents on Irish Foreign Policy. Retrieved 25 March 2024.
  27. ^ Kleinrichert, Denise, (2001), Republican internment and the prison ship Argenta 1922, Irish Academic Press, pg. 76, ISBN 978-0-7165-2683-4
  28. ^ Thorne, pg 257.
  29. ^ McDermott, pg 273.
  30. ^ McDermott, pg 273.

Further reading

Phoenix, Eamon, (2010), Conflicts in the North of Ireland, 1900-2000, Four Courts Press Ltd, Dublin,

ISBN 978-1-84682-189-9

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