Five men executed in Custume Barracks during Civil War

Athlone Miscellany with Gearoid O'Brien

The first ‘judicial’ executions carried out during the Irish Civil War took place on November 17, 1922, when four young men were executed by firing squad in Kilmainham Jail. The, so called, Public Safety Bill, had been passed in the Dail on September 27. This emergency legislation gave the fledgling National Army powers to punish anyone “taking part or aiding and abetting attacks on the National Forces” or having illegally held arms or explosives or for disobeying an Army General Order. Military Courts could impose sentences up to and including the sentence of death on those found guilty of such offences.

The Anti-Treaty IRA forces were targeting infrastructure including railway lines and bridges, and government offices. The Government believed that radical action was needed as the financial means available to the new Irish state was quite limited and thus prolonged action could bankrupt the new state. They perceived executions as a means of forcing the Anti-Treatyites to abandon their campaign. At the behest of Kevin O’Higgins, then Minister for Home Affairs it was decided to carry out executions in various centres around the country. 12,000 or more men were sentenced to death – they never knew when they would be told that their time for execution had come. Generally, they were only informed the evening before they were due to be executed and then allowed to see a priest or clergyman. They were also allowed to write last letters to their relatives and loved ones. Families were not informed until after the executions had taken place and the prisoners were usually buried in the grounds of the jail or military barracks.

Executions in Athlone

In all there were 34 executions carried out in Ireland in January 1922 – these took place in Athlone, Birr, Carlow, Dundalk, Kildare, Limerick, Portlaoise, Roscrea and Tralee. The Westmeath Independent of January 27, 1923 under the heading ‘Eleven Men Executed’, reported the announcement made by GHQ in relation to executions at Tralee and Limerick and concluded:

“AT ATHLONE. Thomas Hughes, Bogganfin, Athlone; Michael Walsh, Derrymore, Caherlistrane, Co Galway; Herbert Collins, Kickeen, Headford, Co Galway; Stephen Joyce, Derrymore, Caherlistrane, Co Galway and Martin Bourke, Caherlistrane, Co Galway, were tried on the charge of being in possession, without proper authority, of arms and ammunition.

All five prisoners were found guilty, and sentenced to death. The finding and sentences were duly confirmed. The executions took place in Custume Barracks at 8am on Saturday, January 20, 1923.

Thomas Hughes

Thomas Hughes was born on May 4, 1901 at 9 Castle Street, Dublin, to Athlone parents, Patrick Hughes and Mary Monahan. Patrick Hughes was a railway engine driver and was stationed in Dublin, the couple settled in Athlone shortly afterwards and lived in Bogganfin where the rest of their children were born.

Thomas Hughes received his early education from the nuns in St Peter’s Convent before going across town to be educated by the Marist Brothers. During the Civil War he served as armoury officer for the Athlone Brigade of the IRA. According to The Westmeath Independent of January 27, 1923, he held this position “up to the time of the division in the ranks, having been present at the take-over of the Barracks from the British in February 1922”.

As an Anti-Treatyite he had been on the run for six months before being captured by the Free State forces on December 21, 1922 at Lisdonagh House, near Shrule, Ballymahon. He was held in Custume Barracks before being executed on January 20, 1923.

Preparing for Execution

On the evening of January 19, sometime before 6pm, he was visited in his cell in Custume Barracks to be told that he would be executed by firing squad the following morning together with four of his comrades. As already mentioned, prisoners awaiting execution were entitled to see a priest and in Athlone not one but two priests attended the prisoners. As Canon Crowe was unavailable, Fr O’Reilly CC, St Peter’,s deputised for him and he was assisted by Fr Columba from the Franciscan friary. Fr Columba had been guardian of Athlone friary from 1908-1910 and was held in very high regard by the people of Athlone, he was frequently described as being ‘saintly’. The priests spent some time with the prisoners and heard their confessions and promised to return the following morning at 7am to celebrate Mass and give them Communion.

Judging by the calm and measured tone of his letters to his family it is obvious that they received great consolation from the two priests. The rest of the evening was spent by the 21-year-old, Tom Hughes, writing letters to his mother, father, two older sisters and his grandmother, Mrs Monahan as well as to some of his friends. The family requested The Westmeath Independent to publish the letters written to them, and so we can see Hughes’s sense of idealism and his conviction that having had the benefit of the priestly visits and time to pray he was (more or less) assured a place in Heaven. The simple unquestioning faith is something which today most of us would find difficult to understand.

“My Darling Mother,

It is now 6 p.m. We are just after being told that we are to be executed in the morning at 8 o’clock. Do not fret for me, as with God’s Holy Will, I will be prepared to meet Him, as it is a grand thing to get timely warning before you die. I hope I will be in Heaven before you receive this sad greeting. Well, welcome be the Will of God. Remember Mother, if it is the Will of God that He receives me, I will be always watching over yourself, Dad, Dotie, Pearl, Maud, Eileen, Jim and Josie. Try and bear up mother and please God we will all be together again in the time to come. I am writing to grandma and some of my friends. My companions and I do not bear any malice against those who are going to carry out the deed. Goodbye for the present.

Your Loving Son

Tom

P.S. You will get a crucifix and prayer book from some of the officers”.

Dotie and Pearl were his two eldest sisters, christened Bridget and Margaret, they had obviously received these pet names as children. Bridget (Dotie) was just a year younger than Tom and Margaret (Pearl) was four years younger than him.

“My Dearest Dad,

It is now 6.30 p.m. We were just now informed that four comrades, namely, Martin Burke, Michael Walsh, Hubert Collins and Stephen Joyce and myself are to be executed in the morning at 8.00p.m. We are to be attended by Canon Crowe and Father Columba tonight and have Mass in the morning. So, we have plenty of time to prepare to meet our God. Dad, try and console poor mother and tell her that I am not afraid to die. 10.30 p.m. – we are just after getting Confession now from Father O’Reilly and had a very nice chat with him. He said he would call to see you. I am leaving my beads to you, dear Dad, and my crucifix to mother.

Your Loving Son

Tom

He also wrote short letters to his two eldest sisters. In these he asked his young sisters to console his mother and reassuring them that he was prepared to die. He urged his sister Pearl not to forget “to write to some of the lads here as they long for a letter from outside.”

He also wrote to this grandmother (Mrs Monaghan) and told her “I will meet the firing squad just like a soldier should” and went on to say “I am feeling happy now since I had confession. We will receive Holy Communion at 7.00 a.m. in the morning”. In his final paragraph he said “The Free State officers and men are as nice as they can be to us and you must not think I am dying bearing any malice towards them. I forgave them as they are only doing what they think is their duty”. He also asked his grandmother to say “it is no crime to die in a noble cause”.

Requiem Mass

Although his body was not returned to the family a requiem mass was held for Thomas Hughes, in the old St. Peter’s Church, on the Tuesday following his execution. We are told that there was a large congregation present and the chief celebrant of the mass was Fr O’Relly who had heard his confession and consoled him on the eve of his execution. The other clergy present included Fr. Neary CC (deacon); Rev Fr Fallon (sub-deacon); and both the Very Rev Canon Crowe PP and Rev Fr Gilooly CC were in the choir.

The chief mourners were his parents, Patrick and Mary Hughes, his sisters: Dotie, Pearl, Maude, Eileen and Josie and his brother Jim; his grandmother, Mrs Monaghan, and three of his aunts: Mrs Hardiman, Mrs Quinn and Miss Monaghan.

This newspaper reported on the 3rd February that Mr Sean O Laidhin had asked the Minister for Defence with regards to the recent executions was it a fact that “the parents of the prisoners were not notified until after the executions had taken place; and if so, what was the reason for this; also, why the remains of Tom Hughes, one of the executed men, was not given to his mother, at her request. General Mulcahy’s reply was “It is not the practice, nor is it the intention to address communications to the relatives of men who are arrested, with the exception that, in the cases of men executed, formal notification is, after execution, at once sent to the next-of-kin or nearest relatives, where any such are known. Also, it is not the intention to hand over to relatives or friends the remains of men executed”.

The Bodies of the Executed Returned to Relatives

The following year, on Tuesday, October 28, 1924 the bodies of the men executed in 1922-23 were handed over to their relatives by the Adjutant General of the Saorstat Military Forces. Nationally these bodies included those of Erskine Childers Snr.; Liam Mellows and Rory O’Connor. The bodies were handed over at various places Dublin, Tralee, Dundalk, Ennis, Kilkenny, Limerick, Cork, Curragh, Roscrea, Wexford, Waterford, Carlow and Athlone.

In Athlone the ceremony of handing over the remains (20 in all, though not all executed in the barracks) commenced at mid-day, with the military chaplain officiating. Major-General Sean MacEoin, of the Western Command, and a number of staff officers were present.

The remains were handed over to relatives and friends at ten-minute intervals, and as each coffin passed through the West Gate, into the Public Square, military honours were rendered by the guard.

The bodies of the executed Kerry men together with that of Thomas Hughes, were conveyed to Athlone Town Hall in Northgate Street which had been prepared for their reception. The coffins were laid out in the Board-Room of the town-hall where a temporary altar had been erected.

Graveside Oration

The Westmeath Independent of November 8, 1924 carried a report on the funeral of Thomas Hughes which took place on Thursday, October 30 to Cornamagh Cemetery. The graveside oration was given by Dr Conor (O’) Byrne T.D. We are told that Dr Byrne opened his address in the Irish language. The paper goes on to quote some excerpts from his oration:

“Thomas Hughes and his comrades have committed this unfinished task to our care; let us take it up, pure and noble, as they left it, and no power on earth can prevail against us.

This is the lesson we can bring away with us from the brink of this grave, and from those of the 77 who are committed to consecrated ground throughout Ireland today. Ireland is one and entire. Sorrow and suffering have unified her; as Padraig Pearse so beautifully delineates “The fools, they have left us our Fenian dead.”

Folly has been heaped upon folly since those words were written; our enemies have learned nothing. They have used force relentlessly, and force is a boomerang which will ultimately destroy themselves.

We must translate thought and emotion, which this occasion arises in us into hard and ceaseless work towards making the national forces, the moral and material forces, more effective; to improve and perfect our self-discipline; to render ourselves more effective in the work which we are trying to effect for this Nation…We can this way honour most effectively our gallant dead. Vengeance and hate we can leave to our enemies. They are both ineffective, barren, futile and unchristian. ‘For Freedom comes from God’s right hand and needs a godly train’.”

Dr Conor O’Byrne graduated as a doctor in 1903. He was the MO of Ballynacarrigy Dispensary District, and topped the poll in the 1923 General Election but lost his seat in 1927. With Arthur Griffith and Edward Martyn, Dr O’Byrne was a member of the first executive of Sinn Fein and was chairman of the organisation in Westmeath. He died in 1948 having been involved in politics for over forty years. In 1947 he hoped to make a comeback when he stood for election for Clann na Poblachta but he failed to win a seat. He died suddenly in April 1948 and is buried in Milltown Cemetery.

Thomas Hughes Commemorated

Thomas Hughes is commemorated on two significant monuments – one is the Old IRA Monument in Custume Place which commemorates fourteen men who died “during the wars” and a further six men who died as a result of wounds incurred “during the wars”. Those who died were: George Adamson; Michael Bannon; Dick Bertles, John Blaney; John Carty; Sean Costello; Seamus Finn; Tom Hughes; Christopher McKeown; Tom ‘Toby’ Mannion; Joe Morrissey; Patrick Sloan; James Tormey and Joseph Tormey. Those who died as a result of their wounds were: Joe Cunningham; Bernard ‘Brian’ Gaffey; Michael Gaffey; Sean Galvin; Bernard McCormack and George Manning. The memorial depicting an armed I.R.A. volunteer is the work of the sculptor Desmond Broe and was unveiled in 1953.

Tom Hughes is also included on the Roll of Honour, a listing of volunteers from County Roscommon who died in the War of Independence and the Civil War, which is located beside the Shankhill Monument near Elphin, Co Roscommon. The Shankhill Monument was unveiled in 1963 but the ‘Roll of Honour’ is a more recent addition.