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Ireland / Re: Breakout from Kilkenny Jail
« on: Sunday 14 August 11 14:42 BST (UK) »
This is an extract from the great grand fathers account of his involvement of the troubles
Conditions in Kilkenny were very bad. The military guards there were a bad lot and gave us a tough time. I had a bit of good luck, however; our arrival caused the Jail to be overcrowded, especially in the long-term wing. As we were lined up to be allocated to cells, I met a warder named Frawely who had been in mount Joy during the big Hunger Strike there in 1917. He was in sympathy with the Sinn Fein and recognised as soon as he saw me. He told me to wait back at the end of the line. I did so. There was no more room in the long Term wing for the last 10 or 12 of the crowd who had come from Spike Island, with the result that they had to be accommodated with the short term prisoners who numbered about twenty.
These short-term prisoners, all political of course, had been working on an escape tunnel. On the night after we joined them we were asked to attend a meeting which they had arranged. To my great delight, I learned that the escape had been planned for the following night and we were to be allowed to go with them. The escape plans were to be explained. A prisoner called McCarrick, a native of Leitrim, was to lead the way through the tunnel, which was about 40 yards and opened outside the prison onto the public road. Four others including myself were to follow him. As soon as we got outside the tunnel four men were to guard outside the wardens' house which were right in front of the exit, where I was to remain to haul out the others as they appeared. Along with McCarrick and myself were three Limerick men named Pyne, Punch and O' Halloran.
The escape worked out excellently and most of the men had got through until one fool decided to bring his suitcase with him. He tried to force this out in front of him, but in doing so managed to jamb the passage most effectively. Not alone did he prevent the remainder of the men escaping, but he nearly suffocated them as well. They all had to go back into prison with him. The warders and the military guards had become alert and found the unlucky ones inside the tunnel. I was surprised when no more men were coming along, as I had been counting those who had got clear and knew there was more to come. I shouted through the exit hole a few times but got no answer. I the heard the prison staff shouting and knew the game was then up. I collected the three Limerick men and followed in the direction in which the others disappeared in the darkness.
Though we had not the faintest idea of the country we got safely into the fields outside Kilkenny and kept wandering further and further away from the city. After a couple of hours we heard a couple of lorries coming towards us. We were then at the bridge, which had a blind arch, and we crept into it. The lorries stopped right overhead. They belonged to the military that were obviously on our tracks. A searchlight was flashed on both sides of the bridge, but our luck held and we were not seen. A small party of soldiers was left on guard at the bridge while the lorries moved off. They were not long gone when they came back again, picked up the guard and drove.
As soon as the coast was clear, we resumed our trek. In the early hours of the morning we saw a light in a house and headed for it. Inside we found a old man sitting at a kitchen fire and told him our story. He led us to the captain of the local IRA Company. In his place we washed, cleaned our clothes and had a meal. Through his assistance we were passed along from one Battalion to another until, finally after a couple of days, we landed in Doon, Co. Limerick. There I separated from my three companions and made my way to Castleconnell, where the veteran Mid Limerick IRA man, Sean Carroll, took me across the Shannon to Clonlara and there got a pony and trap in which drove me to Broadford, Co. Clare.
Conditions in Kilkenny were very bad. The military guards there were a bad lot and gave us a tough time. I had a bit of good luck, however; our arrival caused the Jail to be overcrowded, especially in the long-term wing. As we were lined up to be allocated to cells, I met a warder named Frawely who had been in mount Joy during the big Hunger Strike there in 1917. He was in sympathy with the Sinn Fein and recognised as soon as he saw me. He told me to wait back at the end of the line. I did so. There was no more room in the long Term wing for the last 10 or 12 of the crowd who had come from Spike Island, with the result that they had to be accommodated with the short term prisoners who numbered about twenty.
These short-term prisoners, all political of course, had been working on an escape tunnel. On the night after we joined them we were asked to attend a meeting which they had arranged. To my great delight, I learned that the escape had been planned for the following night and we were to be allowed to go with them. The escape plans were to be explained. A prisoner called McCarrick, a native of Leitrim, was to lead the way through the tunnel, which was about 40 yards and opened outside the prison onto the public road. Four others including myself were to follow him. As soon as we got outside the tunnel four men were to guard outside the wardens' house which were right in front of the exit, where I was to remain to haul out the others as they appeared. Along with McCarrick and myself were three Limerick men named Pyne, Punch and O' Halloran.
The escape worked out excellently and most of the men had got through until one fool decided to bring his suitcase with him. He tried to force this out in front of him, but in doing so managed to jamb the passage most effectively. Not alone did he prevent the remainder of the men escaping, but he nearly suffocated them as well. They all had to go back into prison with him. The warders and the military guards had become alert and found the unlucky ones inside the tunnel. I was surprised when no more men were coming along, as I had been counting those who had got clear and knew there was more to come. I shouted through the exit hole a few times but got no answer. I the heard the prison staff shouting and knew the game was then up. I collected the three Limerick men and followed in the direction in which the others disappeared in the darkness.
Though we had not the faintest idea of the country we got safely into the fields outside Kilkenny and kept wandering further and further away from the city. After a couple of hours we heard a couple of lorries coming towards us. We were then at the bridge, which had a blind arch, and we crept into it. The lorries stopped right overhead. They belonged to the military that were obviously on our tracks. A searchlight was flashed on both sides of the bridge, but our luck held and we were not seen. A small party of soldiers was left on guard at the bridge while the lorries moved off. They were not long gone when they came back again, picked up the guard and drove.
As soon as the coast was clear, we resumed our trek. In the early hours of the morning we saw a light in a house and headed for it. Inside we found a old man sitting at a kitchen fire and told him our story. He led us to the captain of the local IRA Company. In his place we washed, cleaned our clothes and had a meal. Through his assistance we were passed along from one Battalion to another until, finally after a couple of days, we landed in Doon, Co. Limerick. There I separated from my three companions and made my way to Castleconnell, where the veteran Mid Limerick IRA man, Sean Carroll, took me across the Shannon to Clonlara and there got a pony and trap in which drove me to Broadford, Co. Clare.