Micheal Collins and 'The Squad'.

[rathmore]

don't know if this is already on - in July 1919 Michael Collins asked Dick McKee a group founding members, Paddy Daly, Mick McDonnell, Ben Barrett, James Conroy, Sean Doyle, Joe Leonard, Jim Slattery, Bill Stapleton
http://www.associatedcontent.com
type in box Michael Collins Twelve Apostles

[capel street man]

Hello Corisande, I would like to start with a list of names from the Witness Statement by Colonel J.V.Joice W.S.no.1762, I know some of those mentioned would have been members of "E" Co.2nd Battalion Dublin Brigade.
I listed the SQUAD on an earlier post.
QUOTE
The following information in regard to the SQUAD,G.H.Q. INTELLIGENCE STAFF and THE ACTIVE SERVICE UNIT was compiled by me following consultations which I had over a period of years in my capacity as Chief of the Investigation Staff of the Beareau, with officers and members of these units.
G.H.Q. INTELLIGENCE STAFF
When Michael Collins became Director of Intelligence, a G.H.Q. Intelligence Staff was formed to work under his personal direction. Intially, it consisted of a small number of men, some of whom had experience of Intelligence work with units of the Dublin Brigade, and as suitable men became available the staff increased. This involved generally the procurement of information regarding enemy activities and the tracking down of agents, spies and suspects.When dealing with such individuals, the Intelligence Staff worked in close conjuction with the Squad. When an execution of a spy or informer was ordered, a member of the Intelligence Staff invariably accompanied the members of the Squad detailed to carry out the execution, the idea being to ensure the identity of the individual concerned.

G.H.Q.INTELLIGENCE STAFF

LIAM TOBIN
FRANK THORNTON
JOE GUILFOYLE
CHAS DALTON
D.McDONNELL
NED KELLIHER
C. BYRNE
FRANK SAURIN
P. KENNEDY
SEAN TUMBLETON
JOE KAVANAGH
SWEENY NEWELL
CON O,NEILL
ALF. ONEILL
JOE SHANAHAN
PADDY CALDWELL
GEO. FITZGERALD
JIM HUGHES
MARTIN HOARE
JACK WALSHE
JERRY CONDON
JOE DOLAN

DECEASED
TOM CULLEN
P. McGEE
JIM MURRAY

A.S.U to follow
CSM

[capel street man]

THE ACTIVE SERVICE UNIT
In December, 1920, an Active Service Unit was formed to operate under the orders of the O.C. the Dublin Brigade. Its personnal were drawn from the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Battalions, each Battalion supplying a section of approximately twelve strong. Like the SQUAD and INTELLIGENCE STAFF, these men were emloyed full name on active service work and ,as they were taken from their normal employment, they were paid for their military services. The main purpose of this unit was to harass and ambush Crown Forces whenever the opportunity arose, and once the unit was established, street ambushes became almost continuos daily occurrences. Generally each section operated in its own Battalion area, but there were times when the unit operated as a whole, such as the burning of the Custom House
ACTIVE SERVICE UNIT
NO.1.SECTION
D. O,SULLIVAN
C. QUINN
I. FLOOD
P. O,CONNOR
J. FOY
 J. SLINEY
E. BRESLIN
S. BURKE
C. MAXWELL
P. RATCLIFFE
J. KERRIGAN

DECEASED
FRANK FLOOD
B. RYAN
P. DOYLE
M. McGEE
C. O,MALLEY
M. DUNNE

NO.2.SECTION
I. McGRATH
G. GRAY
J. HEERY
J. GILHOOLY
P. EVERS
J. CAHILL
J.MULDOONEY
C. FITZSIMONS
BOB PURCELL
JOE GILLAN
P. DRURY
J. CAFFREY
BILL GANNON

NO.3 SECTION
J. GIBBONS
G. WHITE
M. WHITE
J. BROWNE
PHIL QUINN
C. DOWNEY
F. DOWNEY
J. DOLAN
M. DOWLING
J. HANLON
P.BRUNTON
J.DOYLE
D. JERVINS
JOE CARROLL
BILL CONROY

DECEASED
BILL PHILIPS
M. STAPLETON
P. LARKIN
LEO FITZGERALD
P. MORRISSEY
K.KERRIGAN
P. FLANIGAN

NO.4 SECTION
JIM McGUINNESS
P.O,CONNOR
P. RIGNEY
J. TULLEY
I. LILLIS
P. MULLEN
G. NOLAN
P. COLLINS
J. HARPUR
W. WALSHE
I. LEIGH
M. STACK
SIMON McENERNEY

DECEASED
M. SWEENEY
GUS MURPHY
A. O,TOOLE

[capel street man]

Some of the names may come as a surprise to some of the relatives who use this site and might not have known that they were involved in the different units, others may be dissapointed that their relatives names on not on the list, as I have said before, the ordinary Volunteer went to work and was called out as and when they were required, my own relatives are not on the list but they were involved in most of the operations carried out by " E" Co.2ND Battalion Dublin Brigade, also Michael Collins had his own people only he and a very few of his trusted colleagues knew who they were, that is why he was so successful in the INTELLIGENCE WAR.
I look forward to your comments
CSM

[capel street man]

Hello Corisande, thought you might find this of interest relating to your earlier post of how many individuals were supposed to be present at the shooting of John Ryan, it is from W.S.822 by William Stapleton.
Quote - The usual method of allocating men to carry out an execution of an enemy agent was for the leader of the Squad, Paddy Daly or Jim Slattery, to nominate two men in turn. This was adhered  to very rigidly. This did not mean that two men went forth to carry out the execution as the Squad, at full strength, was always present at every execution and it worked in this fashion. The Intelligence Officer or Officers instructed to identify and point out the individual did so in a very direct fashion, usually by actually speaking to him by a pre- arranged signal. The two members of the Squad detailed to carry out the actual shooting on receiving the signal usually waited apart from the remainder and walked towards the person and carried out the execution which, in the majority of cases, took place on main public streets. The remainder of the Squad, fully armed, were usually within fifty yards of the scene and at the time of the execution stepped on to the public streets, very often with guns drawn to protect the two men who had been engaged on the shooting. un - quote.
That would explain why so many said they were involved in the operation, even though they couldn't all have carried out the shooting.
CSM

[corisande]

No, its two different accounts of the actual shooting

"Tom Keogh and Bernard Byrne entered the public-house by a door on the right hand side, called for two drinks, surveyed the customers. They narrowed their choice of target down to one man who was sitting on their immediate right deeply immersed in a study of The Early Bird, a racing paper. They were unable to see his features, but believed from his general build that he was the man in whom we were interested. Keogh nudged Byrne to make a move, and Byrne approached the man and asked him what they were tipping for some particular race. The man had to lower the paper. Immediately he did so they knew it was Ryan. Without any delay Keogh fired on him, with Bernard Byrne doing likewise. Ryan was dead immediately."

and

My request {Stapleton}was granted and the second man instructed to accompany me was Eddie Byrne, now deceased. About 10.30 o,clock on the morning of the 5th February, 1921, our Intelligence Officer located Ryan in Hynes public house at the corner of Old Gloucester Place and Corporation St. We entered the public house with the Intelligence Officer and I saw Ryan standing facing the counter reading a newspaper and he was identified by the I.O. Before doing the job we held him up and searched him but he had no guns or papers on him. I think we said , You are Ryan, and I think he rejoined, Yes, and what about it, or words to that effect. With that we shot him.

My view is that it was Stapleton and Eddie Byrne, not Tom Keogh and Bernard Byrne. But apart from the witness statements one cannot prove it.

My full write up on the shooting of Ryan is on this link

[capel street man]

I see where you are coming from Corisande, I am surprised this was not picked up by the Bureau of Military History who took the original statements, as I mentioned on an earlier post, they were supposed to have been checked and verified.
The witness to W.Stapletons statement was a Commandant W.Ivory of the B.M.H. and it was made in 1953, some 30 odd years after the operation, I am sure there is a logical explanation to the discrepancies you mention. I have come across pages in some of the W.S. I have researched where a name or address has been removed after it was printed and an official letter by the B.M.H. inserted back in the W.S. They explained this was because a relative or the Government at the time deemed it to be sensitive, but you could quite easily work out the name or names removed from other W.S. dealing with the same subject, perhaps we will never know, what you have put on your link to the Ryan shooting sounds logical to me unless somebody out there can advise otherwise.
CSM

[corisande]

Having read, as you know, a great many of the WSs, my feeling is that none of them were checked, but that a man's thoughts were just recorded.

Each man who made a WS knew that it would not be made public until after his death, and by then there was probably nobody left to say otherwise.

The only "censorship" of a man's WS I have come across was on Michael Keogh's (he was senior NCO in Casements Irish Brigade) where the Director of the Bureau of Military History puts a preface to Keogh's Witness Statement which reads
" his claims to importance, which he parades on every occasion, are regarded by those who have come into official contact with him as grossly exaggerated and completely unreliable. Representing himself in the beginning to have been an NCO in the Brigade, his most recent letters to the press indicate that he now claims to have been a Captain and ADC to Roger Casement."

[HONOUR-GUARD]

Good morning Capel street man ,
you mentioned my grandfather in one of your recent postings
I'm the only member of my family that has an interest in our past and i am constantly trying to get more info re my grandfather and the times he lived through
His name was Sean Tumbleton , if you have  any additional   info about him i would be most grateful.