On This Day / August 25, 1921

Summary: On This Day – 25th August 1921, Eoin O’Duffy defended IRA patrols during the Truce and revealed how stolen bank money had been recovered and returned. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.

O’Duffy on Truce | On This Day – 25th August 1921

THE following statement regarding the shooting of Constable Thomas Keane in Belfast is issued by Commandant Eoin O’Duffy, [Truce] liaison officer:

‘Since the beginning of the Truce our people in certain districts of the city have been attacked by mobs and in order to frustrate such attacks I found it necessary to send out patrols of two men from the local Intelligence Department of the IRA.

… Generally such patrols were unarmed but on some occasions, the patrols carried revolvers for their own protection. Volunteers Fox and Crummey were acting under my orders’. …’

The death took place yesterday of Frederick Fox who was shot accidentally in Earlswood Road. Deceased was a prominent Gaelic player for the O’Donovan Rossa team.

Mr Eoin O’Duffy as Truce Liaison Officer, stated last night that on 11th July the manager of the Northern Bank, Maghera [County Derry], was held up by armed and masked men and a sum of £1,635 taken from him.

On the same day the manager of the Ulster Bank was held up. Both managers immediately reported the matter to the local RIC without result.

The matter was taken up by the local IRA who eventually succeeded in tracing the cash. Commandant O’Duffy, accompanied by the local IRA officer, has returned the amount in full to the respective managers.

‘No Amnesty’ – Lloyd George

IN THE House of Commons yesterday, Viscount Curzon [Conservative] asked the Prime Minister whether the same amnesty that had been granted to rebels and convicted murderers in Ireland will be granted to those police and military now in prison and awaiting trial on charges of murder.

Mr Lloyd George – No amnesty has been granted to any prisoner in Ireland and the second part of the question does not therefore arise.

[The member] is in no doubt referring to the release for a definite purpose of persons in custody who are the elected representatives of Irish constituencies, but this cannot be held to afford any precedent for the release of other persons.

The number released is small in proportion to the number of those held in custody in respect of similar offences…

(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: LLOYD George’s pragmatic decision to release certain convicted Republican prisoners in 1921 to enable them to attend the Dail to consider the British government’s peace terms generated anger on the Tory right.

In the North, Eoin O’Duffy’s announcement of IRA ‘police patrols’ angered the unionists whose B Specials were suspended under the truce.

It was not until November 1921 that the Northern Ireland government finally gained control of security from London, enabling them to mobilise 32,000 armed Specials.)

On This Day – 25th August 1921

Further Reading on Irish History:

List of other On This Day columns

Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive

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