Memorandum by Kevin O’Shiel to William T. Cosgrave (Dublin)
(Confidential)

To The President.
NORTH EASTERN POSITION.
1. In order that you may be fully informed on this important matter I have done a rough Memo. of what I know about the work of the late Chairman¹ in this connection.
Much of it will probably be familiar to you, but there may be parts here and there which will be helpful to you.
2. I had a good deal to do with North Eastern Affairs during the late administration. My work in this connection fell mainly under the following headings:-

3. The Advisory Committees.
These were, and still are (although they have become nearly obsolete of late) two distinct Advisory Committees on Ulster Affairs, viz., the Sinn Féin Advisory Committee and the Provisional Government Advisory Committee.

(1) The Sinn Féin Advisory Committee.
This body was created after the Meeting of the Ard Fheis about February last by certain disgruntled Northern Sinn Féiners (chief of whom was Eamonn Donnelly³) for the supposed purpose of guarding against Partition, but in reality to molest and obstruct us in every conceivable way. The Meeting that formed this Body took place on the night of the day that the Ard Fheis was postponed. It was held in the Mansion House and none were admitted save the Northern delegates to the Ard Fheis, and the members of the Standing Committee. De Valera was present but neither A.G.⁴ nor M.O'C. In the absence of these latter de Valera had the field to himself and succeeded in turning in his favour a considerable section of those who were hostile to him. De Valera appealed to this Assembly in the most barefaced and dishonest manner imaginable. He denounced Partition in every mood and tense and of course gained enormously with such an audience. He talked ad nauseam about fighting Partition and the Belfast Government to the death and drew rousing applause from the throats of many enthusiasts who, since the trouble in the North, have trekked as far South as they possibly could.

Before concluding[,] this Assembly established what it called a Sinn Féin Committee on Northern Affairs. This Committee was to consist of a couple of delegates from every Comhairle Ceanntair area in the Six Counties together with two members from the Standing Committee selected so as to represent the Treaty and the Anti-Treaty sides.

The inaugural Meeting of this Advisory Committee was fixed for a date a few weeks subsequent in Belfast.

At the next Meeting of the Officer Board (which, as you will recollect, took the place of the Standing Committee after the Collins - de Valera Ard Fheis⁵ Agreement) the matter of this Committee came up for discussion. I was present representing M.O'C, and de Valera was in the chair.

The question of the status and authority of this Committee arose and after a great deal of argument and considerable difficulty I got a Resolution passed decreeing that the Committee would be a purely subordinate Body to the Officer Board and directed and controlled in every way by that Board. It was to be nothing more than a mere Advisory Committee on North Eastern Affairs, with no power whatever to carry into effect any Resolution it may pass without first submitting same to the Officer Board and receiving its express sanction.

I was present at its first Meeting in Belfast, and at subsequent Meetings in Belfast and Derry. My work was mainly that of defending the policy of the Government which was frequently attacked by the incorruptibles, and obstructing the malicious proposals of de Valera and the hare-brained proposals of Eamonn Donnelly.

Time and time again these two, along with that warlike old veteran, Mr. Archibald Savage, did their very best to get proposals passed committing the whole Six Counties to a hopeless guerrilla warfare with Craig's Government.

By pointing out to the ladies and gentlemen of the Committee that it was primarily a matter for themselves as to whether they adopted warfare or peace, and that in the event of warfare they and not people like myself, Mr. de Valera and Mr. Savage, who enjoyed existence in the comparative security of Dublin, would suffer, I succeeded in weakening their ardour for war, and at length they compromised on a Resolution adopting passive resistance proposed by a lady member at a Meeting held shortly after the murder of some women in Belfast by the Orangemen.

This Committee had a sufficiently large Die-hard majority and influence to elect Mr. Micheal Carolan - a well known Die-hard, now in our keeping - as its Secretary. He was to be salaried at the rate of £500 a year, and this figure was accepted and endorsed by the Officer Board.

The headquarters of this Advisory Committee was to be Dundalk, although I strongly opposed this and suggested Belfast.

By making it a purely subordinate Body to the Officer Board we completely destroyed the effectiveness of this Committee and within three months of its establishment it had practically died of inertia, although no definite action was taken to wind it up or rescind the Resolution ordering the payment of the £500 per year to Mr. Carolan.⁶

(2) The Provisional Government Advisory Committee on the North East.
This Committee was established by M.O'C. for the purpose of enabling him to obtain advice on North Eastern affairs from those who were friendly disposed to the Free State in the North.

It was formed by simply writing to some 30 or 40 prominent Northerners who had been identified with, or at least sympathetic to the National Movement, asking them to attend a general Meeting in Dublin.

This Meeting took place in the Council Hall here under the Chairmanship of M.O'C., A.G. and yourself (I think) also being present. I think two or three of the five Bishops invited were also there.

Before we departed a Committee was elected from this general Body with representatives from every County in the North Eastern Area and it was decided that the first Meeting of this Committee would take place in Belfast.

The first Meeting was held in Belfast on the 15th May last.

Sub-Committees.

Having considered such matters as the Collins-Craig Pact No. II,⁷ Craig's Advisory Committees in connection with the said Pact, the Boundary Commission, etc. etc., it was agreed that two Secretaries should be appointed to act as Joint Secretaries of the Committee.

On this matter I quote from my report of the proceedings to M.O'C. as it may enable you to understand more clearly why it was considered necessary to appoint two Secretaries:

The Ulster countryman, on any point that is neither political nor religious, will unite willingly against the alleged dominance of Belfast. I do not know, but you may probably have a similar condition of affairs in the South, e.g. Cork City v The Munster Counties. But to return.

The Belfast men wanted a single office to be situated in Belfast and all subordinated to one General Secretary in Belfast. The 'Ruralista' did not object to Belfast having an Office and a Secretary, but they also wanted an Office in the country. When your idea of Joint Secretaries was mooted the 'Ruralista' immediately jumped at it. After one of those long urbanrural Ulster wrangles to which I am accustomed it was finally agreed that:

(1) Two Joint Secretaries should be appointed at £300 per annum each.

(2) Two Offices, one in Belfast and the other in Clones.

One Secretary to look after Belfast in Belfast, and to be purely concerned with Belfast affairs. The other Secretary to be stationed in Clones, and to be purely concerned with rural Ulster affairs.

(Frank Crummey⁸ will do the Belfast Secretariat, and the privilege of obtaining the Rural Secretary was imposed on me.)

They were very keen for O'Driscoll to take the second Secretariat, but he did not want to do so. I am at a loss to know who to appoint. A number of them were keen on a Six-County man. However, O'Driscoll has promised to help me in the matter.

Although the Ruralists were against it [,] it was insisted upon by Belfast that the Belfast Office should be the principal Office, and should get a copy of the records of the other Office.

The Belfast Secretary would be the man to summon the whole Committee.

The Ruralists succeeded in getting a very wide measure of autonomy on this matter for themselves. For instance, it was agreed that their Secretary would send direct to Dublin all reports for propaganda purposes that might reach their office, furnishing, later on, a record for the Belfast Office, which was to be considered always the Head Office.

(I am personally of opinion that this is a very satisfactory arrangement for both sides. To begin with, it recognises the existence of Facts. There are two points of view on the 'Ulster Question', viz., the rural view-point and the Belfast City view-point. The Ruralists say that they have the key of solution for, without them[,] Belfast could not exist and therefore the Belfast Parliament could not exist. The Belfast fellows say that they have suffered most, and that the question, being really a Belfast question, will be solved by Belfast.

According to this arrangement provision is made whereby two machines are erected for getting the best from the two different angles of view.

Finance of the Committee.

The Committee passed a Resolution requesting the Government for a Grant of £1,000 to cover their expenses for three months, the idea being that they would return whatever monies they did not want.

This is a rough detail of their estimate:

(1) Belfast Office ? ? ? ? £250.

(2) Clones Office ? ? ? ? 75.

(3) Members' travelling expenses ? ? ? 100.

(4) Organization, setting up of Local Committees ? 500.

Present Position of this Committee.

Owing to the intensive campaign carried on by the Northern Government this Committee never got very far with its work.

Shortly after this Meeting hundreds of Northern Sinn Féiners[,] whether of the Free State or Irregular variety, were arrested wholesale by the Specials and interned in the Northern Prisons and on board the 'Argenta' Prison Ship (now moored off Larne Harbour). This Committee was greatly reduced and broken up by these arrests. Mr. Frank Crummey, the Belfast Secretary was arrested and is, I understand, at present on the 'Argenta'. The fact that he was a member of two or three Committees under the North Eastern Government by virtue of the Craig-Collins Pact No. II did not save him.

Mr. Cahir Healy of Enniskillen, a prominent member of the Committee and an enthusiastic Free Stater was also arrested, as well as many others.

Hence the work of the Committee has practically ceased, and it is moribund at the moment.

The Rural Secretary.

After much searching I discovered a suitable person for the position of Rural Secretary, viz., Mr. Sean Carty of Belleek. He was formerly Secretary to the North Fermanagh Comhairle Ceanntair of Sinn Féin and is one of the very best and most conscientious workers in the movement I have come across. He alone, and with practically no assistance from either Dublin or Fermanagh, organized that most difficult constituency for Sinn Féin. He established 17 Clubs in that small half Orange, half Hibernian constituency, which was indeed an achievement. He was thereupon appointed Sinn Féin Organizer for the whole County Fermanagh. He was Battalion Commandant of the Belleek Volunteers and was one of the principal persons concerned in the capture of Belleek Barracks in the Autumn of 1921. It was solely owing to his strenuous efforts that almost the entire West Fermanagh establishment of the I.R.A. threw in their lot with the Free State, although they were cajoled and threatened and finally harassed by Pilkington and Bradshaw and Seamus Devins of Sligo to make them turn with them.

I suggested Carty's name to the late Commander-in-Chief and one of his last directions to me was to go ahead and get Carty to establish the Clones Office. I was also to go to the Treasury and endeavour to get from them a portion at least of the monies asked for by the Committee.

Matters however, became so upset by the recent great tragedy of the late Chairman's death that I had not time to do any of this work.

Roughly that is how the position now stands with respect to these Committees.

At the time I told Carty that the late Chairman had endorsed his appointment as Secretary to the Clones Office, and he is now in Dublin waiting to see how things develop.

I do not know whether you will decide to continue this Committee or not, but in any event I would strongly recommend Carty to you for some position of trust in either the Committee or any North Eastern Department that you may decide to establish. He is thoroughly conscientious, efficient and conversant with all the facts in the extremely complicated Northern situation, and above everything else takes a tolerant view on the Partition standpoint and even on the Orangemen.

The Acting Belfast Secretary.

There is just one other matter I should mention to you before I depart from the subject.

On the arrest of Frank Crummey, the Belfast Secretary, his place was immediately taken by Mr. McLarnon. McLarnon, like Crummey, is a National Teacher, and, like Crummey, is subsisting on the salary paid him as a Teacher by our Education Ministry (I daresay he will now be paid by the Northern Ministry).

McLarnon's work hitherto was that of collecting information and sending it up to us. He and Crummey are both prominent Belfast Volunteers and engaged, I think, largely on the intelligence side.

McLarnon is working, I understand, under great risks. He wants no remuneration himself, but wants access to some small fund out of which to pay actual working expenses. His typist, a very sound girl, I believe, has been receiving up to this a mere pittance of a salary. The late Chairman was aware of these facts, and had undertaken to supplement her salary.

I just mention these matters to inform you fully as to how matters stand now in connection with the late Chairman's activities in the North. It may be that you may make other arrangements in this connection, but it is well, at any rate, that you should have all the facts fully before you.

Articles on the North Eastern Situation.

I frequently drafted Memoranda, statements and letters to the Press on Northern matters for M.O'C., and also I frequently advised as to policy on this subject, but I must admit that he did not always take my advice!

About two months before his death he asked me to do for him a series of 12 Articles on the North Eastern situation for the American Press. It so chanced that I had collected a large quantity of material on the Ulster question with a view to preparing a book on the matter. I may say that two years ago I arranged to furnish the Talbot Press with such a work. I started the book a good time ago, but never had time to complete it. However, when M.O'C. asked me to do him the 12 Articles I decided to use the data I had collected for the book in the Articles. I was only able to supply him with the two first Articles (which are probably now amongst his papers) and a plan or scheme of the lines along which I was proceeding. Now, that he is gone I intend to continue with my Talbot Press commitment, and bring the matter out in book form as originally arranged.

Conclusion.

This then is roughly how the late Commander-in-Chief's activities in connection with Northern matters stood at the time of his death, in so far as I am personally aware.

In a rough and ready Memo. of this nature it is obviously impossible to take up your time by going more into detail. What I have given you is the merest outline. There are many important items in connection with the late Commander-in-Chief's Northern administration on which I have not touched at all, as for example the two Collins-Craig Pacts, particularly the last one, with its whole series of contingent commitments; the Boundary Commission; the Belleek-Pettigo and general frontier situation; the extraordinary alleged rumour at the end of April last that there was an agreement between the two sections (Regular and Irregular) of the Army to invade the Six Counties in force, about which I personally had no definite information beyond what I received from outside sources in the Six Counties, etc. etc.

I am sending you further a supplemental Memo. on some important aspects of the Northern situation, which I hope may be useful.